World Champions USA on a charm offensive in NZ

Lynn Williams of USA takes a selfie with fans in New Zealand in January 2023.
Photo: Photosport

On touching down at Auckland airport this week the coach of the USA women’s football team, Vlatko Andonovski, described it as being “home again”.

Andonovski and the team were in New Zealand in January for friendly games against the Football Ferns and took the opportunity to connect with the locals then.

Now the defending champions are back in Auckland where they will be based for the group stages of the Women’s Football World Cup.

“We want to become New Zealand’s second favourite team,” Andonovski said.

USA want to do what no women’s football team has done before – win three consecutive World Cups.

Andonovski believes it is achieveable.

First they have to get past Vietnam, Netherlands and Portugal in group play.

“We are going to have a lot of a lot of challenges in front of us, we know that. And we’re prepared to win, we just have to overcome [the challenges] one by one as they come.”

The USA had a warm up game against Wales in California the day before jumping on the plane for New Zealand to begin their World Cup campaign.

They won 2-0 and Andonovski believes it was good preparation.

“We didn’t play our best, but created two goals. I thought they were well organized defensively and made it made it tough for us. But the fact that we found a way to to win, to win the game, to score goals and some beautiful goals, it was good for us.”

Veteran USA football star and two-time World Cup winner Megan Rapinoe will retire after the upcoming World Cup and could have limited involvement at the tournament co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia.

However, Andonovski knows she still has plenty to offer the squad.

“She’s a true pro. She knows what it takes to win big tournaments. She’s been on the big stage and she has done it a big stage and having her here with the young ones like Sophia [Smith] and Trinity [Rodman] and Alyssa [Thompson] is very important because she can certainly guide them and show them the way.”

The Women’s Football World Cup will be held in the southern hemisphere winter for the first time when the month-long tournament kicks off on 20 July and Andonovski is a fan of it being in the region.

“One thing that FIFA does very well is growing the game in different parts of the world and it seems like New Zealand has so much potential to grow and grow the game. So it’s important to be here in Australia as well.”

-RNZ