Crystal Dunn looks forward to the USWNT’s next chapter as she returns to the NWSL

WASHINGTON — Crystal Dunn has been in this moment before: the transition from the big, loud stage of a World Cup to the smaller, more routine one of a club team.

It can be difficult for players who haven’t experienced it before, and for players who have. And this time, Dunn’s transition came with being a new mother. She brought her 17-month-old son Marcel to New Zealand and Australia, and husband Pierre Soubrier made the trip, too.

With all that the journey entailed, it was understandable that Dunn’s club, the Portland Thorns, allowed the family a short vacation on the way home — one that took place far earlier than anyone had planned. The U.S. women’s soccer team’s shocking fall in the round of 16 of the World Cup definitely wasn’t on the itinerary.

On Sunday, Dunn, who turned 31 last month, returned to the field for the Thorns in a visit to the Washington Spirit. It felt a bit like a family reunion, with six of the 23 U.S. World Cup players on the field: Dunn and teammate Sophia Smith, who unfortunately suffered a knee injury just before halftime; and Washington’s Aubrey Kingsbury, Trinity Rodman, Ashley Sanchez, and Andi Sullivan.

They were joined by Portland’s Sam Coffey and Washington’s Ashley Hatch, who both narrowly missed the World Cup roster cut; and a crowd of 13,048 fans, the Spirit’s best attendance in four years.

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If it was a little too early to go back to school, it felt like the right time to go back to work.

“I think some people, as soon as the World Cup ends for them, they want to get right back into the swing of things; I think I needed a bit of time to spend time with my family,” Dunn told The Inquirer after the game. “Once I got back, I was fully mentally, emotionally, and physically ready to join the Thorns again.”

Dunn described the mood leaving Australia as “heartbreak” for a team with the sport’s highest standards.

“Falling short of being in a final is obviously not the standard that the national team sets for ourselves,” she said. “But I think I’m humbled by that moment, and I think for me, it just makes me want to fight even harder to make sure that we meet our standards. And I think that’s where everyone’s head is at now: Don’t dwell too much in that moment, because then you’re not focusing on the future.”

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That future is coming fast: next year’s Olympics in Paris. The jockeying to get there is already underway. And if that leads some players to go on a revenge tour …

“Oh, man — I mean, I hope not,” Dunn said with a laugh. “There’s going to be a lot of kicking and whatnot against each other.”

OK, so let’s keep it to the good kind of revenge tour.

“We’re competitive as I-don’t-know-what, but it’s all love and respect at the end of the game,” she said. “And I think we’re all excited to get back into enjoying the game and playing the best we can for our team.”

As Dunn was speaking, Smith came around the corner, walking on crutches with her injured right knee heavily wrapped and iced. The 23-year-old scoring ace was set to be the Americans’ breakout star at the World Cup, and showed it with two goals in the opening win over Vietnam. But she didn’t score for the rest of the tournament, Rodman didn’t score at all, and Sanchez didn’t even get on the field.

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What advice would Dunn give them about bouncing back?

“Get [annoyed] about this,” she said, with Marcel not around to hear his mother’s choice of language.

“An incredible thing that younger players have is time — they have time in their career to be able to be back at that place, competing for another World Cup,” Dunn continued. “Use this moment as fuel to — every training, every game — get better and better. Because the reality is, the Olympics is around the corner. Every moment from this moment on is about getting us back on track and meeting that standard.”

That will happen in a moment of much change for the U.S. women’s program. Manager Vlatko Andonovski is gone, and will be replaced; general manager Kate Markgraf is also gone, and might not be replaced.

Dunn took a moment to salute Andonovski. While his shortcomings in the World Cup’s big moments were clear, she holds nothing against him personally, and had a message for the fan base.

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“The reality is, Vlatko was a really, really, really nice guy that really cared about us as people, us as players — and the reality is, you don’t always do the job the way that you want to do it,” she said. “Everyone on the outside is going to have an opinion — they’re going to think they know what the locker room feels, what the coaches are saying, what they’re doing.”

The players, Dunn said, “highly respected Vlatko. We listened to the strategy and the tactics. And I think all parties involved are responsible for us not meeting our standards, and I think the blame can’t only fall on the staff. Players, I think, we didn’t perform to our best ability, and that happens.”

Now it’s time to turn the page. Though Dunn said there’s some “unsettledness” among the players as they wait for the next full-time manager, she’s ready for the next chapter.

“The quicker we can dive into what this new future is going to look like, the better,” she said, later adding, “If U.S. Soccer believes that the next best step forward is getting a new coach, we are very much in support of that and ready to move forward with it.”

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What would Dunn like to see from the new boss?

“I think whoever’s getting in needs to really be like, ‘OK, I know the ins and outs of what international soccer feels like, in camps and that environment,’” she said. “I think it has to be someone who understands the history of the U.S. women’s national team, and I think just understanding American soccer and what our league is built on, the players that we develop, and just really trying to get the best out of us. That’s my hope for the next coach, is someone who’s just going to tap into each individual and be able to raise their level even higher.”

It’s a lot to ask, and Dunn knows it.

“It’s a hard job,” she said. “Every time we step into a camp, step into a World Cup, an Olympics, it’s like, we’re either in the final or it’s a bust. And with that, we face that pressure, but that pressure is also on the staff. I think it takes everybody to really cultivate that message, and be able to perform and fire on all cylinders — and it’s not easy.”

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