The United States women’s national team will face the Netherlands in the next Group E match of the Women’s World Cup Wednesday.
The match will kick off at 9 p.m. ET in Wellington, New Zealand, and can be seen on FOX.
The Americans are coming off a 3-0 win over Vietnam in their first matchup last week. Sophia Smith had two goals, and Lindsey Horan had the other. The team hasn’t lost a match in the World Cup since 2011, when Japan won in penalties in the final.
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Since then, the U.S. has won 14 World Cup matches with one draw. The lone draw came in 2015 against Sweden.
The Netherlands enters the match with a 1-0 win over Portugal in its first match of the group. Stefanie van der Gragt scored in the 13th minute, and Daphne van Domselaar and the Dutch defense stopped everything from getting past them.
Now, all eyes turn to the U.S. and the Netherlands in what will be a rematch of the 2019 Women’s World Cup final that the U.S. won 2-0 behind goals from Megan Rapinoe and Rose Lavelle. The teams also met in the Tokyo Olympics quarterfinals with the U.S. eking out a win in penalties.
“Super excited for that game,” Rapinoe said. “Obviously, we’ve seen them a number of times in big tournaments over the last few years. Ready for a good one.”
In the last Women’s World Cup final, the U.S. women’s team was in the midst of a court battle for equal pay and had filed a lawsuit against its own soccer federation. This time around, there is no drama surrounding the team.
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“Any time you take your focus off of playing, off of what’s in front of you and what your job is, of course that’s taking your focus away from what you need to be doing. That’s distractions that are unnecessary,” Alex Morgan said. “So, not having distractions like that, like having to fight for equal pay, equal working conditions moving forward at all, ever again, it feels really good.
“And I hope that will soon be the case for all of the players around the world on the international level.”
USA vs. the Netherlands will kick off at 9 p.m. ET Wednesday on FOX, with coverage beginning at 8 p.m. ET. Fans can tune in to watch the match here.
The U.S. is looking for a three-peat, and the first step is to advance out of the group stage.
The squad’s latest victory came against the Dutch in the final. In 2015, it was Carli Lloyd becoming the first player to ever score a hat trick in a World Cup finals match, scoring in the third, fifth and 16th minutes against Japan. Lauren Holiday (14th minute) and Tobin Heath (54th) minute added goals of their own in the 5-2 victory.
The 2019 loss to the U.S. team was the best finish the Dutch have had in the Women’s World Cup. The team won six matches and only lost in the final. Vivianne Miedema scored three goals in the tournament.
In 2015, the team was bounced from the round of 16 after losing to Japan.
Fox News’ Scott Thompson and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
