Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

US is out of Women's World Cup after losing dramatic penalty shootout
CNN ^ | August 6, 2023 | By Ben Church

Posted on 08/06/2023 4:59:09 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer

The United States has crashed out of the Women's World Cup after losing a dramatic penalty shootout against Sweden.

The Americans created most of the chances during the match – but were foiled at key moments by Swedish goalkeeper Zećira Mušović, who made crucial stops against Lindsey Horan and Alex Morgan.

The Swedes will play Japan in the Women’s World Cup quarterfinals on Friday.

(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Music/Entertainment; Sports
KEYWORDS: losers; rappyho; soccer; sports; whatisawoman; worldcup
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100 ... 141 next last
To: Right_Wing_Madman

Too bad...so sad. /s

No one likes this team.


61 posted on 08/06/2023 6:07:41 AM PDT by joma89 (Buy weapons and ammo, folks, and have the will to use them.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

No Wheaties box for you!


62 posted on 08/06/2023 6:10:32 AM PDT by WeaslesRippedMyFlesh (Wake me up when somebody tells the truth.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Deplorable American1776

The best Swede player ever is Zlatan Ibrahimovic…


63 posted on 08/06/2023 6:11:18 AM PDT by EEGator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 52 | View Replies]

To: CatOwner

Nope, pronouns” were and was, has been”


64 posted on 08/06/2023 6:12:42 AM PDT by carcraft (Pray for our Counttry)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

how much less does each player get....yay...wish it was more


65 posted on 08/06/2023 6:12:54 AM PDT by Sacajaweau ( )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

in before the greatest goalis of all time...

SCOTT STERLING!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F9jXYOH2c0


66 posted on 08/06/2023 6:14:17 AM PDT by teeman8r (Armageddon won't be pretty, but it's not like it's the end of the world or something )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: teeman8r

perhaps they should take up volley ball...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY2nVQNlUB8


67 posted on 08/06/2023 6:22:08 AM PDT by teeman8r (Armageddon won't be pretty, but it's not like it's the end of the world or something )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 66 | View Replies]

To: doggieboy

ditto


68 posted on 08/06/2023 6:22:47 AM PDT by devane617 (Discipline Is Reliable, Motivation Is Fleeting..)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

Good news to start off the day.


69 posted on 08/06/2023 6:23:35 AM PDT by nwrep
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

Psssst...don’t forget your participation trophies...


70 posted on 08/06/2023 6:25:36 AM PDT by Mashood
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

Good!!! My day was just made!!!


71 posted on 08/06/2023 6:25:59 AM PDT by God luvs America (63.5 million pay no income tax and vote for DemoKrats...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of guys....

I wonder how much of MY tax dollars were spent subsidizing this team of traitorous wenches...


72 posted on 08/06/2023 6:29:37 AM PDT by meyer (FBI = KGB for the DNC; IRS = Gestapo)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

Lol .
These American hating Bull Skyes lost badly to a Dallas 7-8th grade boys soccer team . These overpaid haters are a joke.


73 posted on 08/06/2023 6:33:08 AM PDT by ncalburt ( Gop DC Globalists are the evil)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: doggieboy

I didn’t feel guilty at all. Why would I root for a bunch of women who hate their country?


74 posted on 08/06/2023 6:33:34 AM PDT by bigdaddy45
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer
Tough way to lose.

Credit where credit is due. Sweden is an excellent team. The U.S. had not played well in group stage but they were sharp in this game, with a decided edge in the field. Ordinarily the U.S. would have won this game -- I'll say 2-0, and that's cutting Sweden some slack. The big key was the Swedish goalkeeper, who had a Hall of Fame level game. That happens.

I was reminded of Hope Solo in the Olympic gold medal game against Japan in 2012. Japan had a great team and had just won the 2011 Women's World Cup (in a game the U.S. should have won). The U.S. and Japan were the top two teams in the world. They got a rematch in the 2012 Olympic final. In a reverse of the World Cup storyline, Japan clearly outplayed the U.S., but Solo (who was one of the all-time greats, her alcohol problems off the field notwithstanding) made a series of incredible saves and single-handedly kept the U.S. in the game. It happens. This time it happened for Sweden.

