We’re just two days from the start of the 2023 Women’s World Cup and the U.S. women’s national team has been preparing for almost two weeks in New Zealand. On Monday, the players started answering questions from the media for the first time, and will continue to do so almost daily throughout the tournament. ESPN will be with the USWNT every step of the way, bringing reporting from inside the USWNT camp throughout the World Cup.
AUCKLAND, New Zealand — As the Women’s World Cup opener for the U.S. women’s national team draws closer, the chatter on social media is growing around both the competition itself and the U.S.’s chances of winning a third straight title. Just don’t expect the players to be keeping tabs.
Following the tournament-winning blueprint of the self-described “bubble” the team formed at the 2019 World Cup to shut out outside influences, many players on the team are taking the same approach again. So, feel free to critique the team or, if you must, send those mean tweets, but players for the most part won’t be reading.
Starting goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher says she pretty much left her cell phone in airplane mode back in 2019, and she plans to stay off social media again, although to a less extreme degree. “I’ve turned my phone on this time, so I’ve gotten away from airplane mode, but I still don’t have the social media stuff — I’ll stay off a lot of that,” she said. “I’ll keep maybe a little Instagram to stay connected to friends and family back home, but for the most part I’ve chosen to get off social media for a month.”
Midfielder and World Cup debutante Kristie Mewis is taking a similar approach — and is making a similar exception.
“I love Instagram so I don’t really feel I can give that up,” Mewis said, with a wry smile. “It kind of helps me decompress a little bit to look at unrealistic things like travel — beautiful things that get my mind off of what’s happening. So it’s a good distraction and I’m not giving that up.”
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OK, so: no Twitter, a little bit of Instagram. How about Threads, the new Twitter rival from the company behind Instagram? “I’m not gonna have Twitter up or that new Threads thing — I’m still not really sure how that works — but I need my Instagram,” Mewis said.
What about TikTok? “I don’t really know what TikTok is,” Naeher joked.
