Soccer

US Women’s World Cup exit review: Andonovski, injuries, more

MELBOURNE, Australia — The reign of the U.S. ladies’s nationwide crew as Women’s World Cup champions is formally over, as a millimeter was all that separated a Lina Hurtig penalty shootout tally for Sweden from an Alyssa Naeher save. You have to return 12 years, when Japan defeated the U.S. within the 2011 Women’s World Cup ultimate, to search out the final time the U.S. was eradicated from a World Cup. This time, it marked the earliest exit from a World Cup in this system’s historical past.

In some methods, the top of the U.S. crew’s two-tournament run as World Cup winners was a shock, coming because it did on the night time when the Americans delivered by far their greatest efficiency of the match. But in different methods, the defeat was a very long time coming, with cracks within the U.S. crew’s dominance evident even earlier than the Women’s World Cup.

Here are the components that contributed to the USWNT’s demise.


The USWNT had too many accidents

The U.S. wasn’t the one nation to come across accidents — England was with out 4 key gamers, and France had a number of out — so the U.S. cannot cite accidents alone for its exit. But the USWNT would have had a stronger crew if its gamers had been more healthy.

Mal Swanson, Catarina Macario, Becky Sauerbrunn and Samantha Mewis all have been missed as possible starters. Before Swanson’s damage, she had accounted for a lot of the USWNT’s objectives on her personal. Had she been on the World Cup, she may’ve made a distinction for this crew, which collectively struggled to place balls at the back of the web. — Carlisle

Andonovski picked the flawed roster and lineups

The accidents and roster points are intertwined to a level. While the protection carried out effectively regardless of Sauerbrunn’s absence, the ripple impact meant that Julie Ertz wasn’t accessible in midfield. From there, Vlatko Andonovski had restricted choices, although a few of his selections have been perplexing, even with out the damage influence.

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The entrance line appeared crammed with redundant components, as Sophia Smith, Trinity Rodman and Lynn Williams possessed a number of the identical traits, particularly a want to run at defenses. Megan Rapinoe’s presence as a pure crosser of the ball made sense, however there have been no different choices when it turned clear she was out of shape.

Probably the most important lineup-decision drawback was the development of the midfield. Once Ertz moved to the again line, Andonovski determined to play Andi Sullivan as a lone holding midfielder regardless of having doubts about Sullivan’s suitability for the position, and having experimented with a double pivot earlier within the yr. The U.S. midfield struggled mightily in opposition to the Netherlands and Portugal, and the efficiency in opposition to Sweden was the perfect of the match largely due to the double pivot.

It more or much less confirmed that this setup ought to have been used earlier within the match, and that Andonovski ought to have referred to as within the personnel to do it reliably. — Carlisle

Poor in-game administration from Andonovski

The USWNT may’ve given itself a neater path than Sweden within the spherical of 16. All the Americans wanted to do was beat the Netherlands, however Andonovski’s subs (or lack thereof) appeared to assist make sure the draw.

After Lindsey Horan’s second-half equalizer, the USWNT had momentum and the Netherlands gamers have been shedding steam. A sub may’ve sealed it. But Andonovski opted to herald none, a choice that was extensively criticized.

Against Sweden within the spherical of 16, a good recreation that went into further time, the one sub he introduced on to make an influence was Rapinoe, whose contact was off all night time. As the Swedes struggled to maintain chasing the very direct Americans, Andonovski opted to not go to his bench, which may have taken benefit of all of the working Sweden needed to do and the bodily toll that took. — Murray

The youth pipeline is not producing the appropriate gamers

Anyone who has adopted the youth nationwide groups knew at the present time would come. The USWNT’s under-20 crew didn’t get out of the group stage at each the 2022 and 2018 U-20 Women’s World Cups. The U-17 USWNT did get out of the group in 2022, solely to be eradicated in its first knockout recreation, and beforehand crashed out of its teams in 2018 and 2014.

If the U.S. is not producing the perfect younger gamers, it will not produce the perfect senior gamers. The younger gamers who made this World Cup roster — the likes of Smith and Rodman — are potent, however one-dimensional, forwards. Injured ahead Macario, who brings aptitude and creativity, developed her recreation in Brazil earlier than shifting to the United States.