So credit where credit is due.

A point to note, because it shows the Achilles heel of this U.S. team. We now exit the World Cup after four games, and the forwards did not score a goal. Nor did they score on a PK. When they lined up to take the penalties, midfielders took the first three shots for the U.S., and they drilled them. In a surprise, Alyssa Naeher, the U.S. goalkeeper -- who had already made a PK save that should have won the game -- took and drilled a PK herself. The forwards? Megan Rapinoe and Sophia Smith both missed the frame, going high each time. Alex Morgan had already been subbed out for Megan Rapinoe, which was a coaching mistake. Lynn Williams did not take a PK. The final U.S. miss was by Kelly O'Hara, who is dangerous but is still a defender; she hit the side post.

The U.S. forwards did not score at all in this World Cup. This, folks, is a clue.

What is wrong with the U.S. forwards? Glad you asked. The U.S. had won back to back World Cups. Intelligent soccer commentators knew what that meant, but the general press once again used this tournament to demonstrate its invincible ignorance and stupidity. The MSM was full of idiot chatter about how the U.S. was a prohibitive favorite and was seriously underperforming. The reality is that back to back World Cups championships -- as with Germany in 2003 and 2007 -- means that a team has had a golden generation, and the problem with golden generations is that they all age out together. The hardest thing to do in any team sport is to rebuild while staying on top, because there is heavy pressure to stand too long on a pat hand. It's hard to cut players who have been winning championships for the last ten years.

So the problem with the U.S. forwards is straightforward, and it's squarely on the coach. Vladko didn't go deep enough in cleaning house. Several of his roster picks were simply bad calls. After her dismal showing as a sub against Sweden, Megan Rapinoe is the easiest example. Put her politics aside. She's 38 years old. She's been battling injuries the last couple of years. She hadn't played much this season in the NWSL, and she has been missing from the national team roster in most of the 2022-23 friendlies. IMHO, she should not have been on the roster. She was clearly brought back based on past performance, and she came back off the injury list. She was picked on the basis of past performances, and that was clearly a big mistake. She could have won the game against Sweden, but she missed her PK. That's on the coach.

Injuries are the extenuating factor for the U.S. forwards. The team was clearly rebuilding after the 2019 World Cup win (which it entered, per the U.S. custom, as the oldest team in the field), followed by a thoroughly disappointing performance in the 2020 Olympics (when age got exposed). COVID set back the timetable, but the last two years have seen wholesale experimentation. Everyone knew that the strength of the team was now in midfield and that the forwards were a problem. Catarina Macario, a forward, had emerged as the team's top scorer, one of the most dynamic young players in the world, and a lock for this year's roster. She went down with an ACL tear and has not worked her way back. No sooner did she go down that Mallory Swanson finally jelled and exploded as the winger that everyone had expected her to be. In late 2022 and early 2023, she had scored half the national team's goals. She went down in April with a torn patella tendon, in a non-contact injury.

With Macario and Swanson healthy, the U.S. would have had a new golden generation in the making. My crystal ball says the U.S. would have been a solid favorite in this year's World Cup. Without them ... well, you saw what happened.

Injuries are part of the game. Every team gets them. But losing your top two scorers, and two of the best ten strikers in the world, is above and beyond.

I never thought this U.S. team would repeat as champions. First and foremost, the law of averages catches up at some point. After group stage, the World Cup is a high stakes, single-elimination tournament against peer level teams. Even the best team is going to have to dodge a bullet or two. Winning back to back championships means that the U.S. team was coming in with an eight game winning streak against peer level teams. Extending that to twelve was always unlikely. International women's soccer is too well balanced for that.

