USWNT player ratings: Defensive spine shines in gut-punch penalty kick defeat

The USWNT finally played like themselves, but soccer can be cruel

Soccer has always been a cruel sport, and today it came calling for the U.S. women’s national team.

After three underwhelming performances in the group stage, the USWNT finally looked like themselves against Sweden, bossing one of the best teams in this World Cup.

Unfortunately, they found goalkeeper Zećira Mušović having one of the games of her life, and when she wasn’t making a big save, the errant finishing that has plagued this team appeared again, and the result was a penalty kick elimination after a scoreless 120 minutes.

It was a heartbreaker for the U.S., who missed a shot in the shootout that would have seen them advance, and then had to watch Sweden’s winning kick require a VAR check to reveal that the ball had crossed the line by a nearly imperceptible margin.

Still, when it comes to ratings, this was by some margin the best performance from the USWNT at this World Cup as a team, and for many players as individuals.

As a reminder, here’s the Pro Soccer Wire player rating scale:

Our scale:

  • 1: Abysmal. Literally any member of our staff would have been been able to play at this level.
  • 6: Adequate. This is our base score.
  • 10: Transcendent, era-defining performance. This is Carli Lloyd vs. Japan in the 2015 final.

USWNT lineup vs. Sweden: Rodman returns, Sonnett a surprise starter for round of 16 match

Sonnett’s inclusion signals a change in the USWNT’s formation

The U.S. women’s national team will take on Sweden in a round of 16 battle, the most familiar pairing in the history of the women’s World Cup.

However, the USWNT lineup on the night will be distinctly unfamiliar. Vlatko Andonovski made two changes to the team that finished up the group stage looking vulnerable in a 0-0 draw with Portugal. One was straightforward: Trinity Rodman returned to the lineup in place of Lynn Williams.

The other is less conventional. With Rose Lavelle suspended due to yellow card accumulation, it was expected that the USWNT would call on Savannah DeMelo or Ashley Sanchez in her place. Instead, Andonovski has turned to Emily Sonnett, a utility defender/midfielder.

While Andonovski’s unconventional choice left multiple options open due to Sonnett’s versatility, the final choice was the least surprising of the bunch. Sonnett lined up alongside Andi Sullivan in a defensive midfield role, with captain Lindsey Horan pushing further forward in a 4-2-3-1 formation.

A win for the U.S. would guarantee another immense challenge in the form of a quarterfinal against Japan, arguably the most impressive team in this World Cup thus far. That match would take place at Eden Park in Auckland, the site for two prior USWNT matches in the group stage. Kickoff would be set for 3:30 am ET.

A loss? Angst around the program would reach a fever pitch as the pre-tournament favorite would stumble out early, having won once in four games. We’d be in for months of analysis, criticism, “what could have been” scenarios, and almost certainly a new coach coming in. Suffice it to say, this one’s a big one.

Save for Lavelle, the rest of the U.S. squad is available off the bench.

USWNT lineup vs. Sweden

(4-2-3-1): Naeher; Fox, Ertz, Girma, Dunn; Sullivan, Sonnett; Rodman, Horan, Smith; Morgan

Sweden lineup (4-3-3): Zećira Mušović; Nathalie Björn, Amanda Ilestedt, Magdalena Eriksson, Jonna Andersson; Filippa Angeldal, Kosovare Asllani, Elin Rubensson; Johanna Rytting Kaneryd, Stina Blackstenius, Fridolina Rolfö

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USWNT player ratings: Lack of ideas as U.S. barely survives Portugal

Lots of not-great, and some quite bad!

The U.S. women’s national team, by a margin of about three inches, survived a feisty Portugal side to get through to the knockout round of the World Cup.

That’s about all the good news there is to discuss. The USWNT were totally unable to solve the Portuguese midfield diamond throughout a troubling 0-0 draw, struggling for possession and also lacking chances to break out in transition.

The stats may show the USWNT holding a 17-6 shot advantage, and this is another game in which a U.S. opponent were held without a shot on goal. However, anyone that watched the match would be able to tell you that the Portuguese troubled the U.S. from start to finish, seeing the game’s best chance end with Ana Capeta hitting the post deep in stoppage time.

