Sophia Smith kicked off her World Cup debut with two goals, leading the United States women’s national soccer team to victory.
The USWNT faced Vietnam July 21 for the team's first game in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, which is hosted by Australia and New Zealand this year.
The matchup ended in a 3-0 victory for the United States, with Smith leading the team with two goals followed by a second-half goal by team captain Lindsey Horan.
Smith is one of the USWNT’s forwards alongside Alex Morgan, Trinity Rodman, Alyssa Thompson, Lynn Williams and Megan Rapinoe, who recently announced she would be retiring at the end of the current National Women’s Soccer League season.
After the team's victory Friday, Rapinoe called Smith a "menace."
"She can just hurt you in so many different ways, she comes inside, she can beat you around the edge. She’s so quick. So smart, finish is great. She’s kind of a do-it-all player," Rapinoe said.
Here’s everything you need to know about the USWNT newcomer.
Sophia Smith is from Colorado
Smith, 22, hails from Windsor, Colorado, according to U.S. Soccer.
She comes from an athletic family and is the youngest of three with two older sisters, Gabrielle and Savannah, according to her bio for Stanford University, where she became an NCAA champion. Her father, Kenny Smith, played basketball at the University of Wyoming while her sister Savannah was an all-conference basketball player at the University of Northern Colorado.
Since she was a child, Smith was interested in playing soccer.
She played youth soccer for Real Colorado from 2014 to 2018 and was coached by Lorne Donaldson, who is now the head coach of the Jamaican women’s national team. She graduated from Fossil Ridge High School in Fort Collins, Colorado, where she was the captain of her high school team in 2017 and received several accolades.
Smith played at Stanford for two seasons and helped lead the team to the NCAA Championship in 2019. However, she forewent the rest of her eligibility in college to go pro, and in 2020, she was drafted by Portland Thorns FC in Oregon.
It’s her World Cup debut
In 2023, Smith was called up to the USWNT for the World Cup.
Prior to her World Cup debut, U.S. Soccer reports that she was 16 years old when she received a call-up to the Senior National Team. However she wouldn’t make her debut until November 2020 when Smith and her kindergarten teammate, Jaelin Howell, played in an exhibition match against Netherlands.
With her two goals scored, the USWNT announced on Twitter that Smith has become the second-youngest player in the team’s history to score multiple goals in a World Cup game since Cat Whitehill in 2003.
After the game, Smith reflected on the "long build up" to her first World Cup match.
"It felt really good to finally just get out there and play," she said.
Going into the team's next game against the Netherlands July 26, Smith said she feels "excitement."
"I'm happy with our performance but I know we have so much more in we can find to a few a few things going into this next game. So honestly just excited," she said.
Smith and her fellow rookies were praised by their captain during a post-game interview to AP, with Horan telling the outlet, “They’re confident, they’ve been in pressure situations.”
“Soph Smith, look what she did,” Horan added. “She does that every single day in training so it’s no shock to me. But it’s always great to have the first game to really calm everyone’s nerves and get the three points.”
After the game, Rapinoe said Smith's entry to the international soccer stage has been a long time coming.
"We’ve been seeing this monster in the league for a few years now and I’ve personally been very excited to see her on the world stage and getting to, you know, wear the jersey and play in the biggest game, so she didn’t disappoint. I expect much more," Rapinoe said.
She’s an advocate for mental health
Ahead of the World Cup, Smith opened up about the importance of mental health to NBC Sports and Telemundo in an episode of the podcast “My New Favorite Futbolista.”
During the podcast, Smith reflected on the death of her friend and former Stanford University teammate Katie Meyer, who died by suicide at age 22. Smith said that it is still “hard to talk about,” adding, “I think the hardest part was there weren’t any signs of anything … You wouldn’t know she was hurting.”
“You don’t know what someone’s going through, and you won’t always see signs of struggle,” she later added. “That has made me realize just how serious mental health is, especially for student athletes who feel this pressure to excel in sports.”
Smith continued to emphasize mental health during her transition from college to her professional career. However, her start with the Portland Thorns was followed by the COVID-19 pandemic, which the athlete said triggered a decline in her own mental health.
“I’m in this new setting by myself. I don’t know anybody. You can’t do anything. You’re isolated in your apartment,” she explained. “So that’s when I was like, ‘Okay, well, I’m not okay,’ … That’s when I honestly started to struggle with my mental health. I’ve struggled with depression. I have anxiety still to this day.”
Since then, Smith said she has made a habit to separate her own wellbeing from how she is performing in her career.
“You will not find any soccer anything in my apartment, it’s my sanctuary,” she said. “I’ve learned to balance loving the game, loving the sport, but not letting it be my whole entire life and learning how to make my mind just shift when I’m not playing, because I don’t need to be in that state 24/7.”