The U.S., Germany and Sweden entered this year's tournament ranked first, second and third in the world. Germany didn't make it out of group. The U.S. almost didn't make it out of group. Sweden has the advantage of playing in Europe, where there are good teams on every streetcorner; the U.S. suffers from playing through CONCACAF, which is the U.S. and Canada, which is always solid, and then a bunch of Central American and Caribbean teams that don't belong on the same field. (The U.S. men's team has to scramble to get past Haiti, Jamaica, Panama, and T&T; the women's team, no.) Sweden is a legit peer level team and one of the favorites to win it all.

Still, all the U.S. needed to win against Sweden was for the forwards to score one goal, or one PK. They didn't. And that is the problem. Macario and Swanson are still young. Along with Mallory Pugh, they are the future.

That said, the U.S. edge in international women's soccer is eroding, and it will continue to erode. The rest of the world -- outside of Latin America, which seems to be stuck in MachoLand and doesn't support women's sports -- is steadily improving its youth development programs and domestic leagues. At the professional level, the European women's leagues are at parity. East Asia is coming on strong, and Japan is again a contender to win it all. Africa used to be so far behind that it was pitiful, but that was a problem of poverty and the lack of developmental programs, not an absence of potential talent. The African teams have finally broken out of the cellar and surprised everyone this year. This will continue. The U.S. has a huge talent pool because of the depth of women's college soccer, and the NWSL will continue to be one of the world's top leagues. But the rest of the world is catching up. Which is a good thing.

By the way: I HATE "break the plane of the goal" scores that are awarded via instant replay. On Sweden's winning PK, Alyssa Naeher -- who had already saved on PK -- got a hand on the ball and batted it up. It was now a floater right in the goalmouth. She got a second touch on it and cleared it before it hit the ground or the back of the net. The technology clearly showed that the ball had indeed broken the plane of the goal while still in midair. Correct call. But I've hated those kinds of goals ever since television and instant replay took over college football and the NFL. The tv networks now pull the strings and they relentlessly rig the rules to generate cheap scoring. That is why we have wide receivers scoring touchdowns on balls they theoretically "controlled" for 2.7 nanoseconds before the ball slips through their hands. Or runner scoring touchdowns because they are ruled to have "controlled" a fumble for a fraction of a second before losing said fumble in the next instant. This is the soccer equivalent.

75 posted on 08/06/2023 6:35:26 AM PDT by sphinx
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 38special

I have to agree that rooting against your country might be as bad as dissing the national anthem.

But this is not “rooting against your country” because this team is not “our country”.

Whoever or whatever they are, they are hostile to the interests and well being of the United States.

Just as I feel sympathy for good, hardworking Americans who may collect their paycheck from Budweiser, it is more important to take a stand against Budweiser due to their aggressive attack on their own customers and embrace of this sexual and mental perversion that is “transgenderism”.

I feel the same about this group, and the Olympics in general now. The USA Soccer Team (as an entity) has thrown in their lot with the likes of Black Lives Matter Marxism, homosexuality, and they show it by tolerating and encouraging the disrespect against our national anthem.

This is my opinion, and I accept that you have yours on this matter.


76 posted on 08/06/2023 6:36:12 AM PDT by rlmorel ("If you think tough men are dangerous, just wait until you see what weak men are capable of." JBP)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 53 | View Replies]

To: bigdaddy45

Agree.


77 posted on 08/06/2023 6:38:12 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 74 | View Replies]

To: Right_Wing_Madman

LOL! I love it!!!


78 posted on 08/06/2023 6:39:43 AM PDT by FlingWingFlyer ("There's no cryin' in baseball and there's no ethics in politics!" )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer
WGAF, but good riddance.

#WINNING … by #LOSING

79 posted on 08/06/2023 6:41:54 AM PDT by Alberta's Child (“Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.”)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

Looks like it’s time for another Pride parade.


80 posted on 08/06/2023 6:42:32 AM PDT by FlingWingFlyer ("There's no cryin' in baseball and there's no ethics in politics!" )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100 ... 141 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson