The U.S. Women’s National Team awoke from its curious and criticized malaise Sunday to deliver its finest performance of this World Cup … just in time to say, “Goodbye.’’
The perennial top-ranked team on the planet and two-time defending champion, which was attempting to win a record third cup in a row and an unprecedented fifth overall, was eliminated by Sweden in a pulsating match that needed 120 minutes of play in the sphere and a record seven rounds of penalty kicks before Sweden prevailed, 5-4.
Sweden, ranked No. 3 on the planet, advanced to face Japan within the quarterfinal Friday.
For the U.S. women, it was their earliest exit within the 32-year history of the World Cup, having advanced to at the least every semifinals before this distinctly devastating disappointment.
Now, the USWNT is left with many questions on itself and the direction it takes from here.
There’s a transparent transition of personnel at play, with a younger generation now the main focus and a few older stars like Megan Rapinoe (38 and retiring), Alex Morgan (34), Kelley O’Hara (35), Julie Ertz and Crystal Dunn (each 31) and goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher (35) possibly having played their final World Cup wearing the Stars and Stripes.
The argument (excuse?) that emerged throughout the USWNT’s uncharacteristic plow through group play (an uninspiring one win and two draws) that it’s raised the bar in the game and far of the world has caught up is a good one.
Nevertheless it’s not the one reason why the USWNT is out of this World Cup.
The team, looking sloppy and disinterested, grew stale in its success, looking prefer it had taken its perennial dominance with no consideration and will just roll the ball out onto the pitch and win on popularity.
That will have been true and possible in previous years, but teams like Sweden are not any longer intimidated by the USWNT — evidence of that playing out in living color Sunday when the American women had the higher of play with 11 shots on goal to just one for Sweden.
Much the way in which Tiger Woods once set the usual of dominance in golf, stepping to the primary tee at tournaments with an imaginary three-shot lead because his competitors were intimidated by him, the competition caught up while Woods’ play regressed (largely as a consequence of physical ailments).
Did the U.S. women need to win Sunday? You might make an argument for that.
But they probably deserved to lose to Portugal in the ultimate game of the group stage, saved by a shot off the post within the 92nd minute to scrape through to the knockout stage.
You heard USWNT coach Vlatko Andonovski and several other of his players Sunday discuss how “cruel’’ soccer will be. Sure, it’s. All sports will be cruel. How do you’re thinking that Portugal felt when that shot within the 91st minute hit the crossbar and prevented it from advancing to the knockout stage?
“We just lost the World Cup by a millimeter,’’ said Naeher, who appeared to have saved what turned out to be the winning kick by Sweden’s Lina Hurtig, but replay showed that the ball bounded off Naeher’s hand and went over the road by a fractional margin. “That’s tough. We knew we hadn’t given our greatest within the group stage and we wanted an entire team performance.’’
They got that — apart from a very powerful a part of all, scoring goals.
The USWNT scored only 4 goals in 4 matches on this tournament, shut out in the ultimate two matches and ending on a 238-minute goal-less drought.
That’s not adequate. Morgan, once a sniper for the U.S. and the face of this system, was held scoreless and afterward called the loss “devastating.’’
“It seems like a foul dream,’’ she went on. “The team put every part on the market. I feel like we dominated, but it surely doesn’t matter. We’re going home. It’s a tricky one to swallow.’’
What was hardest to swallow was, after the U.S. converted on its first three PKs and had the upper hand when Sweden’s Nathalie Bjorn missed her try high, Rapinoe, one of the crucial decorated players in USWNT history, blew her shot over the crossbar.
Then, after Naeher made a save on Rebecka Blomqvist, 22-year-old Sophia Smith missed the web completely, wide right.
And later, with victory resting on her right foot, O’Hara, playing in her fourth World Cup for the U.S., chipped her shot off the appropriate post, setting Hurtig up for the winner.
“We had lots of great possibilities,’’ Naeher said. “Hats off to the Swedish goalkeeper (Zecira Musovic, who made 11 saves). She made some great saves. To come back up short hurts. It’s going to harm for a very long time.’’
