USWNT 2023 World Cup preview: Everything to know about the 3-peat bid

AUCKLAND, New Zealand — The U.S. women’s national team's unprecedented World Cup quest kicks off here, amid rippling winds, beneath gray wintry skies, Down Under. But it was defined, in the simplest terms, on the USWNT's very first day together last month. They'd gather in California. They are depleted by injuries, surrounded by pressure and doubted by history, which is why head coach Vlatko Andonovski was asked whether anything short of a 2023 Women’s World Cup title might be satisfactory — but the question baffled him.

“Would I be happy with anything short of a third straight win? No!” Andonovski responded. “Absolutely not.”

“There's only one thing in mind going to this tournament,” he continued. “Our goal is to win the World Cup.”

No international soccer team of men or women has ever done so thrice in a row. But of course, no international soccer team has ever been as ruthless as the inimitable American institution known as the USWNT. In 2019, it joined an exclusive club of back-to-back winners. In 2023, fueled by unshakable confidence and youthful ambition, it will attempt to create a new club, one in which it would stand alone.

Its campaign begins Saturday here in Auckland — Friday night in the States. With the opener approaching, here are 23 questions and answers about the team and its 2023 Women’s World Cup journey.

In 50 words, what is the story of this 2023 USWNT?

The captain, leading scorer and brightest playmaker are all injured. Performances and results since July 2021 have also sparked legitimate concern, and eroded the team’s dominant aura. But it is still the betting favorite, and the world’s top-ranked team, because, well, it’s the USWNT. Doubts often prove excessive and unfounded.

What’s happened since 2019?

A lot. Jill Ellis, the two-time champion head coach, retired in 2019. U.S. Soccer replaced her with Andonovski, who extended a multi-year unbeaten run to 44 games. In fact, entering the postponed 2021 Olympics, since July 2017, the U.S. had won 66, tied seven and lost just once. All was well.

But an aging squad flopped in Tokyo. (It lost to Sweden and Canada, though still took bronze.) Then it evolved. Young stars seized opportunities, and pushed entrenched veterans. Together, in 2022, they lost three straight games for the first time in nearly three decades, but qualified for the World Cup with ease.

Who are those young stars?

Defenders worldwide are trembling at the thought of facing Sophia Smith, the 22-year-old forward who’ll spearhead the U.S. attack. She’s the reigning National Women’s Soccer League MVP, and an all-around menace.

Trinity Rodman, 21, and recent high school graduate Alyssa Thompson, 18, will also make their World Cup debuts. And at the other end of the field, center back Naomi Girma, 23, is ready to take the reins of the USWNT defense.

[MORE: How Trinity Rodman made her name her own]

Which USWNT veterans are still around?

Carli Lloyd has retired. Tobin Heath, Christen Press and Ali Krieger are out of the USWNT picture. Becky Sauerbrunn, the current captain, is injured. In total, 14 of the 23 players on the plane to New Zealand will be World Cup newbies.

But Alex Morgan is still around. So are Kelley O’Hara and Megan Rapinoe. Julie Ertz has returned from a long maternity layoff. Rose Lavelle is on the roster, and now in her prime after a 2019 breakout, but currently recovering from an injury.

Who else is injured?

The U.S. rolled to the 2019 title in remarkably good health. Four years later, they enter the tournament limping. Sauerbrunn, a would-be starting center back, was felled by a foot problem. Mal Swanson (née Pugh), who’d scored eight goals in her last six national team games, tore her patellar tendon in April.

Knee injuries also devastated Sam Mewis, a 2019 starter; and Catarina Macario, a 23-year-old attacker who finished higher than any other American player in 2021-22 Ballon d’Or voting; and Tierna Davidson, who returned from an ACL tear in March but couldn’t recapture enough of her pre-injury form to make the roster.

[MORE: Inside women's soccer's ACL 'epidemic' and the search for cures]

All five players mentioned above were potential starters if healthy, and Lavelle — who has not played in almost three months while rehabbing a mysterious knee injury — would be a sixth.

When and how can I watch the U.S. games?

