U.S. faces Portugal with Women’s World Cup future nonetheless up within the air

AUCKLAND, New Zealand — The United States heads into its ultimate group match on the Women’s World Cup with questions swirling in regards to the crew’s ways.

U.S. coach Vlatko Andonovski began the identical lineup towards Netherlands on Thursday that he rolled out for the opening match towards Vietnam. While it was sufficient for the United States to beat the Vietnamese 3-0, it was much less profitable towards the stronger Dutch, and the Americans settled for a 1-1 draw.

That lineup had by no means performed collectively earlier than the World Cup.

The tie meant that the United States will seemingly want a extra decisive end result on Tuesday towards Portugal to complete atop Group E and safe a positive path within the knockout spherical. Going into the sport, advancing out of the group wasn’t a given for the two-time defending World Cup champions.

In addition to the identical starters, Andonovski made only one substitution within the recreation towards the Dutch, bringing on midfielder Rose Lavelle to begin the second half. But no contemporary legs had been subbed in even after gamers confirmed fatigue. Forwards Lynn Williams and Megan Rapinoe remained on the sidelines.

He was requested in regards to the technique afterward.

“I just didn’t want to disrupt the rhythm at that point because sometimes a substitute comes in and it might take a minute or two to get into a rhythm,” he stated. “We just didn’t want to jeopardize anything because I thought all three of our forwards were very good, dangerous, created opportunities and were a handful.”

It was the primary time that the United States had made only one or fewer substitutions in a World Cup recreation since 2007.

Known in 2019 for leaping on World Cup opponents early, the Americans didn’t rating towards the Dutch till the second half once they had been already down 1-0.

Lavelle is without doubt one of the crew’s prime midfielders and made a direct affect within the recreation – boosting the power and feeding the assault – and the United States seemed like that 2019 championship crew once more. She served up a nook kick to Lindsey Horan, offended about getting knocked down by a Dutch participant moments earlier than, for the game-tying purpose within the 62nd minute.

Lavelle had a knee damage going into the World Cup and hadn’t performed since April. She’s been on a minutes restriction and Andonovski has been beginning Savannah DeMelo, one of many groups’ 14 gamers making their first-ever look within the World Cup.

DeMelo hadn’t performed in a match with the nationwide crew till the send-off recreation towards Wales in San Jose, the day the crew departed for the World Cup.

“I think we weren’t in sync,” midfielder Andi Sullivan stated. “That happens, and we were able to adjust and respond. Hopefully, we can do that earlier in the future. And I think that’s also a great strength of this team — we have lots of different ways we can do that together.”

Andonovski stated the crew can construct off that second half towards the Dutch in Wellington.

“Even though it didn’t finish the way we wanted to finish I thought it was a very good match for our team and especially for a group of young players. They grew throughout the game, individually, but also as a team we grew throughout the game as well,” Andonovski stated. “I’ve said this before, this team is not just young. This team is also a fresh team that hasn’t spent a lot of minutes together. What you saw in the second half is what you’re going to see going forward as a best baseline. I think that we’re just going to get better from game to game and we’re gonna be a lot more efficient as well.”

Portugal fell 1-0 in its opening match towards the Dutch, then defeated Vietnam 2-0 on Thursday in Hamilton. The victory knocked Vietnam out of the following spherical.

The United States sits atop Group E, even on factors – 4 – with the Netherlands however edging the Dutch on purpose differential. Portugal, third within the group with three factors, might leap in entrance of the U.S. with a win at Auckland’s Eden Park.

The Dutch play Vietnam in an earlier recreation Tuesday in Dunedin.

Telma Encarnacao and Kika Nazareth every scored within the match towards Vietnam, which made historical past as Portugal’s first win in its first World Cup look.