U.S. falls to Sweden in penalty kicks and is eliminated from the World Cup
MELBOURNE, Australia — The end, like so much of this World Cup for the women’s national team, came cloaked in doubt and confusion.
U.S. goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher saved Lina Hurtig’s shot in the seventh round of Sunday’s tiebreaking shootout. She had batted the ball away, she was lying in front of the goal, how could it be otherwise?
The Americans celebrated and the Swedes mourned as referee Stephanie Frappart tugged at her earpiece. A voice in her head was telling her a video replay showed the ball had crossed the line. By the narrowest of margins, Sweden was going on to the quarterfinals, and the U.S. was going home.
“By like a millimeter or something,†Naeher said. “It’s tough to have your World Cup end by a millimeter.â€
But if the World Cup ended there for the U.S., that’s not where it was lost.
It was lost when the U.S. failed to score in its final 238 minutes, the team’s longest-ever drought in a World Cup. It was lost when the U.S. failed to beat the Netherlands or Portugal, in two games it could have won. It was lost when a national team that had long played with joy, creativity and confidence became uncertain, predictable and indecisive.
As a result, the U.S. is out of the tournament short of the semifinals for the first time, an unfitting end for veterans Alex Morgan, Kelley O’Hara and Megan Rapinoe, who had gone to three straight World Cup finals.
“We want to be successful, be able to uphold the legacy that this team deserves,†Morgan said. “And we failed at that.â€
Morgan watched the shootout from the sidelines, having been subbed out of the game in the first of two 15-minute extra periods. Rapinoe and O’Hara, meanwhile, were two of the three Americans who missed their penalties, Rapinoe sending hers well over the crossbar and O’Hara bouncing a soft try off the right post.
For Rapinoe, 38, who has already announced her retirement, the errant shot will be her last touch for the U.S. in a Hall of Fame career that included more than 200 appearances, 63 goals and the Golden Ball in the last World Cup, where she won her second title. Rapinoe, who doesn’t like to show when she’s been wounded, tried to make light of the irony. But the tears in her eyes were testament to how much it hurt.
“There’s some dark humor,†she said, her voice beginning to crack. “I mean, missing a f— penalty at the end of this game?â€
For the Americans, this game never should have come down to a penalty. They put in their best performance of the tournament, outshooting Sweden 22-9 and putting 11 of those shots on target, 10 more than the Swedes. But as has been the case throughout the tournament, they couldn’t finish and the game ended scoreless — though Swedish goalkeeper Zecira Musovic contributed to that, making a number of ridiculous saves.
“We didn’t put anything in the back of the net. I didn’t put anything in the back of the net,†said Morgan, who had 16 shots in the tournament and put three of those on goal Sunday, but failed to score. “As a forward you’re judged, deservingly, on goals. And there was none for me.â€
If the U.S. had finished off the Netherlands when it had them on the ropes, it would have played South Africa, not Sweden, in the round of 16. And the U.S. has some history with Sweden, having played them six times in the World Cup or Olympics since 2011, winning just once.
Two of those last three games have been decided in shootouts, and Sunday’s was dramatic. The U.S., shooting first, beat Musovic on all three shots, something they couldn’t do during the game. When Nathalie Bjorn, Sweden’s third shooter, sent her try over the bar and Naeher stuffed Rebecka Blomqvist’s shot in the fourth round, the U.S. had an opening. But Rapinoe and Sophia Smith gave it back, both missing the goal completely with their shots.
Naeher went sixth for the U.S. and converted her try, but when O’Hara dinked hers off the post, the Americans’ World Cup came down to Hurtig and the U.S. keeper. Naeher guessed correctly, diving in front of the shot and popping the ball up, then batting away the rebound. But sensors in the ball said it had crossed the line — barely — a finding VAR officials confirmed to Frappart through her earpiece.
That sent off a wild celebration with the Swedish team burying Hurtig under a dogpile behind the end line as ABBA’s “Dancing Queen†— apparently the only Swedish song anyone could find — blasted over the stadium sound system. The U.S. players, meanwhile, linked arms in a huge circle in the center of the field, gathering for several long minutes in a combination of silence and tears.
Naeher gave up one goal in four games in this World Cup, keeping her punchless team alive, only to be undone by a sensor, a video replay and a millimeter. She was taking neither comfort nor consolation from her heroic performance.
“I don’t think there’s any moral victories in a round-of-16 game,†she said. “Unfortunately, a loss is a loss.â€
And that loss, combined with a third-place finish in the Tokyo Olympics — where the U.S. also lost to Sweden — marks the first time the Americans have missed the finals in consecutive major tournaments. Vlatko Andonovski coached the team in both competitions after replacing Jill Ellis, who led the U.S. to its consecutive World Cup titles, four years ago.
Asked if she felt the coaching staff had prepared the team to succeed in this tournament, Morgan declined to answer.
“I mean… I can’t even process that question,†she said.
Complete schedules for the 2023 Women’s World Cup knockout rounds, along with match previews and every score from group play.
Andonovski, who almost certainly has coached his last meaningful game with the national team, was equally evasive.
“It’s a very tough moment,†he said. “We didn’t expect to be out in this moment. We didn’t expect to go out the way we did. It’s emotional. It is hard. I don’t even want to think about me. It’s selfish to think about my future, what I’m going to do, when we have 20-year-old players going through this situation.â€
“You know, I love them. I love them all,†he added. “They’re my players, but they’re my friends. We’ve spent four years together. So I don’t want to see them like that.â€
They came within a millimeter of moving on, but Monday, they all begin making their individual journeys home, cloaked in doubt and confusion over whether they’d ever be together again.
