Tasman Trails: We’re Going on an Adventure!

AUCKLAND, NZL–Kia ora! As I type, this reporter is in Auckland, New Zealand and have been since Tuesday. Part of the reason, of course, is to cover the opening match between New Zealand and Norway and then the USA’s first match against Vietnam at Eden Park. For the rest of the tournament, some of Prost’s staff will be covering select teams during the competitions (New Zealand and Australia in my case), and I’ll provide a journal of events from Auckland this week and from back home in Chicago the remainder of the tournament.

Watching this year’s tournament in the States will be a challenge as there are five time zones in play and the match times are all over the place instead of three or four set times. Even though Russia had multiple time zones, most of the first round matches had a set time no matter where you were in the States.

It will be 2am CT on Thursday morning when New Zealand plays Norway (potentially in the rain) in Auckland. At 5am CT (10pm NZ time), it will be Australia’s opener against Republic of Ireland at Stadium Australia. The USA’s first match against Vietnam will be Saturday at 1pm NZ time/8pm CT on Friday night on FOX.

Below is a list of matches for this year’s Women’s World Cup with match times in US Central Time:

The USWNT are the favorites to become the first team–men’s or women’s–to win three successive World Cups. Despite missing players like Becky Sauerbrunn and Mallory Swanson, they are still a deep squad, especially up front. However, there are more bonafide contenders such as European Champions England; Olympic Gold Medalists Canada; Co-hosts Australia; and the usual women’s powers of Germany, France, Sweden, and Brazil.

There are also other stories abound including eight teams making their first trip to the World Cup (of course, the field is now 32 from 24). The newbies are Portugal, Philippines, Zambia, Morocco, Haiti, Panama, Vietnam, and Republic of Ireland. New Zealand, as a co-host, will look to get their first World Cup win breaking a 15-match winless streak over five World Cups. Teams like the Netherlands, Denmark, China, Japan, and Norway are looking to become contenders again.

There are thirty-two teams, two countries, nine cities, and tons of stories to be told. Like Bilbo Baggins in the Hobbit, “We’re going on an Adventure!”