U.S. Women’s National Team Not Living Up to The Hype

The U.S. Womens National team hasn’t lived up to all the hype they created with their kit partner Nike. They told the world no one can beat them, and no one can stop them from winning the World Cup.

Well, where is that team? Cause the team that is in New Zealand is very beatable and if not for the post in their last match against Portugal they would all be home playing for their NWSL sides and the Euro players joining their sides in the off-season. The truth is this team lacks passion, they’re just happy to be at the World Cup and expect people to adore them and love them, to thank them and fear them without them doing a thing in this World Cup.

It is one thing to be cocky and self-aware of your greatness and another to celebrate like you just won the tournament after advancing out of the group stage by the skin of your teeth. This team has been seen strutting around New Zealand like they own the place. However, the play says they should stop focusing on tik Tok videos and social media and focus on figuring out how to be the dominant United States team everyone expects them to be.

Sweden will be their first opponent in the knockout round and could be the last game this team plays, especially if they don’t wake up and make the needed changes. Talk is cheap and the United States needs to be reminded of that fast otherwise they won’t be seeing a second round of knockout play in this tournament.

It is easy to blame Vlatko for the team’s mediocre performances, but the reality is that the players are to blame. They’re out on the pitch playing unpassionate football and acting as if the world should cower to them on every ball touch. That may have been true in the 1990s but this side with all its talent hasn’t shown why teams should fear them. They allowed Vietnam to hang with them most of the match before finally showing up to win the game by far less than they should’ve in a tournament in which goals matter. The Dutch could’ve and probably should’ve beaten the U.S. if not for a really mad Horan getting the equalizer late.

The Portugal game was the trap game in the group stage, it was the game that if the U.S. didn’t respect them, they could lose, and they almost did. Vlatko said as much when the group was announced that Portugal will be a team they can’t sleep on, and the players slept on them big time.

It is time for the veterans to step up and wake up the rookies of this team, remind them this is the World Cup, not some club competition where they get another day to respond if they have a bad day. For as good as this team is you would never know it by the awful performance, they have put on so far in the world cup. We need to see the mad Sophia Smith who traumatizes #NWSL defenders, we need the Ashley Sanchez and Trinity Rodman who keep midfielders and defenders in fear for 90 minutes plus each match, we need the angry Megan Rapinoe who doesn’t hold back and gets on player’s nerves.

If we don’t see a step up against Sweden it will be considered a failed World Cup run and many questions will be asked about why they underperformed so much when the majority of the team plays in what is called the toughest league in the world for women’s football the National Womens Soccer League aka NWSL. Vlatko’s style and tactics may not be flashy, but they’re meant to dominate the possession game and create chances. The players for some reason seem to struggle with building up in the system and Vlatko did make changes to the formation going from one up top to three. He gave them the chance to show greatness and instead picked we’re just glad to be here. The whole nonsense that a lot of the players are in their first World Cup so take it easy is not the best in the world talk, it is an excuse for a team that is the number one team in the world for being subpar and blame a coach that has done nothing to lose his job over. We get it a certain part of the fan base wants the program to be female from top to bottom and will come up with odd theories to try and gather support for the silliness.

The bottom line is this, the United States needs its stars to show up and play like we all know they can. We don’t see a stellar performance like that on Sunday, August 6th at 5 am and we will see the U.S. packing up and heading home instead of playing for another trophy.