The anticipation of seeing the United States play in its first group play match of the 2023 Women’s World Cup has been building for us for 10 months so the excitement was palpable all day on Saturday. By the way what the hell day and time is it? For those of you in the Pacific Time zone, we are 19 hours ahead of you. The math I did while at home is take your time, subtract 5 hours and add a day. The USA fans at home lucked out because the United States has two games in group play at 1 pm local time which is 6 pm the day before for you.
Amy and Paula are part of the American Outlaws supporter group which is a non-profit group dedicated to organizing support for US soccer teams. The Outlaws planned an event before the game against Vietnam at a local cafe in a neighborhood near the Eden Park Stadium and supporters would then march from there to the stadium directly. We got to the cafe and supporters came out in droves. This was the first time since the tournament began that we have seen a large group of fans adorning all USA jerseys, scarves, jackets, hats, face paint. It was really cool to feel like a part of something that was so big. It’s reminiscent of the feeling I get when I go to an Angel City FC game on a much larger scale.
We sat in our seats close to game time and the texts and emojis between my family started flying. Mom and Dad were watching from Canyon Lake. Scott and Lisa were watching from their vacation time share in Cape Cod. And TL and Kiewan were watching from Atlanta. I loved sharing my experience with them throughout the match. Go USA!!!
Game Recap - In a nutshell the US had a solid performance and against a gritty Vietnam team that proved they won’t be pushovers in the rest of the tournament. For the FIFA recap, read here.
As we walked out of the stadium, we wanted to take a group photo in the fan fest area in front of a prop that had a picture of the World Cup Trophy and the US and Vietnam flags. We lined ourselves up in order of red, white and blue from left to right. Some Vietnamese fans liked what they saw and quickly asked to jump in and take a photo with us. Many of them smiled and congratulated us.
The NWSL Fans are here
The USWNT has 23 players on its roster and all but one of those players plays for a National Women’s Soccer League in the United States. The exception is Lindsey Horan, our captain, plays for Olympique Lyonnais Féminin which is a French women’s professional football club based in Lyon.
The NWSL had its 10th anniversary in March and its influence on the Women’s World Cup is felt in a big way. A few stats:
60 NWSL players are playing in the World Cup
All 12 NWSL clubs have at least 1 player in the World Cup
16 of 32 competing nations have NWSL representation
Throughout our trip we have spoken to fans from the Orlando Pride, San Diego Wave, Racing Louisville, Portland Thorns, KC Current, OL Reign, Washington Spirit and last and most important LOTS OF ANGEL CITY FC fans.
Angel City FC’s 4 players in the World Cup are Ali Riley of the NZL Football Ferns, Julie Ertz and Alyssa Thomson for the US and Jun Endo for Japan. I wrote about Ali Riley’s emotional win for the Football Ferns on Thursday.
Japan and Jun Endo make a statement against Zambia
Jun Endo is a fan favorite back at home for Angel City FC. She has an amazing work ethic and all around great attitude and she is well liked and cheered for at our home games. We went to a bar on the waterfront to watch the game and it had huge TVs which was a nice surprise as finding bars that play games hasn’t been as easy as we would like. Jun started the game and her team came up big against Zambia including scoring her own goal.
Next up we will take a break from soccer and head to Rotorua for an overnight trip. Stay tuned.
