The Athletic has live coverage of USWNT vs. Vietnam at the Women’s World Cup
The quest for a third straight World Cup title starts on Friday night (at least in American time zones) for the United States women’s national team. The Americans take on Vietnam to open Group E play in Auckland, New Zealand.
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The American TV audience is being accommodated for this one, the match will start at 9 p.m. ET Friday night, which is 1 p.m. Saturday in Auckland. The first two group matches for the U.S. will be at this time.
The odds of this match say that it’s not a matter of if the U.S. will win, but rather by how much. Will this be a repeat of the 13-0 blowout of Thailand from four years ago?
All odds from BetMGM. Looking for tickets? Find deals on Viagogo.
United States vs. Vietnam
Kickoff time: 9 p.m. ET Friday /2 a.m. BST Saturday
Venue: Eden Park, Auckland
There’s no value on betting the Americans to win this match. The -100000 odds mean a wager of $1,000 would only net $1 if it won.
The odds for the total at 6.5 also show confidence in a lopsided win. BetMGM is offering the U.S. -6 at -105 odds, implying an approximately 50 percent chance the USWNT wins by more than six.
Is that realistic? Memories of that 13-0 win against Thailand are likely factoring into this. It’s been just over a year since the U.S. scored six goals in a match. That was when the U.S. beat Uzbekistan 9-1 and 9-0 back-to-back in a pair of friendlies in April of 2022. Uzbekistan last played Vietnam in 2019 as part of Olympic qualifying and Vietnam came out with a 2-1 win. That’s four years ago and the transitive property isn’t predictive, but that’s not a good sign for a competitive match.
Goal-scoring props show some amusing odds as well. On BetMGM, a whopping 12 Americans have minus odds to score a goal. If anything, that shows how big the house edge is for this match.
Vietnam’s recent matches have been a mixed bag. They were competitive in losses to Germany (2-1) and New Zealand (2-0), but lost to Spain 9-0 on July 14.
The U.S. has never lost its opening match at a World Cup with six wins and two draws.
More on the USWNT
United States team guide: Will they achieve historic three-peat?
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(Photo of Sophia Smith: Lachlan Cunningham / USSF/Getty Images)
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