When Is The First Game Of US Women's World Cup 2019? Start Time, TV Channel, Prediction For Group Play

The 2019 Women’s World Cup is finally here, and the U.S. women’s national soccer team is ready to make history. Four years after proving to be the best team on the planet, the Americans expect to do so again.

The tournament officially gets underway Friday afternoon in France when the host nation takes on South Korea in the only match of the day. The U.S. will play their first World Cup match Tuesday afternoon in Reims, France when they take on Thailand at 3 p.m. EDT. FOX will broadcast the match on TV.

Eleven total matches are scheduled before the U.S. will make their 2019 World Cup debut.

“We are going to the World Cup to win it and anything else would be a failure for us,” forward Christen Press told The Los Angeles Times. “That’s the DNA of this team. That was the expectation long before I was ever on it. For us it’s embracing that, using that as fuel and motivation and just being really excited for what’s to come.”

It all starts with the group stage, where the 24-team World Cup field will be whittled down to 16. There are six groups of four, and each nation will compete once against the other teams in their respective group. For Team USA, that means having matches with Thailand, Chile and Sweden in Group F.

A win in group play is worth three points. A draw is worth one point. The 16 teams with the most points will advance to the knockout stage.

The U.S. isn’t expected to have much trouble in group play. The defending champs sit atop the FIFA rankings, and their first opponent comes in at No.34 in the world.

With three titles, the U.S. has more World Cup championships than Thailand has appearances in the tournament. Thailand played in the World Cup for the first time in 2015, failing to reach the knockout stage when they posted a 1-2 record and were outscored 10-3 in three matches.

Thailand is limping into the World Cup. They were defeated by Belgium 6-1 Saturday, putting them on a five-match losing streak before their matchup with the U.S.

Since shutting out Hungary 4-0 in their first match of 2019, Thailand has been outscored 18-3. Hungary ranks 45th in the world and didn’t qualify for the World Cup.

Four straight teams have beaten Thailand by at least three goals. They have little chance to be competitive against the best team in the world.

Since the U.S. was defeated by France 3-1 in their first match of 2019, the three-time World Cup champs have put together a nine-match undefeated streak. The team has won five consecutive matches, most recently defeating Mexico 3-0 in New Jersey on May 26 in their final contest before the year’s biggest tournament.

“The principles are set, we know what we're doing,” U.S. midfielder Julie Ertz said after the victory, via ESPN.com. “There's no changes there, which is great going into it because now we can really focus on finalizing those details and cleaning everything up.”

The U.S. has some of the best players in the tournament in Alex Morgan, Tobin Heath and Lindsey Horan. With stars like Ertz and Megan Rapinoe also on the roster, the talent gap between the U.S. and Thailand should be apparent from the start.

Prediction: USA over Thailand, 4-0