The women haven't EVER won the u17 world cup and haven't won the u20 world cup since 2012; that is not a new development. Hell, North Korea won u20 in 2016 and I don't expect that to make them a powerhouse!
Yes, other teams will close the gap and the USA won't have 50% of the World Cup titles like they currently do, but they won't regress to never winning.
They probably should have won and may have if Rose Lavelle would have started. The US was a different team when she came in and I’ll never understand why Andonovski started DeMelo, who played horribly, over Lavelle.
Horan getting into a squabble with her friend and club teammate, Danielle van de Donk, also fired up the US and her goal off of the Lavelle CK was beautiful.
Julie Ertz had a a really solid performance and probably was the MVP for the US. Sophia Smith & Trinity Rodman were both decent but missed too many chances. Smith, in particular, is already a really good player. Rodman is also solid but makes too many mistakes that are typical of young players. She’ll get there.
The Dutch are a good team. If their best player, Vivianne Miedema, wasn’t out with an ACL injury, the US may have lost.
The US plays Portugal next in what should not be as difficult of a match. Netherlands plays Vietnam and since the US is up on the Dutch in the group standings due to goal differential, the Netherlands will be trying to score a lot. The US can’t ease up on Portugal and hopefully Lavelle will start.
Lavelle didn’t start because they want her to be fully healthy for the knockout stage portion. No one denies that they are obviously better with her on the field. Pretty shocking that she was their only sub, though.
They looked the better team vs Netherlands which is more important than winning the group in my opinion. Have to finish chances better.
Morgan seems to be less than good so far. I think she had an assist in the first match, but has been offsides on a few critical plays and missed a PK totally. Certainly I'd have hoped for a couple quality plays from her in two matches.
Horan's goal after the pissing match was epically timed.
Had the USA won their group the next match would have come on during prime time in the USA. However, the USA underperformed and came in second in their group so that made their next match at an undesirable time for the USA. The Netherlands, which was predicted to finish second to the USA, ended up winning the group. They have the same problem as the USA in that their match is also not during prime time in the Netherlands.
Most of the games on are on in the middle of the night in the east coast. The ones I've been watching are the 6 am games regardless of country. It's not that I don't want to watch the women play soccer, or men, the Australian Open or even t&f; you can't expect good ratings when the event is held across the globe.
Still Oceania countries deserve to hold these games and I can understand how hard it is for them to watch almost all international events when it's inconvenient for them.
Had the USA won their group the next match would have come on during prime time in the USA. However, the USA underperformed and came in second in their group so that made their next match at an undesirable time for the USA. The Netherlands, which was predicted to finish second to the USA, ended up winning the group. They have the same problem as the USA in that their match is also not during prime time in the Netherlands.
Wow. Jamaica, Morocco, South Africa, Colombia, Nigeria advancing while Germany(!), Brazil, Canada sent packing.
and most of those teams had issues getting funding from their federations. Especially Jamaica who had to start a gofundme to even afford to travel to the World Cup. And yet despite all that they beat the top teams in the world to advance. So much for "theres no competition in the women's game" garbage you always hear from the detractors.