The USWNT mystique is gone – at some point they either perform or they don’t
For those who didn’t follow the 2011 World Cup qualifying cycle – in which the US lost to Mexico in the CONCACAF semifinals before Alex Morgan ultimately routed the US in a play-off series against Italy – the games against Mexico may have felt like a rivalry in name only.
The U.S. women’s national team had not lost to Mexico since that point in 2010, nor had it lost at home to a CONCACAF opponent since 2000.
Monday night threw that story out the window.
The USWNT were defeated in a 2-0 loss in front of a raucous crowd in Carson, California, and while it couldn’t match the low point of that 0-0 draw against Portugal in the World Cup group stage last summer, the team made its final group match of this Gold Cup was (hopefully) a useful reminder that the team hasn’t yet found their new, cohesive identity.
What should worry fans most is that Monday’s performance mirrored the lethargic USWNT we’ve seen before.
But how much should we read into the 270 minutes played this year? How does a loss change what needs to happen leading up to the Olympics? And why is cohesion still such a big problem?
Mexico provided a necessary test – and a reminder
Mexico deserves all the praise and nothing but praise for Monday night’s executions in all the places that matter. But similarly, the USWNT failed in many of these areas.
That failure can be useful if used correctly (see: losses to France in friendlies in early 2015 and 2019, both of which were followed by World Cup titles). However, that has been the message for this American team for a while now. At some point the players and coaching staff step up, or they don’t.
What did the American hierarchy want to get out of these games? If there was ever a time to let the team’s young players solve problems in a difficult situation, it was Monday night, with a 1-0 defeat to Mexico after the first half and with plenty of unproven talent on the pitch. Let them be tested. Even let them fail! Instead, 34-year-old Morgan came into the field after the break with 217 players. That doesn’t say anything about this team right now for interim head coach Twila Kilgore or the incoming Emma Hayes.
Morgan played against Mexico (Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
The USWNT mystique is gone and the rise in the rest of the world is only part of the story. The players used their collective reputation and mentality as sword and shield. It told them something about themselves, and something about every other team they faced. Without it, they have lost a weapon and something more symbolic.
Leaning on an old-fashioned underdog mentality could be the answer, as ridiculous as it may sound, as the US is still ranked second in the world according to global governing body FIFA. Much has been written about the USWNT’s lack of joy since those very strange Tokyo Olympics, but less attention has been paid to a potential downside: turning the anger for good as it replaces the joy.
With a generational change underway, younger players hungry for recognition and results must leverage every emotional edge they can find.
But first they have to get on the field.
Why is cohesion still such a big problem?
It’s worth remembering that this Gold Cup is the first camp of the year for the USWNT, and it’s still preseason for the large portion of this roster playing domestically in the NWSL. That doesn’t necessarily excuse the cohesion issues that plagued the USWNT on Monday, but it’s certainly useful context, along with the massive personnel turnover during the group stage.
Center back Naomi Girma feels key to solving this problem, immediately and in the long term. While it is understandable that she wants to control her load, Girma has already risen to the level of player you need on the field at all times. She has now also been to a World Cup and was the USWNT’s best player in New Zealand and Australia by a very comfortable margin.
Girma versus Argentina (Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
“Something that was missing tonight was a bit of courage from the centre-backs and a willingness to play forward,” Kilgore said after the match. “No matter how many numbers we have in front of the back line, the expectation is that we want to play forward passes, we want to keep the ball moving and of course that sometimes requires balance and that comes back, but we do want to play forward.”
When the team’s identity is based on playing from the back, it feels like putting your best defender – a 23-year-old that the team will build around for the next decade – on the pitch for the toughest group stage match that could ever have been . was a more effective use of Girma than pairing her with Tierna Davidson against Argentina.
USWNT defender Kelley O’Hara said Monday that the team has at times been “stuck” within certain formations and tactics in recent years, and that the performance against Mexico had the same feel as some of the team’s more frustrating recent performances. On a night like Monday, it feels like the USWNT are clinging to an identity they need to lose, and some beautiful game principles that are great in theory and sometimes have to go out the window when a game calls for it.
It is impossible to know from the outside whether the coaching situation plays a role here. All that’s coming from the team (at least publicly) is that communication from Hayes and Kilgore has been excellent and everyone understands the plan until Hayes joins from Chelsea in May. .
Hayes not being there until then isn’t ideal on a number of fronts, but it’s just a fact of what the USWNT has to deal with. The federation made this deal, and now the team is dealing with the fallout of playing under an interim head coach stationed a continent away a few months before a major tournament. It’s not ideal and it’s not something that can be changed.
How much can we read about starting teams and playing time?
The answer for me is still: “Not much at all.” But just so you can see the three games side by side, here are the lineups…
Rotation was promised by Kilgore, and she delivered. In the media after Monday’s match, she responded a little to the question of whether that rotation had had a counterproductive effect.
“The whole group is ready to play,” she replied. “The whole group was ready to play tonight. We could have chosen several options, and this was the group we chose. I have every confidence that the group is capable of execution.”
Kilgore said it was important that all players had opportunities in this tournament, but also important that the team executed on them.
“It’s not just about partnerships, it’s about systems, roles and responsibilities,” she said.
From my vantage point outside the privileged bubble of the USWNT coaching staff, the Gold Cup still feels like the right place for experimentation, evaluation and rotation. But if you’re going to do it, you have to actually commit.
(Top photo: Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)