You can watch some in U.S. prime time, on Fox and Telemundo, but others will require early mornings or late nights.

The U.S. was drawn into Group E alongside the Netherlands, Portugal and Vietnam, and handed the following schedule:

• Friday, July 21 vs. Vietnam (9 p.m. ET, Fox)
• Wednesday, July 26 vs. Netherlands (9 p.m. ET, Fox)
• Tuesday, Aug. 1 vs. Portugal (3 a.m. ET, Fox)

If the U.S. wins the group, its semifinal path goes:

• Saturday, Aug. 5 vs. Group G runner-up (10 p.m. ET, Fox)
• Thursday, Aug. 10 vs. 1A/2C (9 p.m. ET, Fox)

If the U.S. finishes second, its semifinal path goes:

• Sunday, Aug. 6 vs. Group G winner (5 a.m. ET, Fox)
• Friday, Aug. 11 vs. 1C/2A (3:30 a.m. ET, Fox)

The semifinal and final would be:

• Tuesday, Aug. 15 (4 a.m. ET, Fox)
• Sunday, Aug. 20 (6 a.m. ET, Fox)

Will the U.S. have any trouble getting out of the group?

The widely held and probably accurate assumption is that the U.S. and Netherlands, the two 2019 finalists, will top Group E in some order.

Vietnam will be overmatched. Portugal, a soccer-obsessed nation, is nowhere near as accomplished on the women’s side as it is on the men’s — and nowhere near as accomplished as the USWNT. This will be Portugal’s first Women’s World Cup; the U.S., meanwhile, has qualified for every edition and only lost once at the group stage.

There’s a real scenario where the U.S. beats Vietnam, then loses to the Dutch, and enters a decisive third match consumed by pressure. But even in that scenario, you’d assume the U.S. would enter level on points with Portugal, with a superior goal differential; it would therefore only need a draw to advance in second place.

The only route to calamity is if Portugal holds both the Netherlands and U.S. to draws — which actually doesn’t seem outlandish after the Portuguese held England’s A-team to a 0-0 draw in a July 1 tune-up match.

What will the USWNT’s knockout-round path look like?

The Americans will — or should — be gunning for Group E’s top spot, because it could earn them a Round of 16 cakewalk. A second-place finish, on the other hand, would likely yield a showdown with Sweden, which drubbed the U.S., 3-0, in their last meeting at the Tokyo Olympics.

In general, the U.S. landed on the weaker side of FIFA’s strange World Cup bracket. It can’t meet England, Germany, France or co-host Australia — four of its top-five challengers — until the final. Those four are all clumped together on the strong side, along with Brazil and reigning Olympic champion Canada.

The USWNT’s title path, therefore, will only go through one of those six teams. Its most likely quarterfinal and semifinal opponents are Spain, Japan and the Netherlands. (Yes, the same Netherlands from Group E, hence our use of the word “strange.”)

Who are the other contenders?

This, according to data and testimony from people throughout the sport, is the deepest Women’s World Cup field ever. All 11 countries mentioned above are legitimate contenders. Betting markets would rank them in the following order (odds via BetMGM):

1. U.S. (+225)
2. England (+400)
3. Spain (+550)
4. Germany (+700)
5. France (+1000)
6. Australia (+1100)
7. Sweden (+1600)
8. Brazil (+2200)
T-9. Japan (+2500)
T-9. Netherlands (+2500)
11. Canada (+3300)

Why is the U.S. still the favorite?

The U.S. remains atop that list for two simple reasons:

1. While the depth of the field has swelled, no challenger has separated itself from the pack. England, the reigning European champ, has also lost two of its top five players (Beth Mead and Leah Williamson) to ACL injuries. Spain’s stars hate their coach, so much so that some resigned from the national team in September; and a few are choosing to skip the World Cup. In short, everybody else has problems, too.

2. The women’s soccer world consistently gets punished for doubting the USWNT, and has been conditioned to expect dominance even amid worry.

