U.S. challenges are greater at this World Cup
The U.S. women’s national team is well aware the rest of the world is catching up.
Long dominant on the international stage, the top-ranked Americans are heading to France for the Women’s World Cup with any number of teams in position to topple the defending champions.
Among the challengers are host France, England — the surprise third-place finisher at the 2015 World Cup in Canada — and even the Canadians themselves, who would love to get an upper hand in a longstanding rivalry with their North American neighbors.
“I do not think that the U.S. is as strong as they have always been, the same with Germany, while not underestimating teams like Italy and Spain that may be inferior,” said Sweden midfielder Kosovare Asllani. “We will of course do everything to be at the top. It is open for any national team, really.”
Jill Ellis is leading the U.S. team into her second World Cup as coach. She selected a roster that emphasized experience, but the lineup will look vastly different from four years ago. Stalwarts Abby Wambach and Lauren Holiday have retired, and Carli Lloyd — who scored a hat trick in the title game in Canada — has moved into a role off the bench.
The U.S. women are focused on winning on the field in France even while at home they are looking for a different victory. Known for championing women’s rights and equality, the players collectively filed a lawsuit alleging discrimination by the U.S. Soccer Federation and seeking pay equitable with that of players on the men’s national team.
Forward Christen Press, a Stanford alum, said it’s this unity on and off the field that makes the United States a formidable team. “The World Cup is precious to us and we want to have all our focus there,” she said.
Former Cal standout Alex Morgan will lead the attack, flanked by Tobin Heath and Redding’s Megan Rapinoe. Morgan, who broke out at the 2012 Olympics and is playing in her third World Cup, scored 18 goals in 19 games last year and was the team’s Player of the Year for 2018.
A focus will no doubt be Alyssa Naeher, who has the daunting task of replacing Hope Solo in goal. Solo won the Golden Glove in Canada as the tournament’s best goalkeeper. But she was dismissed from the team following the 2016 Olympics. Naeher is known for her calm demeanor.
“I’ve kind of found over the years that it’s best to just keep that even mindset, not too high and not too low,” she said. “There’s obviously a lot of defensive strategies and changes leading into a game, and within a game. The more that I can kind of just stay in the moment and kind of take it all in, the better position I’ll put myself in.”
Helping Naeher will be a back line that includes Becky Sauerbrunn and Stanford alum Kelley O’Hara, both playing in their third World Cup, and Stanford alum Tierna Davidson, at 20 the youngest player on the roster.
In Brazil, Sweden bunkered on defense and went on to advance to the semifinals, handing the U.S. its earliest exit in Olympic competition.
That game could provide something of a blueprint for how to beat the Americans. The U.S. will again face Sweden in the final game of the group stage in France on June 20.
The U.S. has won the World Cup three times since the women’s event was launched in 1991, more than any other national team. Anne M. Peterson is an Associated Press writer.