USA vs. Sweden Match Diary and Player Ratings

This is not like starting a tournament against Thailand

Silver linings of Covid: 1) A year of no social engagements that I didn’t want to attend; 2) I watched Peep Show all the way through again; 3) The women’s World Cup/Olympic cycle makes more sense. Nature wants there to be two years between major tournaments.

Not that the longer timeframe changed the team at all: Only one player on our roster (Kristie Mewis) wasn’t at World Cup 2019. So, we either have a core group of stalwarts who are fused into a single unit, or we have a complacent group of incumbents skating by on reputation. I guess we’ll find out!

Some familiar names in this lineup…actually noting but familiar names:

Heath | Morgan | Press

Mewis (Sam, not Kristie) | Horan | Lavelle

Dunn | Sauerbrunn | Dahlkemper | O’Hara

Naeher

Okay, respect to new coach Vlatko Andonovski: Megan Rapinoe is not in this lineup. I think that’s probably the right call; she’s a legend, but she’s long in the tooth. One of my hottest takes is that Rapinoe wasn’t great WC 2019 -- she scored on PKs and a misplayed free kick. There’s a pattern (on the men’s side) of teams winning the World Cup and then doing badly next time, and I think the reason is that players become national heroes and they keep their spot in the lineup even when they shouldn’t.

Here’s kickoff from an abandoned stadium in Japan, which would be the setting for an illegal martial arts tournament…

1’ - No crest on the jerseys, huh? I would have understood that when our crest was some bullshit MS Word clipart, but the crest is actually good now.

7’ - Very nervy start; we haven’t had the ball in their half yet. We also had a bad giveaway at the back -- please tell me we’re not one of those “play it out of the back even when that doesn’t make sense” teams.

9’ - Press gets free, but Morgan does nothing with the header! That was great work from Press. As for Morgan…that’s not so much a “header” as “letting the ball bounce off your face.”

10’ - Now Sweden overplay and it leads to a good shot from Heath! Over-playing out of the back violates what I think is one of the great principles of soccer/life: Play what you see. If it’s on, play it; if not, don’t.

13’ - Shot from Sweden forces a save out of Naeher! Good shot, good save. Sweden don’t look intimidated.

14’ - Nearly a goal for Sweden! Guess how it happened. Let’s put “playing a lofted ball to the top of your own penalty box” in the same category as “drinking and driving” and “ordering steak at Waffle House”. Just don’t do it, ever.

20’ - Rose Lavelle has “too-talented player syndrome”: She’s extremely skilled, and that causes her to take too many touches. Get it off your foot, Rose.

24’ - GOAL SWEDEN! 1-0. Well, this was coming. Just as Julie Foudy was saying “Sweden have to make this pressure count,” they made the pressure count.

29’ - Nearly another goal for Sweden, saved by a last-minute tackle from Dunn! We have GOT to figure out how to break this press -- out attacking players aren’t in the game at all.

30’ - Apparently it’s 30 Celsius on the field, so…somewhere between 40 and 160 degrees, right? What’s that conversion? Take pi and multiply by 32?

37’ - Sweden look like the hungrier team: better shape, better movement. All we’ve done is flash occasional skill; they’re always in the better spots.

41’ - When we’re trying to break the first line, the only option is Horan. The other midfielders have GOT to drop deeper.

44’ - Lavelle off the post! A great diagonal ball from O’Hara, and Lavelle almost equalizes! That would have been a great, deeply unjust goal.

HALF TIME: Let’s talk silver linings again: The fact that Sweden haven’t finished their chances and we’re still in this game arguably gives us the psychological edge.

46’ - Big changes -- it’s now Ertz (in for Mewis) playing the 6, Horan moves higher, and Lloyd is in for Morgan. This works for me; you have to find some way to establish the midfield.

53’ - GOAL SWEDEN! 2-0! Just when we were looking a bit better, Sweden go two up. Well, okay: time to show some character. If we get something out of this game, that will be one of those times people say “veteran teams find a way to get a result.”

59’ - I’ve already said that I don’t think Rapinoe is the player she used to be, but…maybe it’s time for Rapinoe. Down two, half hour left, Press and Heath are invisible; I think you maybe roll the dice on a creative player. And we’re doing five subs (i.e. “hockey rules”), right?

60’ - A chance for Lloyd, but it’s blocked! Great diagonal ball by Lavelle, Lloyd can’t quite beat the defender. Much better. The game’s getting stretched -- those long balls might be on.

63’ - And here we go: Rapinoe for Heath. Had to happen.

70’ - Press off the post! Sweden go to sleep at the back, Rapinoe gets in behind, and Press can’t quite react to the cross! That would have been huge -- will it change the momentum?

71’ - NO! GOAL SWEDEN! It’s 3-0. A slow shift from the US leaves a Swedish player all alone six yards out. That’s the story of the game for us: Slow shifting, bad movement, not tracking back…Sweden are just hungrier.

76’ - I’m learning from the commentary that one of the Swedish players has struggled with narcolepsy. Really? Narcolepsy? I know narcolepsy is a serious condition and I probably have a totally-inaccurate perception of what narcolepsy actually looks like, but it does make me picture a coach saying “Hey: You can’t be asleep out there. The ball turned over and we had a three-on-two, and you were having nappy time. You need to literally be awake for 90 minutes.”

88’ - The situation is so stark in this game that I find myself completely agreeing with Julie Foudy: Sweden are clearly the fitter team. We’ve wilted.

FULL TIME: 3-0 Sweden. Earlier, I wrote: “…we either have a core group of stalwarts who are fused into a single unit, or we have a complacent group of incumbents skating by on reputation.” Chalk up a point for “complacent incumbents”.

Ratings:

Vlatko Andonovski: 3. I think any time a team looks that unfit, unmotivated, and unorganized, you have to ask questions of the coach.

Naher: 7.5. Actually made several good saves. Kind of an indication of how dominant Sweden were.

Dunn: 4. Won several one-on-ones but struggled with possession. In fairness, she had no cover at all from her midfielders.

Sauerbrunn: 3.5. Had no answers for the Swedish press.

Dahlkemper: 3.5. Slow passing, slow rotation…slow, slow, slow.

O’Hara: 4. Like most of our players, spent the entire night on the back foot.

Horan: 4.5. Did better when she was pushed a little higher, but didn’t control the midfield like she normally does.

Sam Mewis: 4. I think she was subbed out just to get Ertz on the field, but she didn’t do anything to justify staying on.

Lavelle: 5. Was just about the only player to provide any creativity, but she moved the ball too slowly at times.

Press: 4.5. She really needed to track back and help Dunn out a bit.

Heath: 4. Completely invisible. This was her first game back after a long layoff, so she might need to play her way into form.

Morgan: 3. My knock on Morgan is that she plays way too high -- she’s always trying to run in behind. And in this game, where we couldn’t even break the first line, she may as well have been on Mars.

Ertz: 4. I guess it looked a little better when she came in. I’m squinting to try to find positives.

Lloyd: 4. Could have gotten the US back into it with her chance in the 60th minute, but couldn’t convert.

Rapinoe: 4.5. Also left Dunn on an island, but we were behind so she had to press.

Davidson, Kristie Mewis: NR. Congrats to Kristie Mewis for making her major tournament debut, and also for not having her fingerprints on this flaming pile of wreckage.