You additionally need to query the position of scouting in relation to which gamers break by means of. Injured ahead Swanson, a participant identified for her tempo and athleticism, first caught the eye of the youth nationwide crew at 13. Rose Lavelle — arguably probably the most inventive participant the USWNT has apart from the injured Macario — did not earn her first youth call-up till she was virtually 18.

For U.S. Soccer to have the perfect, most technically gifted and inventive gamers accessible on the senior degree, it wants to search out these gamers on the youth degree and convey them during to the senior facet. — Murray

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Alex Morgan ‘not planning’ retirement after World Cup exit

Alex Morgan says she has no fast plans to retire after the USWNT was eradicated from the World Cup by Sweden.

USWNT lacked chemistry and could not end

Before the 2019 Women’s World Cup started, a few of the gamers took to calling their teammates their “22 best friends.” During the match, the gamers stated they spent tons of time collectively, and nonetheless selected to hang around even once they did not need to. They went to cat cafés and made probably the most of their downtime.

This USWNT in 2023 was all enterprise — maybe to a fault. Lindsey Horan and Lynn Williams stated earlier than their round-of-16 match that the gamers agreed they wished to play with more pleasure, however it’s onerous to pressure that. In New Zealand, the American gamers did not appear to do a lot enjoyable or bonding. When requested how they spent their downtime, they stated restoration and meals have been their principal actions when not coaching.

On the sector, they appeared tight and as if they have been attempting to pressure one thing to occur. Despite an anticipated objectives (xG) by means of 4 video games of round 9 objectives, they managed 4. They created probabilities, however the person probabilities have been largely not adequate, and once they have been adequate, the gamers could not end.

It’s onerous to say how or why a crew will get the yips in entrance of aim, however this model of the USWNT actually lacked the sauciness and the fun-loving aptitude of previous groups. The gamers desperately wished to attain and to place in good performances, however that method may need been their undoing. — Murray

The USWNT was too overconfident

There’s no motive to consider the USWNT gamers confirmed up anticipating to cruise by means of the start levels of the World Cup — but when they’d, may you blame them?

Fresh off successful back-to-back World Cups in opposition to a backdrop of world dominance because the USWNT launched in 1985, the considered the crew struggling by means of the group stage appeared virtually inconceivable. The optics of gamers doing podcasts and sponsored content material through the match, or carrying designer fits to their matches, most likely did not assist the notion that they anticipated a leisurely begin to the match.

While this might have been an element — did gamers put together the best way they wanted to? Did they’ve the appropriate mentality in video games? — we’ll by no means know. The gamers labored and ran relentlessly throughout video games, attempting their hardest to attain and both getting unfortunate or missing high quality.

The objectives by no means got here, nor did the possession play, passing or the opposite parts wanted to win a World Cup, however it actually wasn’t for an absence of effort. — Murray

The crew was caught between two generations

The inflow of youth into the nationwide crew was an element, however it needed to be executed. The crew’s poor performances on the Tokyo Olympics demanded change, with accidents accelerating this development. But that is additionally one thing that occurs inside each cycle and should not trigger a crew to implode — actually not a crew with such potential and historical past because the U.S. ladies.

After the 2015 Women’s World Cup triumph, we witnessed the retirements of Lauren Holiday, Christie Rampone and Abby Wambach, whereas Carli Lloyd took on a diminished position. Granted, Rampone and Wambach have been now not full-time starters, however it factors to the truth that ushering gamers out is a continuing for a nationwide crew program.

An argument will be made that Andonovski ought to have executed this sooner, however the impulse to provide the 2019 World Cup winners the prospect to repeat their feat on the Olympics was highly effective. — Carlisle

The world hole has closed

This is an element that has been impacting U.S. performances for some time. The remainder of the world is catching up when it comes to the caliber of participant, in addition to their health. The query posed by Netherlands supervisor Andries Jonker about “What is left of [the USWNT’s] superiority” past health proved prophetic — the reply was “not much.”

Up and down the competitors, we noticed established sides battle in opposition to up-and-coming opponents. One want look no additional than Portugal for an instance of a rustic whose golf equipment have invested more of their ladies’s groups after which seen a corresponding improve in efficiency at worldwide degree. In a 0-0 draw to shut the group stage, Portugal was the higher crew on the ball.

Then think about the group-stage exits of girls’s soccer powerhouses Germany, Brazil and Canada as a result of these groups all didn’t beat lower-ranked groups. Whatever you are feeling in regards to the U.S., it is indeniable that the hole has effectively and really closed. — Carlisle


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