USA loss to Sweden in penalty shootout ends USWNT World Cup dynasty
MELBOURNE, Australia — The top of the U.S. ladies’s nationwide group dynasty was as embarrassing because it was fast.
The 2-time defending champions got here to this World Cup with an opportunity to make historical past as the primary group, males’s or ladies’s, to win three consecutive titles. As an alternative, they made historical past of an entirely completely different type with their earliest exit ever at a World Cup or an Olympics.
They had been humbled by Sweden as soon as once more, dropping 0-0 (5-4) after a penalty shootout Sunday morning within the spherical of 16. That makes three main tournaments out of 4 – for these counting – that Sweden, the world’s No. 3 group, has gotten the higher of the four-time world champions.
U.S. goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher appeared to deflect a penalty kick from Lina Hurtig, however video assistant referee confirmed the ball rolled again throughout the aim line by millimeters, giving Sweden the win on penalties after a scoreless draw within the spherical of 16.
Although, on this case, Sweden was extra opportunistic than good.
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The USWNT performed the most effective it has all match – by far – dictating the tempo and tempo of the sport and forcing Sweden goalkeeper Zećira Mušović to make a number of clutch saves. However simply as they could not towards Vietnam and the Netherlands and Portugal, the USWNT could not end its many, many probabilities.
That included Lindsey Horan’s header off a nook that banged off the crossbar within the thirty third and her rocket of a volley that Mušović in some way obtained a hand on within the 53rd. And missed penalty kicks from Megan Rapinoe, Sophia Smith- and Kelley O’Hara that will have put the U.S. via to the quarterfinals.
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Even with a number of vital accidents and an inexperienced roster, it is a disappointment of epic proportions. Suppose Tom Brady and the New England Patriots’ dropping their excellent season within the 2007 Tremendous Bowl. Or UConn’s 111-game successful streak ending within the 2017 Last 4.
The USWNT has been the world’s No. 1 group for the higher a part of the last decade. They’ve 4 World Cup titles – solely Brazil’s males have received extra – and 4 Olympic gold medals. Aside from a quarterfinal loss on the 2016 Olympics, they’ve reached the semifinals at each World Cup and Olympic match.
And now they’re heading residence earlier than the quarterfinals.
It’s an unfair finish to the ultimate World Cup of Megan Rapinoe, the Golden Ball and Golden Boot winner 4 years in the past. And it’ll – or ought to – carry an finish to Vlatko Andonovski’s time because the USWNT coach. He’s well liked by his gamers and had the tough job of making an attempt to combine the subsequent era amidst the accidents.
However the USWNT fell wanting the gold-medal recreation on the Tokyo Olympics and had been a shot off the publish away from not getting out of the group stage right here. In each tournaments, the group regarded overmatched and out of sync, a group of particular person gamers looking for one thing that labored moderately than a cohesive group with a plan.
That’s lower than the USWNT’s requirements. Not wherever shut.
Gorgeous as this collapse was, nonetheless, you can see it coming. Like when the USWNT couldn’t convert its many, many probabilities towards the Netherlands and settled for a draw when a win would have despatched them via to the knockout rounds. Or when Andonovski inexplicably made only one sub, not bringing on contemporary legs when the USWNT was pushing for that aim.
Or when Mallory Swanson (knee) and Becky Sauerbrunn (foot) obtained damage, costing the USWNT each their main scorer and their middle of gravity. Or when the USWNT misplaced three in a row final fall, their longest dropping streak since 1993. Or when Catarina Macario, the wizard who was making a case as Europe’s greatest participant, shredded her knee within the spring of 2022.
And even going all the way in which again to the Tokyo Olympics, when the USWNT regarded outdated and gradual, and Andonovski regarded overmatched.
The USWNT stays one of many world’s greatest groups. Had this match occurred every week or two later, when Rose Lavelle was totally wholesome, the People would nonetheless be enjoying. And possibly enjoying for the title.
Had Swanson, Macario and Sam Mewis been out there, the USWNT would have been steamrolling its technique to one other title.
However what was left of the air of invincibility that got here with a decade of just about uninterrupted dominance is gone.
The world has been gaining on the USWNT during the last decade, slowly at first after which at warp velocity, and the awe and worry the group used to strike is now not there. The People didn’t simply make an early exit, they obtained bossed round within the ultimate group recreation by a Portugal group making its World Cup debut, and owned – once more – by Sweden.
There can be extra success within the USWNT’s future, however the dynasty is over.