America was probably a pretty grumpy place Tuesday.
Thousands of Americans sacrificed a couple of hours of valuable sleep because that was the price for watching the U.S. women’s national soccer team do what it does – win.
Instead, they went back to bed – sometime after 2 a.m. here on the West Coast – feeling cheated: The Americans were lucky to escape, by the skin of a goalpost, from group play after playing to a 0-0 draw with Portugal in the last match before the knockout stage starts.
And I’m afraid U.S. women’s soccer won’t ever recover.
The sensation of it, I mean. What happens now that the U.S. isn’t the world’s foremost soccer power, but one of the world’s soccer powers? Does its irresistible allure fade when it’s not a swashbuckling, posing and imposing, red-white-and-blue juggernaut?
Will the average American – who doesn’t really follow soccer and doesn’t pay enough attention to women’s sports – recognize the names of the next generation of American stars the way they did with Mia Hamm and Abby Wambach and Alex Morgan?
I hope so, but I’m not sure.
It’s not the players I’m worried about; of course, America will continue to develop talents like Los Angeles’ Alyssa Thompson and Newport Beach’s Trinity Rodman to help it compete with anyone – compete, but not steamroll.
Since a record 1.12 billion viewers tuned into the 2019 Women’s World Cup – where the United States, the standard-bearer for so long, won its second consecutive title and fourth ever – European women’s leagues have been flourishing.
There have been record crowds for women’s matches around the world, and a survey from FIFA last fall showed progress across the board, with nearly 300 clubs reporting year-on-year commercial revenue growth of 33%.
In this new era, U.S. teams will win some, they’ll lose some – and when they win, it’ll mean even more.
I wonder, though, will that mean less here in America?
It shouldn’t. The soccer is getting better, the competition more compelling.
But will that be enough? Especially after Americans – those of us at home, on our couches – have gotten fat watching these women feasting on the world’s less fortunate footballers for so long? Tuning in gleefully to, oh, say, see America assert her dominance.
Exceptionalism is delicious, of course, and the U.S. women have cultivated Americans’ appetite for destruction – not for these tense, frustrating, white-knuckle affairs.
Sentiment on social media the past few matches seems to be: Remember when watching the USWNT used to be fun?
That the U.S. women – who had the audacity to demand equal pay – also had the audacity to dance and smile for selfies after Tuesday’s match was too much for a disgusted Carli Lloyd.
Twice a World Cup champion, Olympic gold medalist and FIFA Women’s Player of the Year for the United States, she’s offering studio commentary for Fox Sports’ World Cup coverage and she was fuming.
“There’s a difference between being respectful of the fans and saying hello to your family, but to be dancing and smiling…”@CarliLloyd on the USWNT after the match 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/38zm1eC76r
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) August 1, 2023
“There’s a difference between being respectful of the fans and saying hello to your family,” she said. “But to be dancing, to be smiling? I mean, the player of the match was that post. You’re lucky to not be going home right now.”
The sentiment from Lloyd and her broadcast partners: Team USA is not going to show up and win matches just because it says “USA” on their chests.
Ya think? Those women on the pitch know that; that’s why they were happy.
It wasn’t pretty, oh no. But they got through a particularly tough group that included a Dutch team featuring Daniëlle van de Donk, a Lyon teammate of U.S. standout Lindsey Horan’s, and a Portuguese team starring Jéssica Silva, familiar to all of the U.S. women’s players who have faced her in the National Women’s Soccer League.
These aren’t charity cases on the other side. Not wannabes. They’re literally peers.
So, yes, this American team in transition is going to have to play much better if it has any hope of winning this thing. And it knows it.
Embattled coach Vlatko Andonovski is going to have to find a lineup that gives the Americans some pop, conjure a cohesive game plan. Morgan has got to convert on the opportunities she’s creating. The United States needs a sense of urgency to meet the moment after Portugal and Holland dominated time of possession. And so on.
There’s a world of work to do if the USWNT has any hope of getting past the Round of 16, where it will face the winner of Group G – likely, Sweden, the world’s third-ranked team – on Sunday.
A miles-long list of to-dos if USWNT has any hope of getting Americans to be awake in the middle night again for that match, which will kick off at 2 a.m. on the West Coast – followed by PT start times of 12:30 a.m., 1 a.m. and 3 a.m., if the USWNT is fortunate enough to keep advancing.
No mere 50-50 challenge if these players are to maintain their mantle as the world’s best women’s soccer team, the sort of winners who’ll get the masses excited at home.
But also winning on the world stage from now on is going to be a lot of work, more than ever before. And the American audience will just have to buckle up and get used to it and, I hope, stay along for the ride. It’ll still be fun, just not all the time.