On the third day of the 2023 Women's Football World Cup, the strongest king of the United States played against Vietnam, which played the first World Cup. The United States has not only won two consecutive championships in 2015 and 2019, but the United States has won four of the eight women's World Cups. Once again, they became the favourites to win the championship and wanted to strive for three consecutive championships in this tournament, but they encountered a big problem.
Many members of the golden generation were injured or retired, and the roster was seriously disconnected
8 Women's Football World Cup, the United States has won 4 times, plus one runner-up and 3 third places, never fell out of the top three, from school to professional league years of training new blood, established the status of women's football kingdom, Meghan Rapinoe (Megan Rapinoe), Alex Morgan and other golden generation leaders won the 2015 and 2019 World Cups in a row, but this time there is a serious fault.
Previous heroes such as Carli Lloyd, Becky Sauerbrunn, Tobin Heath, Christen Press and Ali Krieger either retired or were not selected due to injury, and the five combined accumulated nearly 1,000 national team matches, and the two main players of the Mesozoic generation, Samantha Mavis Mewis and Mallory Swanson, who are still recovering from injuries, are also not on the roster, and as many as 14 of the 23-man roster are participating in the World Cup for the first time, the most in the history of the United States.
The main force of the Tokyo Olympics is not enough
Traditionally, the U.S. team has always been the favourite, and this tournament is no exception, but two years ago, the golden generation led by Meghan Lapinoe at the Tokyo Olympics was clearly overwhelmed by a group of young opponents, losing 3-0 to Sweden in the group stage, narrowly beating the Netherlands on penalties in the last eight, losing 0-1 to Canada, which won the championship in the last four, and narrowly beating Australia in the bronze medal game to retain the bronze medal.
The 38-year-old Megan Lapinoe has announced that this is her last World Cup, with multiple stars out this year, and there are big questions about whether she and the two captains, Alex Meghan and Lindsey Horan, will be able to support the big picture, and how far they can go in the end depends on whether a group of rookies can stand up on the biggest stage.
The monster-level nova took the baton strongly
In fact, don't worry too much, this women's football kingdom has always been full of talents, even if there are many newcomers in the first World Cup in this team, the quality and progression of a group of new members is still undoubted. Among the new blood, 22-year-old striker Sophia Smith and 23-year-old centre-back Naomi Girma have superstar potential.
Sophia Smith is the 2020 National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) draft pick, was selected first by Portland Thorns, led the team to a championship last season, was named NWSL MVP of the Year and Finals, and was selected as the 2022 American Woman of the Year.
She made her senior national team debut in November 2020 and gradually became a front-line workhorse, scoring 11 goals in 17 appearances for the national team in 2022, and debuting on the World Cup stage this year, where she partnered Alex Meghan, one of the two captains of this year, is a great opportunity to shine.
Megan Rapinoë changed the role or more
Naomi Gilma is the 2022 NWSL Draft Champion, first selected by San Diego Wave to play in his first season with the NWSL, winning two consecutive league awards of Rookie of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year. Like Sophia Smith, Naomi Gilma, also born in 2000, has secured the starting position of the national team, and these two "monster-level" rising stars have become the core of the US team in their first World Cup appearance.
When it comes to the United States, of course, we have to mention 2019 Women's Ballon d'Or winner Megan Lapinoe. The dashing 38-year-old is the oldest member of the U.S. squad ahead of the World Cup announcement that this is her last World Cup and will hang up her boots after playing this NWSL season. This year's World Cup believes that she will not start every game as usual, but will change her role and become a "super substitute". Her fitness is not as good as in her heyday, but the progression and strength are still there, and she is on the bench ready to be timely when the course of the game is not as expected, and play the ability to turn things around.
With the overall strength of the American team, if the level of performance, even if the lineup changes drastically, it is not surprising that it will go to the end again. Think about it, what team in the world can put a legend of Meghan Lapinoe's level on the bench?
The strongest opponents in Group E are the Netherlands, and Vietnam and Portugal are expected to be difficult to match in their first World Cup matches, and there is no doubt that they will qualify. If they can qualify first, the round of 16 is expected to avoid strong rivals Sweden, and the round of 8 is also relatively easy.