Summary:
- The U.S. women's national team suffered a historic departure from the World Cup after losing to Sweden on penalty kicks in the round of 16.
- Despite their early exit, the U.S. women's national team has had a significant impact on women's sports and equal pay initiatives globally.
- Criticism has been directed at the coaching and team performance, as they failed to live up to their potential in the tournament.
- The team's young players offer optimism for the future, but missed opportunities and penalty kick failures contributed to their defeat.
- Veteran players like Megan Rapinoe, Kelly O'Hara, and Alex Morgan leave behind a legacy of fighting for equal pay and advancing women's opportunities in soccer.
Going into the World Cup, few would have predicted what's happened to the U.S. women's team. Their earliest departure ever from the tournament after today's loss to Sweden on penalty kicks in the round of 16. Christine Brennan is a sports columnist for USA Today. Christine, you have had a little time now to sort of digest the game. What's your biggest takeaway from the game?
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Historic Departure
Certainly, it's historic, John, in the sense that the U.S. team, as we know, if they don't win these tournaments, they are in the final or, for sure, the semi-final. And this is the first time, of course, the U.S. will not be in the final four.
Impact Beyond Soccer
And not only that, they're knocked out in the round of 16. So that is really the shock, just the momentous nature of this team, which is much more than just a soccer team. I think the U.S. women's national team is the most famous team in any sport from any nation in terms of women's sports. And so they've done so much off the field in terms of working for equal pay and putting their hand out to others from other nations to encourage them to start playing soccer, especially some of those nations that did not want to have women playing soccer. So they've been really an amazing story over all these years, going all the way back to 91, the first women's World Cup.
World Caught Up
And to see them go out like this, shocking, obviously shows the world has caught up in some ways. Nonetheless, I'm going to guess that we won't see this happen again for a long time, the fact that they've gone out so soon, with almost two weeks left in the tournament.
Criticism and Coaching
There's been a lot of criticism about the coaching. There's criticism about the attitude of the players. Is this a team that failed to live up to its potential, or was this just not the squad that was going to win the third consecutive championship?
Underperformance
Don, I think they failed to live up to their potential. One would think, with all of the young women playing soccer in the United States, that we could put together kind of any collection of talent. And they should be able to score more than one goal over the last three games, and only three against Vietnam in the opening game.
Disjointed Team
And they should be able to figure it out and work together. I think I'm going to guess that the coach of La Coa and Nafsky will be fired. I have no reporting on that, but that just seems to be what we're hearing, and that seems to be the logical step. And it's stunning when you think of the feeder system in the United States and U.S. soccer. Where's the failure here? I think there should be top to bottom a look at what went wrong.
Youth of the Team
But the fact that for several games they looked so disjointed and like they did not know each other. A shocking, even though we must say that there were 14 new faces out of the 23 members of the team, 14 young women who had not ever been in a World Cup before. Although, again, with the U.S. system, that shouldn't matter. And so something clearly did not go as expected.
Optimism for the Future
You talk about the youth of this team. I think a number of the starters and those who got a lot of playing time were under 30, younger than 30. Should we be optimistic about that, about the team, because of that?
Missed Opportunities
I think so. And a couple of the players who are injured should be back. There is less than a year from now, John. Of course, the Olympic Games. And that's a very big tournament for women's soccer. And the U.S. should be able to come right back and have that chance. That's good that they can do that. But I think also just where were the finishers? You know, when we think of the great names in U.S. women's soccer, from Mia Hamm to Brandy Chastain and her penalty kick that was so instrumental back in 99 in the Rose Bowl, and Abby Wambach and Megan Rapinoe even four years ago, this team just didn't have the wherewithal to get the ball in the back of the net. They had 11 shots on goal.
Missed Penalty Kicks
And the Swedish goalkeeper was terrific. Absolutely great. But the Swedes only had one shot on goal. And U.S. actually outshot Sweden overall, 21 to seven. So there were so many opportunities. And you wonder where was that, that, you know, putting down the hammer and just making that final move. And even in the penalty kicks, of course, missing three of the last four penalty kicks. That is just unheard of. And so is that a mindset issue? Is that nerves? Is that too many expectations for this team and some of its young players like Sophia Smith, who missed one of the penalty kicks, although two veterans were the others, Megan Rapinoe and Kelly O'Hara, who also missed. You know, you've got to put that on goal. You've got to make the goalkeeper make the save there. So so many questions. And obviously, so few answers right now.
Legacy of Veteran Players
Christine, you mentioned Megan Rapinoe, who's already announced her retirement. Kelly O'Hara, other veteran players on this squad. Alex Morgan, they may have seen their last World Cup game. What legacy do they leave?
Fight for Equal Pay
I think at 50, maybe 25, 50 years from now, what we'll be talking about is equal pay, the way they fought to have equal pay with the men and they won. And that is a legacy that that travels far and wide around the globe in what is still a very misogynistic world of soccer and the thought that those nations that haven't cared at all about women's soccer, knowing the U.S. is paying them equally. Other nations have now had those battles because they've looked to the U.S.
Impact on Women's Opportunities
I think that's it. I mean, on the field of play, no doubt about it, four World Cups, four Olympic gold medals. They're still the gold standard, even though obviously today they are not. But in terms of history, but I think that off the field, we talked about it, Johnny Appleseed sowing the seeds for this sport around the world, fighting for girls and women all over the world, not just the United States, to have the opportunities that women have here because of Title IX.
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Christine Brennan of USA Today, thanks so much. John, thank you.