For the USWNT, just about everything that could have gone wrong against Portugal, did. They were lucky to advance to the knockouts. But bone-deep problems persist, writes itsmeglinehan. Could Tuesday's dismal performance be the jolt they need?
Captain Lindsey Horan’s every move was designed to avoid a second yellow card that would result in a suspension for the round of 16, but despite the painful caution, it was Rose Lavelle who picked up her second yellow of the tournament in the 39th minute.“’I’m just disappointed in myself that I picked up that yellow,” she said. “Disappointed I can’t help the team out on the field next game.
That same World Cup, they also finished second in their group, behind Sweden. There are still a handful of current players who remember that. Alex Morgan is one of them. The team has that level of confidence in themselves, and they must. They also must balance immediately putting this match behind them emotionally, while learning from it at the same time. “I just have blind confidence in everything around us, and in myself and in the group,” Megan Rapinoe said. “So it has to. It just has to.”
These are all symptoms, not the illness. The problem’s much deeper, reaching through the youth national teams and into the core of the program itself. We saw some of the warning signs in the last Olympics, where they lost to Canada in the semifinals, but with the strange nature of that tournament and the bounce back for bronze, followed by the project of the roster transition beginning in earnest, it was easier to overlook.
It’s only going to get harder, at every level moving forward — not just in whatever match-up they face on August 6 in Melbourne. Andonovski reminded everyone on Monday that rankings mean absolutely nothing at the World Cup, but it’s more than that, and it’s more than the rest of the world catching up to the USWNT, or their lack of fear playing against the U.S. It was a lot more than stray passes or a lack of chemistry or unsophisticated tactics.