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.