World Cup Now: Who was New Zealand’s lady of the match vs. Norway?

The 2023 FIFA Wprophecy’s World Cup opened in significant style Thursday, with cohost New Zealand choosing up the veryfirst win of the competition — likewise the group’s veryfirst World Cup win ever — versus Norway in front of a sellout crowd at Auckland’s Eden Park arena.

The only objective of the match belonged to forward Hannah Wilkinson, who scored from close variety early in the 2nd half.

The “World Cup Now” team — Jimmy Conrad, Leslie Osborne and Melissa Ortiz — broke down New Zealand’s success and shared their viewpoints on who wasworthyof the most credit for the win.

Conrad: “I’m gonna offer a shout-out to Jitka Klimková, the coach of New Zealand. She got selected in 2021; she’s the veryfirst female coach of the New Zealand ladies’s nationwide group, and for her to have this type of effect I believe is truly essential. … I’m extremely curious what she stated to her group duetothefactthat they were allset. … Every single gamer was allset to put a shift in and to suffer for each other. I believe that’s so essential, and they stuck to their videogame strategy.”

Osborne: “Hannah Wilkinson, this is a gamer who had 2 World Cup objectives going into this videogame. She now has 3. … She stepped up today, and it wasn’t a one-off. She was all over the pitch tonight. She was harmful; she was tracking balls down; she was all over the location. I wear’t think Norway figured out how to safeguard her.”

Ortiz: “I’m simply gonna straight up state Ali Riley duetothefactthat … I definitely saw her being so dominant defensively and in offensive shifts. You saw her get high on the wing to get the balls and be that outlet to make those quick shifts going forward, or at least be that type of assistance — whether it was to the midfielder or to the center back.”