USA TODAY International Edition
USA sends message with dominant win
LE HAVRE, France – The rest of the World Cup is on notice, if the remaining teams weren’t already.
The U.S. women let everyone know Thursday their impressive showings in the first two games weren’t because they were playing vastly inferior competition. With a 2-0 victory over Sweden that clinched the top of Group F and avenged the most embarrassing loss in team history, the Americans proved they are the force to be reckoned with over the next three weeks. Whatever team has designs on lifting that trophy July 7, it’s going to have to go through the Americans to do it.
“We’re on our game, we’re building momentum,” Becky Sauerbrunn said. “We’ve gotten some good results, we’ve scored some good goals and we haven’t let any goals in. I hope teams that are preparing for us are getting ready for what’s going to be a really, really tough match.”
That is Spain’s task next, facing the U.S. on Monday in the Round of 16.
The Americans finished the group stage with the maximum nine points and set a World Cup record with 18 goals in the group stage. Defensively, the U.S. and Germany are the only teams that have yet to allow a goal.
After two lopsided games — including that 13-0 rout of Thailand that was the biggest laugher in World Cup history — it was hard to get a sense of just how good the U.S. women really were. They certainly looked like a team that could win its fourth World Cup title, with endless options on offense and such depth that the notion they could have two teams here and both would contend didn’t seem far-fetched.
But would that hold against stiffer competition? Would the new style coach Jill Ellis implemented following the quarterfinal loss to Sweden at the Rio Olympics — the earliest exit the U.S. has ever made from a major international tournament — be as efficient and productive? Would the defense hold?
Would goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher, who had never before started a major tournament, be a worthy successor to Hope Solo and Briana Scurry?
In one word, yes.
To all of those questions. Sweden is a veteran and organized team that does not give away easy goals and has a front line that is blazing fast. It’s also proved that it can go toe-to-toe with the Americans. It had beaten the U.S. the last three times it had faced it at the World Cup or the Olympics, including that 2016 win.
But from the opening whistle, it was clear the U.S. was playing in even a different gear than it had the first two games. Three minutes into the game, the U.S. was awarded its first corner kick. Sam Mewis backheeled the ball past Sweden goalkeeper Hedvig Lindahl, and it landed right at Lindsey Horan’s feet. Horan buried the ball into the net for what was the fastest goal scored so far in the tournament.
The U.S. dominated possession and had several good chances but couldn’t convert. Until the 50th minute, when Tobin Heath juked Jonna Andersson and lofted the ball over Lindahl’s head into the upper corner of the net.
Heath said after the game that the ball was deflected, but it hardly mattered. Nine Americans have been credited with goals, and the tournament is really just getting started.
But scoring goals was never a doubt for the U.S. It was stopping them.
Naeher was quick to scoop up balls that came her way, and she didn’t get flustered by the scrums in front of her goal. Her punch save of a dangerous shot by Kosovare Asllani in the 70th minute was impressive, as was the way she handled an earlier shot by Sofia Jakobsson, who took advantage of a breakdown in the back line.
“To come away from group play with three shutouts, as a team defense, I’m very proud of that,” Naeher said.
There is a lot of the World Cup left, and anything can happen in the win-orgo-home knockout rounds. But the Americans have been the best team in the world for the better part of three decades now, and they do not intend to give up that title easily.
They’ve left little doubt they came to play this World Cup. And that means everyone else is playing for second.