America’s Sophia Smith (in number 11 jersey) after scoring a goal
– Photo: Social Media
Expansion
Sophia Smith scored two goals (14th and 45th + 7th minute) to help defending champions America beat Vietnam 3-0 in the Women’s Soccer World Cup on Saturday. America, the most successful team of the tournament, is trying to score a hat-trick of titles. At the same time, in the other Group-C match played in Hamilton, New Zealand, Japan defeated Zambia 5-0. England and Denmark also started with a win in Group-D. England beat Haiti 1-0 and Denmark beat China 1-0.
Lindsay Horan scored the third goal in the match for America in the 77th minute. The US dominated the entire match against Vietnam. Smith was voted the best American footballer of the year. America’s 14 players are playing in the Women’s World Cup for the first time and Smith is one of them.
Japan’s Hinata scores two goals
Hinata Miyazawa (43rd and 62nd minutes) scored twice for Japan, while Mina Tanaka (55th minute) and Endo (71st minute) scored one each. Apart from him, Japan won a penalty which was converted by Riko Ueki (90+11th minute).
Tough wins for England and Denmark
England beat Haiti 1-0 in Brisbane with Georgia Stanway scoring a 29th-minute penalty. The match was supposed to be easy for England, but Haiti’s team did not let them score the second goal. England will face Denmark and China in this group. Denmark made a winning start by defeating China. Shortly before the end of the match, Amelie Wangsgaard (89th minute) scored the winning goal for the team. This is Amelie’s first international goal. The Chinese team came close to drawing this match, but the match went out of their hands in the last moments.