The American coach regrets that he did not win against Vietnam more strongly
"I'm happy, satisfied. We want to win every game, and this is the first step, now the team will look forward to the next match," Mr. Andonovski said at the post-match press conference. "The US created a lot of chances, and should have scored more goals to win more, but that's football. Hopefully the team will improve on finishing next leg. We will calculate each game one by one, and now it's time to focus on the Netherlands game."
The United States is the number one team in the world and has won the last two World Cups. But at Eden Park, they could not create a rain of goals against the team that attended the Vietnam tournament for the first time. The US held the ball 66%, finished 28 shots with 7 directions, but only scored three goals thanks to a double from Sophia Smith and a goal from Lindsey Horan. Before that, at the 2019 World Cup, the US also met Thailand - another representative of Southeast Asia in the opening match, and won 13-0.
Against Vietnam today, the US was awarded a penalty when Hoang Thi Loan kicked Rodman's foot in the penalty area 39 minutes. However, Alex Morgan's 11m kick later failed to beat goalkeeper Kim Thanh. In the second half, the US also squandered many opportunities, including the situation where Rapinoe shot over the bar in front of the empty goal in the 71st minute, or Lavelle hit the crossbar in the 86th minute...
In the Sydney Morning Herald, journalist Vince Rugani used the word "hard victory" for the opening game of the US defending champion. He also praised Vietnam: "In their first appearance in the World Cup, they played well and received much admiration. Vietnam made the US sweat a lot to get the victory".
The US Today newspaper also regretted the squandering of the home team's opportunity. In the match report, authors Lindsay Schnell and Nancy Armor wrote: "Watching the game or looking at the statistics, you can see that the US dominated the game. They easily had half a dozen chances in the first half. But Morgan couldn't beat Kim Thanh on the 11m mark. And the goalkeeper made two other excellent saves before Smith helped the US open the scoring in the 14th minute."
Smith was voted the best player of the match. Sharing after the match, this player said: "I feel great. I went into the game thinking I had to do all I could to help the team win and I did. I was actually a bit nervous and confused going into the 2023 World Cup, and it's good to have a victory on the day of the game. Every moment of this game is fun, the fans are great. I think it's good to start with a victory when we start."
