The United States launched their bid for an unprecedented third consecutive Women's World Cup crown with a 3-0 win over Vietnam on Saturday, as fellow favourites England were set to enter the fray.
Sophia Smith, 22, was the star of the show at Eden Park in Auckland, scoring twice and setting up captain Lindsey Horan for the third in front of just over 41,000 fans.
The only sour note for Vlatko Andonovski's side, which featured six World Cup debutants at kick-off, was that they were not more ruthless in front of goal.
They had 27 attempts to Vietnam's none and Alex Morgan missed a first-half penalty. "At the end I just felt we needed to be a little bit better with the final shot," said the coach. "We created opportunities, we had a penalty kick, obviously enough to score a few more goals, but there are lots of positives from game one going into game two." Next up for the Americans, who brought veteran Megan Rapinoe off the bench for the last 30 minutes, are the Dutch in a re-run of the 2019 final.