AUCKLAND, New Zealand — For as long as she can remember, Sophia Smith has dreamt of playing for the U.S. in a World Cup. As a young girl growing up in northern Colorado, she planned for it, she practiced it, she even acted it out in her backyard.
"We played World Cup, and I was always the USA," she said. "I didn't fully know that this could be me one day."
Friday it will be, with Smith and U.S. kicking off what they hope will be a drive to a third consecutive world championship against Vietnam. Only now is that reality beginning to sink in.