U.S. defender Kelley O’Hara remembers hearing that doubt four years ago, even when, as I wrote at the time, the U.S. was “pretty clearly the best team in the world.” O’Hara remembers all the hand-wringing about goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher, and the questions about defensive frailties. “I remember being so annoyed by it,” O’Hara said Tuesday. “Because I'm just like, ‘I know how good we are.’”

On the surface, four years later, they are no less assured. They have more resources, more institutional support than any other team in the world. They have a self-belief, an aura that is backed by decades of substance. It buoys them, and spooks opponents, and laughs in the face of external doubt.

Some will argue that the aura has dissipated since 2021. “There's not many teams that fear playing the U.S. anymore,” Carli Lloyd, who now works as an on-air analyst for Fox, told Yahoo Sports last week. But one simple fact remains: Through eight editions of the Women’s World Cup, since 1991, the U.S. has only lost four games. Four.

How have other back-to-back champs fared on their three-peat quests?

That stat, though, is partially fueled by luck — and luck tends to run dry eventually, especially after back-to-back World Cup titles.

Germany’s women, the last repeat winners in 2003 and 2007, lost their first 2011 knockout match to Japan.

Brazil’s men, after dazzling in 1958 and 1962, failed to advance from their 1966 group.

Italy’s men were the only other back-to-back champs, way back in 1934 and 1938. They had to wait 12 years to defend their title (because of World War II), and also failed to advance from their 1950 group.

So, all three previous three-peat quests have ended without a single knockout-round win.

What is the USWNT’s biggest flaw?

Here’s the three-step explanation:

1. In many ways, the USWNT built its 2017-2021 dominance around Julie Ertz, a converted center back who became a one-woman thwarter of counterattacks as a defensive midfielder. She not only shielded the back four; she allowed the five players in front of her, plus fullbacks, to attack unrestrained by defensive responsibilities.

2. Ertz stepped away from soccer for 20 months, after the Tokyo Olympics — first to rehab an injury, then to have her first child, Madden. Without her — and without a comparable replacement — the U.S. had to restrain its attacking-minded players, or expose its defenders, or in some cases both. Its midfield has often looked unsettled and unable to control games.

3. Ertz is back, but not back. She’s on the roster because a return to her 2017-2021 form is the USWNT’s best hope of reprising its 2017-2021 dominance. But, having only played four full 90-minute matches since returning in April, it’s very unclear whether she’s capable of being even 90% of her former self.

And so, it’s very unclear whether the USWNT will be able to derive all the benefits that it used to derive from Ertz’s presence. (Ertz didn't play in the USWNT's send-off match.)

What are the other flaws?

Remember the defenders who, as we just detailed, were occasionally exposed in Ertz’s absence?

Well, the most reliable one, Sauerbrunn, won’t be in New Zealand. Girma and Alana Cook are capable of deputizing, but neither has proven herself against the world’s best. And their only backup is Emily Sonnett, who has started at center back just once for the USWNT (in a friendly versus Colombia) since 2016.

There are also plenty of valid questions about Andonovski’s tactical acumen, and specifically his ability to build a coherent, rhythmic attack that isn’t over-reliant on moments of individual brilliance from players like Swanson and Smith.

Who is this Andonovski guy?

He was born and raised in North Macedonia. After an unremarkable six-year playing career there, he came to the American midwest to try indoor soccer. From there, he began coaching indoor and youth soccer, which somehow qualified him to become the head coach of FC Kansas City in the club’s inaugural NWSL season — largely because the club’s owners already employed him as the coach of their Major Indoor Soccer League team, the Missouri Comets.

Hardly anybody in the women’s game had heard of Andonovski. But he succeeded immediately. With Sauerbrunn as his captain, he won two titles in his first three seasons. Then, after two mediocre campaigns, and after the franchise was folded and moved to Utah, Andonovski jumped to the Seattle Reign.

Two years later, he got the single biggest job in women’s soccer, seemingly with endorsements from USWNT veterans, including Sauerbrunn and Megan Rapinoe.

What will Andonovski's World Cup starting lineup be?

