USA! USA!: Women's World Cup watch parties for Friday's match
All eyes are on this U.S. team, coming into the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup as the 2015 and 2019 Cup champs with 14 new players on the roster.
Southern California is ready to cheer on the women with watch parties taking place Friday night at Salazar Park in East Los Angeles, Union Station, and other locations in Los Angeles County and in Anaheim.
The game against Vietnam from Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand is set to begin at 6 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time and will be televised by Fox in English and in Spanish by Telemundo, Universo and Peacock.
The U.S. is first in the rankings compiled by FIFA, soccer's international governing body. Vietnam is ranked 32nd.
The party at Salazar Park will run from 6 to 8:30 p.m. and include a soccer clinic and skills challenge, face painting, custom jerseys provided by the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, an interactive photo booth and a live DJ.
The party is part of Los Angeles County's Department of Parks and Recreation's Parks after Dark program.
Watch parties organized by chapters of American Outlaws, a nationwide support group for the U.S. men's and women's national soccer teams, will be at Homebound Brew Haus at Union Station, L.A. Draught in Santa Monica, Legends Sports Bar in Long Beach, Lopez & Lefty's in Anaheim, The Surly Goat in Encino and the Underground Pub & Grill in Hermosa Beach.
The game will be shown on large screens at the Hammer Museum in Westwood.
A watch party at Common Space Brewery in Hawthorne is organized by the Angel City Football Club in collaboration with the Los Angeles Galaxy.
The 23-member U.S. team includes six players who played on the high school or college levels in Los Angeles or Orange counties -- forwards Alex Morgan (Diamond Bar High), Trinity Rodman (Corona del Mar High), Alyssa Thompson (Harvard-Westlake School), Lynn Williams (Pepperdine) and midfielders Savannah DeMelo (Saint Joseph High, USC) and Ashley Sanchez (Monrovia High, UCLA).
Vietnam is among eight nations making their Women's World Cup debuts in 2023
