Fox Soccer commentator Alexi Lalas didn’t mince his words on the U.S. Women’s National Team.
The USWNT just wasn’t up to snuff in its quest to win a third straight Women’s World Cup.
“Ultimately, when it comes down to it, they were just not good enough to go and win that historic third in a row, never been done, unprecedented men’s or women’s (World Cup),” Lalas said on Fox after the USWNT’s 5-4 loss in penalty kicks to Sweden on Sunday morning in the Round of 16. “That sucks, but that’s reality right now for this team.”
While the U.S. women entered this tournament as the betting favorite, its play spanning four matches did not live up to its status as the top-ranked team in the world.
The United States only beat Vietnam, 3-0, before playing to a 1-1 draw against eventual group winner the Netherlands and a 0-0 draw against Portugal.
The USWNT was saved from group-stage elimination against Portugal when a late shot bounced off the right post. The champs were that close to being bounced before the single-elimination play began.
While the underwhelming performance caused debate regarding whether the United States was sleepwalking through the elimination games before upping its performance in the knockout rounds, those results proved to be omens that the USWNT was simply not long for the 2023 World Cup.
“Before this Sweden game, a lot of people said this is when they go out because we haven’t seen anything from them,” Lalas said. “A credit to them, and credit to (manager) Vlatko (Andonovski), for at least in this moment doing the things to fix out and come out with a much-better performance.
“In totality, this was not good enough for this team.”
The USWNT produced a more-inspired effort Sunday against Sweden, but it was not enough as the Americans missed shots during the penalty kicks, including Megan Rapinoe.
Sweden won by the slightest of margins.
And just like, the back-to-back champs headed home.
The United States is now one of four two-time winners to fall short of a three-peat, alongside the 2011 Germany women’s team, the 1966 Brazil men’s team, and 1950 Italy men’s team.
“We keep talking about wonderful game, wonderful game, wonderful game (versus Sweden) and ultimately it’s: ‘Why did it take three games for this team to finally show up at this World Cup?’” Lalas said. “Ultimately, when you look at this team and the past two World Cup-winning teams, this was the weakest U.S. team of the three.
“Is this a surprise they are going out? Not necessarily.”