Sophia Smith stars as USWNT eases past Vietnam in its Women’s World Cup opener - CNN

CNN  — 

The US Women’s National Team (USWNT) kicked off their Women’s World Cup campaign with a comfortable 3-0 victory against Vietnam.

A brace from US soccer’s newest superstar Sophia Smith and a late goal from Lindsey Horan was enough to give the defending champion a dream start as it begins a historic World Cup campaign.

The USWNT are chasing a third World Cup in a row and could not have asked for a better start,dominating proceedings from the outset before Smith opened the scoring just 14 minutes into her World Cup debut.

Horan found Alex Morgan with a pass through the Vietnam midfield before Morgan’s clever flick put Smith through, and the 22-year-old’s drilled left-footed finish found the back of the net with ease.

Sophia Smith was the standout player in the USWNT's win.

Andrew Cornaga/AP

In the midst of the early US dominance, there was a brief highlight for the underdog.

After a VAR check, the USWNT were awarded a penalty after a foul on Trinity Rodman. Morgan stepped up, but Vietnam goalkeeper Trần Thị Kim Thanh made a great save to deny the striker, sparking jubilant celebrations among the Vietnamese side.

In first-half stoppage time, Smith scored again to double the USWNT’s advantage. The Portland Thorns forward squeezed the ball into the net – albeit with a much scrappier effort than her opener.

As chances came and went for the USWNT, it took more brilliant work from Smith to extend the lead. The standout performer latched onto a ball over the top of the Vietnam defense before squaring a pass to Horan who simply had to strike the ball into an open net.

Lindsey Horan made it 3-0 following a Smith assist.

Phil Walter/Getty Images

“It’s so exciting. Every minute of that game was fun, and the crowd was amazing, and I think it was a good place to start in this tournament, but I know we have so much more to get to,” Smith told reporters postgame.

“We’re going to celebrate this for a second but then put our focus into the next game,” the player of the match concluded.

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Tara Subramaniam/CNN

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For head coach Vlatko Andonovski, the USWNT played even better than the score line suggests.

“I wouldn’t say that I expected more goals but with the way that we played and the opportunities that we created I sure wanted to see more goals and I thought that we deserved to score more goals,” he said.

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