The players weren’t clicking and weren’t aggressive. They weren’t having fun. The USWNT looked a shadow of itself as it failed to compete for gold.
Coming into the Olympic semifinal against Canada, no one knew which U.S. women’s national team was going to show up. Was it going to be the one that showed exuberance and tenacity against the Netherlands to win a penalty shootout after a 2-2 draw? Or was it going to be the team that got walloped 3-0 by Sweden to open the tournament? Unfortunately for American fans who woke up early Monday to watch, it was the latter, and the U.S. lost 1-0. It shouldn’t have been a surprise, though: This subpar version of the USWNT is the one that has appeared for nearly the entire tournament. With the exception of breakout performances by Lynn Williams and Alyssa Naeher against the Netherlands, the USWNT never looked remotely like the team that won a World Cup just two years ago. Canada came out exactly as the USWNT should have expected. It was physical, gritty and sought to close down the spaces the USWNT loves to play in. Canada’s four-player diamond midfield especially managed to overrun and overwhelm the USWNT’s central trio. But the Americans also made it a lot easier for Canada. They were static in their off-the-ball movement and rarely found the space to create outlets; and when they did try to the move the ball, they did it sloppily. The U.S. was mostly the more dangerous team in the second half, generating an expected-goals stat that perhaps should have been enough, but it took far too long for it to get into the game. The U.S. didn’t register its first shot on goal until the 65th minute. Canada only found the breakthrough when Tierna Davidson fouled Deanne Rose in the box, which was a bit ironic since Davidson was one of the USWNT’s most solid players in this rough tournament. Abby Dahlkemper normally would have started, but she struggled in all of her previous games. – Report: USWNT lose to Canada in Olympic semifinals – Undefeated: How Scurry’s save opened path for Franch To say that Canada’s penalty was against the run of play doesn’t quite do it justice. Canada had barely even entered the USWNT’s final third by that point and had zero legitimate scoring chances.
