We look ahead to this 2023 Women’s World Cup Group E fixture at Eden Park, Auckland with our United States vs Vietnam preview and prediction.
United States vs Vietnam Stats: Quick Hits
- The United States are huge favourites, with the Opta supercomputer giving them an 95.3% chance of beating Vietnam.
- Defending champions USA have never lost to an Asian nation at the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
- Vietnam are one of eight debut nations at the 2023 Women’s World Cup and have never faced the USA before.
Match Preview
Women’s World Cup debutants Vietnam couldn’t have picked a tougher first game even if they’d tried; a gruelling challenge awaits them at Eden Park in Auckland on Saturday as Group E gets started.
The USWNT head into the tournament as overwhelming favourites and the defending champions after lifting the trophy four years ago and in 2015. Those successes contributed to a remarkable run that’s seen them win each of their past 12 Women’s World Cup games, a tournament record, amassing a goal difference of +32 over those fixtures.
A big part of that huge goal difference was the 13-0 win over Thailand in their opening game four years ago. The USA are unbeaten in their previous 22 matches against teams from the AFC region, winning 16 of them and averaging 3.6 goals per game. They’ve also never lost a Women’s World Cup game to an Asian nation in 15 meetings.
While Vietnam are ranked higher than nine other teams at the tournament, it would certainly be momentous if they pulled off an upset.
Thailand were one of the teams Vietnam beat when winning the play-off tournament that secured their qualification for the World Cup. They gained entry to the play-offs thanks to reaching the quarter-finals of the 2022 AFC Women’s Asian Cup, as they contested the knockout stages for the first time.
This is an entirely different proposition, however, and the USWNT are among the most battle-hardened at this level. That includes Megan Rapinoe, who’s been involved in 15 goals across his 17 matches at the Women’s World Cup and is set to retire this year having already secured herself a legacy as one of the greats of the game.
She’ll be eager to get another medal in Australia and New Zealand, though, and it all starts here.
United States vs Vietnam Head-to-Head
These two sides have never faced each other before – that doesn’t just mean at the Women’s World Cup, we’re talking in any competitive game.
As already mentioned, the USA boast a formidable record against Asian countries, though the only one they have faced in the past 12 months was Japan, taking a slender 1-0 victory from their encounter in February.
Vietnam’s pre-tournament preparations included facing another of the World Cup favourites, Euro 2022 runners-up Germany, coming out of that with a respectable 2-1 defeat. But since then, they’ve lost 2-0 to World Cup co-hosts New Zealand and been thrashed 9-0 by Spain.
United States vs Vietnam Prediction
As you might have expected, the Opta supercomputer sees this being rather one-sided. In fact, you aren’t likely to see a prediction more heavily favouring one team than this at the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
According to the model, the USA have an 95.3% probability of winning this match; Vietnam’s chance of victory is just 2%.
Of course, that does mean the supercomputer thinks Vietnam have a 4.7% likelihood of getting at least a point, and they’d probably take those odds given the wider context of this game.
Anything other than a comfortable USA victory would represent something of a shock. People might even be tempted to look up record wins at the Women’s World Cup ahead of this one.
United States vs Vietnam Squads
United States: Alyssa Naeher, Ashley Sanchez, Sofia Huerta, Naomi Girma, Kelley O’Hara, Lynn Williams, Alyssa Thompson, Julie Ertz, Savannah DeMelo, Lindsey Horan, Sophia Smith, Alana Cook, Alex Morgan, Emily Sonnett, Megan Rapinoe, Rose Lavelle, Andi Sullivan, Casey Murphy, Crystal Dunn, Trinity Rodman, Aubrey Kingsbury, Kristie Mewis, Emily Fox.
Vietnam: Đào Thị Kiều Oanh, Lương Thị Thu Thương, Chương Thị Kiều, Trần Thị Thu, Hoàng Thị Loan, Trần Thị Thúy Nga, Nguyễn Thị Tuyết Dung, Trần Thị Thùy Trang, Huỳnh Như, Trần Thị Hải Linh, Thái Thị Thảo, Phạm Hải Yến, Lê Thị Diễm My, Trần Thị Kim Thanh, Nguyễn Thị Thúy Hằng, Dương Thị Vân, Trần Thị Thu Thảo, Vũ Thị Hoa, Nguyễn Thị Thanh Nhã, Khổng Thị Hằng, Ngân Thị Vạn Sự, Nguyễn Thị Mỹ Anh, Nguyễn Thị Bích Thùy.
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