What is the USWNT’s World Cup record in debut games?

The path to the USWNT’s potential third World Cup triumph, this time in Australia and New Zealand, is set to get underway against Vietnam in what looks like one of the more difficult groups of the first round. A shaky win over a defensive Wales side has led some to question Vlatko Andonovski’s decision to take 14 new players out of the 23 available but injury has hampered his squad, meaning that the challenge of making the three-peat of the top prize in football all the more difficult.

But if anyone can do it, then the USWNT can, and a good start is the perfect way to get the ball rolling, both figuratively and literally. The fact that the side share the Group E bunkbeds with Vietnam, Portugal and The Netherlands means that brains have to be switched on from the first whistle in Eden Park against the Asian side, as nobody can afford an early slip up in such a banana skin-filled group.

Fortunately, the record that the USWNT have in their opening games at World Cups is a positive one: of the eight tournaments they have featured in (all of them), they have won six times. The even better news is that the other two games ended all square: the unbeaten record is still there to be extended for Horan, Morgan, Rapinoe and co.

Against Vietnam on 22 July, they will be looking to extend this extraordinary record of winning opening games on their way to extending their, erm, other extraordinary record of winning World Cups. If anyone knows how to get the job done, it is the USWNT.