2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup: Storylines to watch as Team USA chases history

byDuc Manh •
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The United States players hold the trophy as they celebrate winning the 2019 Women’s World Cup final soccer match.

America gamers maintain the trophy as they have a good time successful the Ladies’s World Cup remaining soccer match in opposition to The Netherlands on the Stade de Lyon in Decines, exterior Lyon, France, on July 7, 2019. The 2023 Ladies’s World Cup can be unfold throughout 9 cities in Australia and New Zealand.

Francisco Seco, Related Press

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U.S. coach Vlatko Andonovski, proper, and ahead Megan Rapinoe (15) snigger after the crew’s win in opposition to Canada throughout a SheBelieves Cup soccer match Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023, in Orlando, Fla. Rapinoe was one of many veterans chosen Wednesday, June 21, 2023, for america crew that may defend its title on the Ladies’s World Cup subsequent month.

Phelan M. Ebenhack, Related Press

The U.S. girls’s nationwide soccer crew will look to defend its crown when the 2023 FIFA Ladies’s World Cup kicks off July 20. The U.S. beat Wales 2-0 in its send-off match on July 9, earlier than boarding a flight to New Zealand.

This crew appears vastly completely different from the crew that received the 2019 World Cup. Head coach Jill Ellis stepped down. Carli Lloyd retired. Megan Rapinoe remained on the bench — she introduced her retirement from skilled soccer earlier this month.

The strain was on in 2019 for the U.S. to turn out to be back-to-back champions, and the crew delivered by turning into the primary nation to win the World Cup 4 occasions. However that strain has solely elevated this yr, and head coach Vlatko Andonovski is conscious of it.

“Would I be pleased with something wanting a 3rd straight win? No, completely not,” he stated on the crew’s media day on June 27, in accordance with Simply Ladies’s Sports activities. “Our objective is to win the World Cup, there’s no query about it.”

Listed here are 5 storylines to look at because the U.S. heads into this summer time’s World Cup:

Is Vlatko Andonovski on the recent seat?

Coach Vlatko Andonovski was given the tough job of inheriting a back-to-back World Cup successful crew and sustaining that crew’s success. He began the primary yr and a half of his tenure unbeaten till the U.S. didn't make the finals within the Tokyo Olympics for under the second time within the crew’s historical past, USA At this time reported.

Then in 2022, the crew misplaced two, which later turned three, consecutive video games for the primary time since 2017, in accordance with The Athletic. The U.S. has appeared to proper the ship, going undefeated and successful the She Believes Cup and their 4 friendlies earlier this yr.

AP23172557073149.jpg

U.S. coach Vlatko Andonovski, proper, and ahead Megan Rapinoe (15) snigger after the crew’s win in opposition to Canada throughout a SheBelieves Cup soccer match Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023, in Orlando, Fla. Rapinoe was one of many veterans chosen Wednesday, June 21, 2023, for america crew that may defend its title on the Ladies’s World Cup subsequent month.

Phelan M. Ebenhack, Related Press

These losses do include a caveat although. They got here on the heels of the discharge of the Sally Yates report that discovered “systemic abuse” within the Nationwide Ladies’s Soccer League, the place many of the crew’s gamers play.

The U.S. is ranked as FIFA’s No. 1 crew and has by no means completed exterior the highest three within the eight Ladies’s World Cups because the inaugural event in 1991. If the crew breaks that streak this summer time, followers can be calling for Andonovski’s termination. With the crew’s lengthy historical past of success, followers may have the identical response even when the U.S. finishes third.

Can the U.S. make historical past?

In 2019, the U.S. turned the primary nation to win 4 World Cups. It additionally turned the second nation to win the event back-to-back.

The U.S. may make historical past once more this yr by turning into the primary crew to win three consecutive World Cups, one thing that’s by no means been completed by a girls’s or males’s crew.

How a lot will the crew miss its injured stars?

Mallory Swanson, previously Mallory Pugh, was off to a sizzling begin with seven objectives in six begins for the U.S. this yr and was primed to dominate within the World Cup till she tore her patellar tendon in April.

This summer time can be her redemption tour after she had been left off the Tokyo Olympics roster when Andonovski took over, regardless of beginning within the 2016 Olympics and taking part in within the 2019 World Cup. She’ll have to attend till subsequent yr’s Olympics.

Swanson wasn’t the one harm loss for the U.S. this World Cup. Crew captain and former Utah Royals defender Becky Sauerbrunn suffered a foot harm in April. She was anticipated to be prepared for the World Cup, however sources informed ESPN that Sauerbrunn skilled a setback earlier this month in her first match again for the Portland Thorns.

Sauerbrunn introduced she would miss the World Cup in a Twitter assertion, saying she was “heartbroken” to overlook the World Cup however her crew has her “unwavering assist” and “unyielding perception.”

Is the crew too ‘younger’?

On the Olympics, critics claimed the crew was too “previous” with the crew’s common age being 30, but when the U.S. fails to satisfy expectations, critics might be saying the other about this World Cup crew.

Fourteen of the 23 gamers are going to their first World Cup. Three gamers — Rapinoe, Alex Morgan and former Utah Royals defender Kelley O’Hara — are going to their fourth.

This crew’s common age is 28 with the youngest being 18-year-old Alyssa Thompson and the oldest 38-year-old Rapinoe. The roster additionally options 25-year-old Savannah Demelo, who has by no means suited up for the nationwide crew.

If you wish to really feel previous, ahead Sophia Smith informed reporters on Tuesday that she’s by no means used a CD participant.

Crew of mothers

This yr’s roster options three gamers taking part in of their first World Cup since turning into mothers: Morgan, Crystal Dunn and Julie Ertz. All three had been on the 2019 crew.

Morgan gave delivery to daughter Charlie in 2020 and was dedicated to creating the Olympic roster. The pandemic purchased Morgan one other yr to get into Olympic form. Three-year-old Charlie has turn out to be a staple at her mother’s video games and press conferences, typically stealing the present.

“That is my first World Cup as a mother, so I simply need to additionally simply symbolize mother athletes,” she stated in a post-game press convention, per Francisco Velasco. “And the accomplishments and strides we’ve been capable of make in girls’s soccer I believe is superb.

The crew’s star ahead stated Charlie can be coming for many of the World Cup and is trying ahead to swimming day-after-day, USA At this time’s Nancy Armour reported.

“I've to interrupt it to her that it’s winter there,” Morgan stated.

Dunn gave delivery to son Marcel in Could 2022 and had been coaching with the Portland Thorns, her NWSL crew whereas 9 months pregnant, the Deseret Information beforehand reported. 5 months after giving delivery, Dunn scored a game-winning objective to ship the Thorns to the NWSL championship.

Ertz hadn’t performed skilled soccer since 2021 however made her return to the nationwide crew and the NWSL in April. She had been rehabbing a knee harm after which took day without work after giving delivery to son Madden in August. She is married to Arizona Cardinals tight finish Zach Ertz.

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