Sophia Smith leads USWNT to 2023 World Cup opener win over Vietnam

The duality of a U.S. Women’s National Team victory over Vietnam that was about as guaranteed as Alabama football beating up on Mercer could be summed up in the timing of the first goal scored.

When Sophia Smith converted off a backheel feed from Alex Morgan at the 14-minute mark to put the USWNT ahead, it was the quickest goal scored so far in the Women’s World Cup.

It was also later than the USWNT scored its opening goal in every single game of its 2019 title run except the final.

Whether an eventual 3-0 win — that never once looked under threat but wasn’t quite so emphatic as it might have been — ends up foreboding doom or being the first step in a historic month is a question that can’t be answered yet. 

For now, you can look through the kaleidoscope of 90 minutes against an inferior opponent and see whatever you want to see.

There was the aforementioned backheel from Morgan, plus another assist later in the first half.

Then there was a penalty kick miss from the team’s most venerated starter in the 45th minute — a strike that didn’t get enough velocity or elevation to make it past the feet of a diving Tran Thi Kim Thanh in Vietnam’s net.

There was Smith scoring a pair of goals to put the USWNT ahead 2-0 by halftime.

And there were a whole lot of chances all night where the final shot was just a little bit too weak, with Lindsey Horan in particular missing the target a few too many times throughout the night before finally scoring into an open net off Smith’s 77th-minute feed.

There was a game in which Vietnam had almost zero meaningful possession of the ball and failed to record a shot, and yet it was not the sort of ass-kicking to which the world has become accustomed to seeing the USWNT dish out on a World Cup stage.

An emphatic win without an emphatic score.

This is the reality in which the USWNT finds itself mired: Still good enough to be considered world-class, and to be the favorite to win its third consecutive World Cup.

But not so dominant as to be immune from something going haywire.

An opening match against Vietnam — a minnow making its Women’s World Cup debut — was never going to provide much of an answer as to where things will land.

Wednesday night’s contest against the Netherlands, a rematch of the 2019 final, carries far more cache, both in benchmarking this USWNT squad and in determining where it will ultimately finish in the group stage.

In truth, Vietnam acquitted itself well here, using a low block that forced the USWNT to work for everything it got as well as sterling goalkeeping to keep the final score respectable.

This was never going to be the 13-0 thrashing the U.S. put on Thailand four years ago, but some sportsbooks still had a six-goal spread — which Vietnam easily covered.

For all the hot takes about sportsmanship that day, 13 goals did all but ensure the U.S. would be ahead if anything came down to goal differential.

Three goals, plainly, do not, which could end up being the way this game most impacts the USWNT’s tournament.

The biggest tactical gamble deployed by coach Vlatko Andonovski, lining Julie Ertz up in defense, can’t really be judged off a game that was almost entirely played in Vietnam’s half.

Ertz did play well in attack and was quite involved at times, but what happens when the USWNT faces an opponent capable of asking questions of its defensive structure isn’t yet clear.

The ease with which the USWNT kept possession and passed the ball checks an important box.

The struggle to find that decisive final ball, not so much.

On Friday, we saw a blueprint that should give the younger part of the team confidence, with second-half cameos from Megan Rapinoe and Rose Lavelle that could be a regular feature of this World Cup run.

But it wasn’t as crisp as it might have been, and it wasn’t as stressful as it will be at some point between now and the Aug. 20 final.

Make of it whatever you want. The Dutch await.