The winners of the previous two World Cups are currently at a training camp in the co-organising country of this year's tournament. During their time in New Zealand, the US women's team will face the Football Ferns twice in the stadiums where the world's best female players will compete in July and August.

The U.S. Women’s National Team (USWNT) have practiced in New Zealand for 6 days as part of the Biosteel Training Camp to then play two exhibition matches against the Ferns. The first game took place on January 18 at 4 pm local time. The arena for this match was Sky Stadium in Wellington. The trip gives US female players a chance to play full international matches at venues that, just six months later, will host all three USWNT group matches at the tournament.

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Although built in New Zealand, the facility is one of Australia's A-League venues. It was commissioned in January 2000. The arena serves as the capital's primary venue for major events. Sky Stadium, which will be named Wellington Regional Stadium during the upcoming World Cup due to sponsorship reasons, replaced the former Athletic Park, which was in despair at the end of the 20th century. The match at the 36,000-seater was the first for the New Zealand’s Women National Team at that stadium since 2018.

The Stars and Stripes had a good start to 2023, beating the Ferns 4-0 confidently. All the goals were scored in the second half. Two of them were struck by Mallory Swanson and Alex Morgan with Lynn Williams scoring one apiece. The crowd of 12,508 fans in the stands of Sky Stadium was the largest ever to watch the New Zealand women's national team in their country.

The second match between the two national squads will take place on January 21 at 4 pm local time. For this purpose the players will move to Auckland, and the clash will be held at Eden Park. The stadium underwent the biggest redevelopment in its history in 2010, which changed its shape. A completely new south stand was then opened, making the whole design more rectangular than oval. The south section seats around 21,500 people over three levels and is entirely covered with a transparent ETFE membrane. Individual sheets of material have been formed to create several fern leaf shapes.

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Auckland Women World Cup will start on July 20, when New Zealand will face Norway, kicking-off the whole competition. The upcoming game with the USWNT will be the first one at the venue for the Ferns. The US has played against New Zealand 19 times until they faced each other in Wellington. That match was the first one between the two teams in the Land of the Long White Cloud. The Americans have improved their record to 18-1-1 in matches against New Zealand, with the only loss happening in their first ever game in 1987, when the Ferns won 1-0 in Taipei. The tie was a 1-1 result in Columbus, Ohio back in 2013.

New Zealand's hosting of the 2023 Women's World Cup will be the culmination of a remarkable and inspiring series of women's sports. The country hosted the Women's Cricket World Cup in spring 2022 and Women's Rugby World Cup, which took place in October and November last year.

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