The USWNT have the ability to win a third successive World Cup this summer, but there are no guarantees and they will be pushed to their limits
It's unprecedented at this level. It really is; this summer, the U.S. women's national team will go for their third consecutive Women's World Cup title. No team, men's or women's, has ever lifted a World Cup trophy three consecutive times. Doing so feels like it should be impossible.
That's the position the USWNT is in, though. That's the history they can make. When they take the field to compete down under this summer, they do so looking to conclude a cycle stretching back over the past decade, not just the last four years.
This World Cup will be more difficult than ever, though. The all-too-common refrain is that the world is catching up and, based on the field this summer, you could say it already has. The likes of England, Spain, Germany and France headline the contenders, while the U.S. will actually face their 2019 World Cup final opponents, the Netherlands, in the group stage.
The fact is that the field has never been stronger and, because of that, the USWNT's ultimate goal has never been tougher to reach. No USWNT group will ever have faced the gauntlet of opponents that this team will likely take on if they do hope to make that threepeat a reality.
Can the U.S. do it? Of course. This team is still incredibly talented with superstars, young and older, all over the pitch. Will they? Well, we'll find out. It's also a team that has obvious shortcomings that many of those top teams will feel they can exploit.
Getty ImagesThey possess pure talent
The rest of the world is catching up, for sure, but there are few teams in the world that can match the USWNT when it comes to calling upon pure matchwinners.
All over the field, the U.S. is blessed with world-class players who can legitimately take over a match. From striker Alex Morgan all the way back to goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher, this is a team loaded with talent worthy of winning the World Cup.
And that's what makes the USNWT so interesting. They're not a team reliant on one or two world-class players, but rather a team full of them.
If Morgan isn't firing, someone like Sophia Smith probably will be. If Rose Lavelle isn't contributing much in the attack, Crystal Dunn probably will when she bombs forward from left-back. And if the U.S. need a pace-setter off the bench, they could turn to the youth of Trinity Rodman or Alyssa Thompson, or the experience of Megan Rapinoe. Imagine that: bringing on Rapinoe, one of the most decorated players in this sport's history, as a 15-minute option off the bench.
This team isn't perfect by any stretch, and there are weak links, but, just on pure talent, the U.S. has more than enough to compete.
AdvertisementGettyKey injuries weaken them
Despite all of that talent listed above, this USWNT group could be a hell of a lot better if not for the injury bug.
In the attack, superstar Mallory Swanson is unavailable after suffering an patella injury during a friendly this spring. The winger was the USWNT's most in-form attacker, scoring seven goals in six games this year after contributing to 14 in 15 games in 2022.
Catarino Macario, too, is out of action, and she's even more irreplaceable than Swanson. While the U.S. has other players that can fill in on the wing, no player can truly do what Macario does as an attacking midfielder. It's up to others to step up and fill that attacking void, but that's made even more difficult by the absence of Sam Mewis, who has been out for two years due to her own injury issues.
And then there's the defense, where the U.S. will be missing their captain and leader Becky Sauerbrunn. A foot injury has knocked the center-back out of the tournament, leaving a major void in defense.
That's four potential starters for the USWNT that will all miss the World Cup. Few teams in the world can overcome so many key injuries and the U.S. will quite obviously be a weaker version of itself due to those absences.
GettyInvaluable experience
Let's go through the numbers, shall we?
A total of nine players from the 2019 World Cup-winning team are back; Morgan, Rapinoe and Kelley O'Hara are playing in their fourth World Cups, while Naeher and Ertz are at their third.
Morgan has played in 18 World Cup matches to headline a group of four players with double-digit World Cup appearances. Six players, meanwhile, have previously scored in a women's World Cup, with this squad totaling 25 World Cup goals between them.
That is a ridiculous amount of World Cup experience. So many key players on this team have been here before; they've played at this level, gone through this routine; they know exactly what this will look and feel like, from the game situations right on down to the quiet moments in the hotel. They also understand exactly what it takes to lift that trophy, and what it feels like the moment they get their hands on it.
That type of experience can't be replicated. Other teams may have players that have thrived at the Euros or in the Champions League, but none can stack up to the U.S. when it comes to pure World Cup success.
GettyBlunted in attack
For all of the USWNT's talent, it feels like the team has never quite clicked under Vlatko Andonovski.
Even dating back to the Olympics, the U.S. have rarely looked like a team that has hit its stride. Their semi-final loss to Canada in that tournament was far from a surprise, although the hope was that that summer's failure would be an aberration impacted by the pandemic.
In the two years since, though, the U.S. has generally played worse than the sum of its parts. The U.S. lost three games toward the end of 2022, their first three-game losing streak in nearly three decades. Those losses came against England, Spain and Germany – all teams that could be dangerous opponents on the USWNT's path this summer.
The struggles, largely, have come in the attacking end. Andonovski hasn't quite figured out how to get those involved on the same page. He's moved things around and tried different approaches, but, through it all, the U.S. attack has never quite looked like they have the chemistry needed to win a World Cup.
A recent friendly against Wales was another example of that fact. For 75 whole minutes, the U.S. struggled to do much of anything against a clearly overmatched Wales team that is nowhere near the level of teams they'll face this summer. It wasn't until late moments of brilliance from Smith and Rodman that the U.S. got their goals, flattering themselves a bit with a 2-0 scoreline.
Those moments of brilliance are obviously encouraging, but the U.S. will definitely need more than what they've shown in the build-up to the tournament when those big moments roll around.