US to face Vietnam, Dutch at women’s soccer WCup

AUCKLAND, New Zealand, Oct 22, (AP): The defending champions United States will face the Netherlands in the group stage of the women’s soccer World Cup next summer, setting up an early repeat of the 2019 World Cup final.

The draw was made at a ceremony in Auckland on Saturday.

Four-time champion the United States were drawn in Group E with Vietnam, the Netherlands and a playoff winners still to be determined in a tournament expanded for the first time to 32 teams drawn into eight groups of four.

The U.S. will play all of their group matches in New Zealand in the tournament to be played at 10 stadiums in Australia and New Zealand in July and August 2023. The match against the Netherlands will be at Wellington on July 27. The U.S. beat the Dutch 2-0 in the 2019 final in France.

Second-ranked Sweden is drawn in Group G with South Africa, Italy and Argentina. Third-ranked Germany is in Group H with Morocco, Colombia and South Korea and European champion England in Group D with Denmark, China and a playoff winner.

The three playoff winners will be determined through inter-continental qualifying matches in Auckland in February.

Under the formula of the draw, the six top-ranked teams couldn’t face each other in the group stage. That ensured the U.S. will not face Sweden in the group stage of a major tournament for the first time in 10 years.

The draw was conducted in the same manner as the men’s World Cup: teams were divided into four “pots” of eight teams based on FIFA world rankings.

The U.S. were placed in Pot 1 among the top-six ranked teams - Sweden, Germany, England, France and Spain - along with hosts Australia and New Zealand who qualified automatically and already had been placed into groups. New Zealand took slot 1 in Group A and Australia slot 1 in Group B.

New Zealand will play 1995 champions Norway in the opening match of the tournament at Auckland on July 20 and Australia open later that day against first-time qualifiers Ireland.

The U.S. will play Vietnam at Auckland on July 22, then the Netherlands on July 27 and finally the playoff winners also at Auckland on Aug. 1.