Andonovski’s preferred starting 11 heading to New Zealand appears to be this:

Goalkeeper: Alyssa Naeher
Right back: Emily Fox
Center back: Naomi Girma
Center back: Alana Cook
Left back: Crystal Dunn
Defensive midfield: Julie Ertz
Central midfield: Lindsey Horan
Attacking midfield: Rose Lavelle
Right wing: Trinity Rodman
Striker: Alex Morgan
Left wing: Sophia Smith

There are several caveats. Andi Sullivan has been the nominal Ertz replacement over the past two years, and could retain her starting place. Further up the field, if Lavelle can’t recover from her injury, Ashley Sanchez or Savannah DeMelo would be in line for more minutes. And the front three are now a bit uncertain.

And although Naeher is the presumed No. 1 goalkeeper, Andonovski has rotated Naeher and Casey Murphy over the past year; he hasn’t yet publicly named a starter.

So that’s who will start the World Cup opener against Vietnam?

Not necessarily. The real measuring stick, and therefore the priority, is the second match against the Netherlands. Expect some degree of rotation against Vietnam or Portugal.

Will that Vietnam game be a bloodbath like Thailand 4 years ago?

The most memorable group game four years ago was the 13-0 demolition of Thailand. And there’s every chance 2023 will deliver a repeat.

Vietnam, though, held relatively firm against Germany in a recent friendly, and only lost 2-1, albeit to a German B-team. So, expect something closer to 5-0, not 13-0.

Who’s replacing Sauerbrunn as captain?

Alex Morgan and Lindsey Horan will co-captain the U.S. women's national team at the 2023 World Cup, and formally step into the leadership void created by an injury to Becky Sauerbrunn. Horan will wear the armband when they're both on the field, and will appear at the USWNT's first pre-match news conference.

At age 29, Horan isn’t an elder. She’s played at major international tournaments, but hasn’t starred at them. She has far less experience, in every which way, than Morgan and Rapinoe — who co-captained the team in 2019 — and often doesn’t seem comfortable serving as the team’s unofficial public spokesperson.

But Andonovski has pushed her into more of a leadership role ever since the fall of 2021. Sauerbrunn recently referred to Horan as “the co-captain with me."

That’s not to say that Rapinoe, O’Hara and others won’t have key leadership roles. But those vets have made a conscious effort to empower the next generation, and Andonovski has anointed Horan as the leader of it.

Wait, what about Megan Rapinoe?

Rapinoe isn’t a starter anymore. She’s still talented, and still valued as a locker-room presence, and still the public face of the team alongside Morgan. But she neither expects nor wants to play 90 minutes, and win the Golden Ball, and win the Golden Boot, like she did in 2019. She'll retire at the end of the 2023 season.

She is on the team to come off the bench for 15 minutes and create, yes, but more so to lead and teach. Multiple World Cup first-timers have cited her calming, mood-lightening presence.

[MORE: Why Megan Rapinoe is ready to pass the USWNT torch]

Is the USWNT still fighting for equal pay?

Nope. The players settled their lawsuit with U.S. Soccer for $24 million last winter. Then, alongside the U.S. men’s national team in May, they agreed to new collective bargaining agreements. The CBAs will pay the men and women on nearly identical terms, including equal shares of World Cup prize money.

All involved celebrated the deal, which seemed like a win for both sets of players. The women have now turned their attention to the global landscape, where pay and working conditions are still, in many cases, grossly unequal.

How else will the 2023 USWNT be trailblazers?

This USWNT could break symbolic ground for soccer moms. Three players — Morgan, Ertz and Crystal Dunn — are now mothers. They aren’t the first to play for the USWNT, but they’d be the first trio of U.S. moms to start a World Cup game. And they’d represent decades of progress for mom athletes.

[MORE: How the USWNT past and present blazed a trail for mothers in sports]

How did the USWNT fare in its send-off game?

Not great. Not terrible, either, but Rodman's late goals masked an otherwise uninspiring performance.

The players are now in New Zealand, and based in Auckland, training and preparing for their opener.

Anything else I need to know?

Here’s an extensive primer on 2023 Women’s World Cup basics. And all of our stories, rankings, news, schedules and analysis will be housed on our World Cup homepage between now and kickoff.