The USWNT Is Hit With a Cruel Ending to a Complicated Women’s World Cup Performance

The U.S. finally put together a complete performance against Sweden in the round of 16. But in the end, it still was not enough.

On one extraordinary evening in Melbourne, the United States women’s national team narrowed its gap with Sweden from a mile to a millimeter. Alyssa Naeher looked like she quite literally did not believe it. The U.S. goalie had been terrific all night and phenomenal at the end, when she made 2.99 saves in the penalty shootout but needed to make three.

The last kick of this USWNT Women’s World Cup went off the right foot of Sweden’s Lina Hurtig, off the hands of a diving Naeher, and up into the air, where it hovered above the goal line and then came down. Naeher batted it away. A review showed the ball had crossed the line by a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a hair.

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Sweden moves on. The U.S. has been eliminated in the round of 16, a result that was shocking in the context of history, not shocking after the Americans’ poor group-stage performance, and borderline unjust after the way the U.S. played all night. The Americans were the superior team from the opening minute to the end of extra time. They played far better than they had played all tournament. They just could not get a shot past Swedish goalie Zecira Musovic. On this night, the Navy Seals could not have gotten past Musovic.

After 120 minutes of thrilling but scoreless soccer, the U.S. was forced into a shootout. The U.S. sent all seven of its shots past Musovic, but three of them missed the goal as well. Megan Rapinoe sailed hers over the crossbar. Sophia Smith, with a chance to win the game, missed right. Finally, with Musovic guessing wrong, Kelley O’Hara hit the right post.

The U.S.’s performance will now get thrown into the hot-take oven, which is a shame because it begs for nuanced analysis.

Yes, the Americans lost earlier than ever before, but they would also be advancing if they had faced almost any other goalie.

“She’s probably one of the main reasons, if not the only reason,” Andonovski said. “She was incredible tonight. She made some saves that not many goalkeepers in the world can make. I cannot think of any other reason why we are out of the tournament.”

Yes, the right post cost the U.S. in this game, but it also saved them in the group stage, when Portugal was a few inches away from eliminating the Americans. Yes, you can fairly question Andonovski’s decisions throughout the tournament, but in the end, he was not why they lost. Yes, Alex Morgan was ineffective throughout the tournament, but the service that she was accustomed to receiving simply wasn’t there.

Yes, Megan Rapinoe looked slow and out of sorts in the final two games of her career, and Andonovski probably should not have played her, but she only really cost them in the penalty shootout, and who could have seen that coming?

“If I had my life on the line right now, and I had to pick who was going to take the penalty, Megan Rapinoe is going to be my first choice,” Andonovski said.

Yes, the U.S. dominated the game. But like it or not, penalty shootouts are part of the game, too. Adding Morgan’s feeble penalty kick against Vietnam to the seven in Sunday’s shootout, and the U.S. did not give itself a chance on half of its eight penalty kicks in the World Cup.

Now the U.S. leaves the World Cup knowing it lost a fantastic match it should not have had to play yet. The Americans’ discombobulated group-stage performance—which was somewhat understandable—forced them into a round-of-16 match against the team it least wanted to play. Sweden entered the match carrying the world’s No. 3 ranking and no reason to fear the U.S. Sweden knocked the Americans out of the 2016 Rio Olympics and beat the Americans again in the group stage of the 2020-ish Tokyo Olympics.

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If the U.S. had beaten the Netherlands in the group stage, the Swedes would have been a problem for another day—if the U.S. played them at all. The Dutch, by virtue of their first-place finish in Group E, played a weaker South Africa team in the round of 16. The Netherlands won 2–0; the second goal was a gift from South Africa goalie Kaylin Swart.

The Dutch get Spain next. Eventually, of course, a great team must beat another great team to win the World Cup (and Spain could eliminate the Netherlands), but there is always a benefit to putting those matches off until later, and that would have been especially true for this U.S. team.

The Americans really could have used another game or two to jell. Instead, they got Sweden and Musovic. And in the end, they had Alyssa Naeher, capturing the emotions for all of them: Believing she had done enough to succeed, only to find she had not. The USWNT was not good enough. The USWNT was more than good enough. You can tell the story how you want, but either way: It’s over.