They're still kicking, but USWNT are done if they keep this up
Carli Lloyd was named the player of the game in the United States Women's National Team's win over Colombia in the Round of 16 on Monday at Commonwealth Stadium, but you would never know it looking at her.
The honor was certainly just, the veteran midfielder lodging the second U.S. goal on a penalty kick in the second half to secure a 2-0 win that sends the Americans into the quarterfinals against China (live, FOX, FOX Sports Go, Friday, 7:30 p.m. ET).
But the long look on Lloyd's face continued to tell the dispiriting story of the U.S. attack this World Cup season. So does the mantra that Lloyd and the rest of the U.S. team have adopted: "It's going to come. We still haven't peaked yet."
At what point, however, does the wish to play better and create better scoring chances become just that -- wishful thinking?
The U.S. settled for a scoreless draw against Sweden in Group D play 11 days ago; this past weekend, No. 1-ranked Germany dispatched Sweden with a 4-1 win in their knockout round meeting. One day later, Colombia beat France, the world's third-ranked team, 2-0. But France has come back with two stellar performances, racking up quick goals in wins over Mexico and Korea Republic to regain form as one of the best two teams in the world.
Yes, two. The second-ranked United States is outside that top-two bubble and looking in, and the only consolation may be that France and Germany have to play what is essentially the World Cup final in Friday's quarterfinal match in Montreal.
"I think the frustrating part is we all want to to do well. We're still trying to find the rhythm but these four matches are done. What's done is done. I have confidence in this team that chances will fall," Lloyd said after Monday's game.
Time will tell, of course. The U.S. will play a young team from China -- the first time the two sides have met in a World Cup since their historic final in 1999, which, no one needs to remind Lloyd or Abby Wambach or anyone else, is the last time the U.S. took home soccer's greatest trophy.
Much has changed since 1999, but then again, maybe not enough. This USWNT is heavily built on a roster of veteran stars, all paid to be professional players on a team that is as much about selling tickets and TV promotion for big events as it is about churning new talent into the system or responding to improvement of the rest of women's global soccer.
Make no mistake: The U.S. can win the World Cup. The difference is that instead of a enjoying a thrilling joyride through the draw, the U.S. team as they're now constructed and deployed will rely on defense and a goal here and there to get the job done. In that regard, four games into this World Cup run and on the heels of a four-game send-off series that showed a U.S. attack in lackluster form, there seems to be a tale of two U.S. women's national teams: Reality vs. their reality.
They believe, as they must, that they will soon click and feel better about what they're doing. The reality says is that this team has not found that rhythm and the window for that chance is fast closing.
Reality also says that the road to the Cup final also got a little more difficult Monday. Against Colombia, midfielders Lauren Holiday and Megan Rapinoe received their second yellow cards of the tournament, meaning they must sit out the China game. Rapinoe, who has two goals and one assist this tournament and who set up both U.S. penalty kicks (Wambach missed hers wide left, Lloyd buried hers), may be particularly difficult to replace.
After the game Monday night, former national team star Michelle Akers could not control the urge to state what she sees as reality for this U.S. side. Never one to shy away from being vehemently honest, Akers' comments on her Sirius XM radio program were posted to Twitter -- and the brevity of social platform no doubt helped to underscore her pointed message.
"If she (Jill Ellis) is pleased with the way we played tonight then what the hell is she doing coaching our US team?" asked Akers.
Her comments came in the midst of a much longer and passionate explanation of where she was coming from. Akers said her frustration was because the U.S. should be more dominant than they are. Ellis seemed none too pleased to be asked questions about they way the U.S. was winning.
"This is the World Cup. I'm satisfied to be moving on. I'm very happy Alex (Morgan) got a goal. She's worked very, very hard to get back," Ellis said.
Indeed, Morgan's recovery from a bone bruise and return to match fitness has given the U.S. back their historically best attacking option. Wambach has 183 international goals and Morgan now has 52 international goals. They have defined the U.S. offense and, with Morgan back to form, Ellis has now abandoned the idea of using the 35-year-old Wambach as a super sub during this World Cup.
Later, Akers acknowledged via her Facebook page that winning in the World Cup is still, after all, winning.
"Definitely not pretty. Definitely wanted to throw up half the game. But we won. And we are through to the next round...which in a WC is the whole goal. To advance. And at this stage in the game, I don't care how ugly it is as long as we keep finding a way to win. Congrats Team USA," Akers commented.
It is unfair and unnecessary to ask this 2015 U.S. team to be the team that Akers played on. That was an epic team that could never be duplicated. But the longer this current incarnation of the U.S. women's team fails to find their rhythm, the more fair it becomes to wonder if the team's sense of reality is different from, well, reality.
