The USWNT’s failure over its last two World Cup games could make its next one its last

AUCKLAND, New Zealand — After Tuesday’s scoreless tie with Portugal that was inches from ending in a historic loss, Vlatko Andonovski tried once again to spin a bad performance by his U.S. women’s soccer team in his favor.

But the manager knew he couldn’t, and he knew the knives were out for him from the American media horde at Eden Park.

“I don’t think it was in sync,” Andonovski said of his team’s performance. “I don’t think that was a good performance altogether. Starting from the back line, midfield, forwards, I don’t think we were able to solve the problems that the opponent was presenting.”

At a time when Australia, Japan, England, and Sweden — the United States’ all-but-certain round of 16 opponent — have been lighting up the scoreboard, the Americans are firing blanks. Even worse, they’re struggling to fire in the first place.

Yes, the U.S. recorded 17 shots against Portugal, with six on target. But the team completed just 63% of its passes, an inexcusably low rate for a squad with a midfield trio of Andi Sullivan, Lindsey Horan, and Rose Lavelle. They’re smart, creative, and visionary players, they’ve played together for years, and they’re plenty used to playing in high-pressure situations.

So why did it look on Tuesday as if they’ve barely played together?

» READ MORE: U.S. women’s soccer team falls flat in 0-0 tie with Portugal, drops to second in its group

“I wouldn’t just say that it’s disjointed if we have a lower pass completion,” Andonovski said, “because it could be the weight of the pass, the technique of the pass, or the area where the pass was intended to go. I wouldn’t just say that the midfield three was disjointed — obviously, we wanted to see them more connected, but we played an opponent like Portugal that is really, really tough. So we just have to get better.”

That was a classic example of Andonovski putting on his analyst’s hat and overthinking things. The U.S. fans are not always right when they demand that he show the same kinds of emotions that they do, but in this case he played right into their hands.

“It’s not like we don’t have the pieces; it’s not like we have not done this before against good opponents,” he said. “We have to stick to our principles, we have to stick to to our game model, and we have to stick to our philosophy. We’ve executed our principles on both sides of the ball, offensively or defensively, against very good opponents with the group of players that we have here, and I have no doubt that we can execute it against good opponents going forward.”

Most of that is true, and even some of Andonovski’s critics can admit it. But a reporter spotted one of the holes in the argument and jumped right into it. Does having to stick to principles mean some of the players aren’t?

“I don’t know if they were not sticking to the principles altogether,” Andonovski answered, “but there were times where maybe we were not on the same page, or we didn’t read the certain moments of the game, or certain triggers.”

He has until Sunday’s kickoff (5 a.m. ET, Fox29, Telemundo 62, Peacock) to fix it, and the challenge is the biggest any U.S. coach has faced in a long time. Not only will the Americans have to beat Sweden, a feat they’ve achieved in a major tournament just once in the last 16 years, but they’ll have to do it without Lavelle. She’ll be suspended for picking up yellow cards in two of the three group stage games.

» READ MORE: Before the Union, the Kixx were Philly’s soccer team, and U.S. manager Vlatko Andonovski played for them

“I think we can pull teams out more,” Megan Rapinoe said. “Teams just serve up the same thing, and [we] give them kind of a similar look all game long. Teams are way too organized for that.”

Lynn Williams summed it up best after her long-awaited first start of this World Cup: “Across the board, when we’re on top of a team like we were tonight, we really have to just punch them.”

It’s two straight games now that they haven’t — and had they done so against the Netherlands, the Portugal game would have been close to meaningless. So would have been the seven goals the Dutch piled on Vietnam. It took just 18 minutes for the Netherlands to erase the Americans’ goal-difference edge, and the rest of the night was a walkover.

The what-could-have-beens about that game in Wellington will linger for a long time. When Horan scored the equalizer, the Netherlands was so far back on its heels that its manager subbed out a forward for a defensive midfielder in a 1-1 game. A team of the Netherlands’ talent shouldn’t have to do that to get a result. But the U.S. failed to capitalize and has paid the price ever since.

Now the U.S. is down on the mat to a degree it has rarely ever been. If it doesn’t get up and swinging fast, it will be out of a World Cup in the round of 16 for the first time ever, and Andonovski will be out of a job.

» READ MORE: Vlatko Andonovski liked how the U.S. played vs. the Netherlands, but not many other people did

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