It was a dispiriting and disappointing showing in which no player really looked like they’d been given a platform to be their best. If the USWNT is to go on and make history as the first team to win three consecutive World Cups, this has to be by far their worst performance of the tournament.

Here’s a breakdown from a game in which no one looked particularly good.

As a reminder, here’s the Pro Soccer Wire player rating scale:

Our scale:

  • 1: Abysmal. Literally any member of our staff would have been been able to play at this level.
  • 6: Adequate. This is our base score.
  • 10: Transcendent, era-defining performance. This is Carli Lloyd vs. Japan in the 2015 final.

USWNT injury updates: Andonovski speaks on 10 players including Macario and Mewis

The USWNT is missing a lot of key players, and the coach provided updates on almost all of them

The U.S. women’s national team is currently dealing with a lot of injuries.

Some are long term and others are more minor, but many of the USWNT’s most important players over the past several years are presently sidelined.

On Monday after announcing his roster for November friendlies against Germany, USWNT head coach Vlatko Andonovski offered updates on no less than 10 players who are currently out: eight who are injured and two coming back after giving birth.

Here is a list of the players Andonovski spoke about on a conference call.

USWNT pleased with Costa Rica win, focused on getting sharper in CONCACAF W Championship final

It was an easy USWNT win, but the team sees room for improvement

What could have been a potentially difficult night ended up being rather pedestrian for the U.S. women’s national team, who had little to worry about in a 3-0 win over Costa Rica that sent them to Thursday’s CONCACAF W Championship final.

Goals from Emily Sonnett and Mallory Pugh late in the first half, after some big misses and a shot off the post from Alex Morgan, allowed the USWNT to preserve some energy in the second half, with Ashley Sanchez firing home a third just before the final whistle to put an exclamation point on the victory.

Despite the ease of the win, though, post-game reactions were a bit reserved, as the team expressed a focus on wanting to cut down on mistakes.

“I feel like we made too many technical mistakes that are a byproduct of our mental preparation,” Vlatko Andonovski said bluntly on the CBS Sports Network’s broadcast of the game.

In the press conference following the match, Andonovski expanded on that assertion. “I thought that we made too many technical errors. Too many for the players that were on the field, because we know that they’re technical,” said the USWNT head coach. “We know they can settle the ball and pass and execute different technical demands, even under a lot more pressure in pressing moments. But today, for some reason, we made like I said, a little too many (mistakes), and that’s something that we’re gonna look into, to see what it is.”

That’s not to say that the USWNT’s performance was poor, with a relentless counter-press effectively rendering the first half an offense vs. defense exercise. Getting into halftime with a two-goal advantage gave them a vital advantage going into the final: a less demanding second half.

“We went with the game plan from the defensive standpoint that I thought that we executed well when it comes down to reading the moments, and when we want to press and when we want to drop off a little bit and allow them to connect (a) few passes,” said Andonovski. “So as we’re playing this game, where the result goes in our way, we actually started changing a little bit on how we defend, and allowed them just slightly more touches on the ball, which was for us moreso ‘let’s not waste any any extra energy that we have to to win the ball back.'”

Facing an unfamiliar Costa Rica, who came out having rotated key starters in Raquel Rodríguez and Melissa Herrera and playing a 5-4-1 formation, Andonovski detailed aspects of his game plan that helped the U.S. make the game easier on themselves.

“We knew that we’re going to have to, per se, ‘borrow’ a player from the back to overload their backline, and we knew that it’s not going to be easy to execute, because we haven’t had an opportunity to work on that,” said Andonovski, alluding to a back four that saw Sofia Huerta often joining the attack while Sonnett stayed home. “We offset the build up a little bit, with the fullbacks, and build a little different way. But overall, I still think it worked well, because especially early on, we were able to create opportunities, we were able to score goals.”

Andonovski credited that back four—who helped keep Casey Murphy from facing any shots on goal, and only one shot at all—for remaining focused throughout, even as their job largely became about possession and tempo-setting with the ball.

“(Costa Rica) were playing so low and because they were bringing numbers a lot centrally, it was hard for them to transition out,” explained Andonovski. “It looked a little bit easy for our backline, but sometimes this is even a little bit harder, because they were only called out to defend in two or three instances. So they have to maintain 100% focus throughout the whole game, and I think that they executed defensively everything well.”

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