Despite a dominant 3-0 win over Vietnam to open their Women’s World Cup campaign, U.S. women’s national team star Alex Morgan admitted they only showed “glimpses of potential” in their opening match and need to improve before facing the Netherlands.
The USWNT were defensively tidy to say the least, conceding zero shots against Vietnam, while the midfield was in strong form as well, keeping the U.S.A. camped in attacking territory. The team posted 28 shots, but Morgan felt the attack left something to be desired when it came to finishing their chances. The reigning champions underperformed on their expected goals tally of 4.7, in part because Morgan missed a penalty in the first half.
“I think we saw a lot of glimpses of our potential, but I feel like we weren’t always clicking on the field,” Morgan said Tuesday. “I think some of the plays that we had were forced or rushed. I think it’s having a little more patience, switching a little bit more, having our movements be a little more synchronized. … I feel like, at times, we could’ve just stood on the ball a little bit more and been a little more decisive with our plays.”
Morgan said those are areas of improvement ahead of the team’s encounter against the Netherlands, which marks a rematch of the 2019 final, and will arguably be the USWNT’s toughest test during the group stage. The forward noted that the Netherlands play a different style than they did four years ago, but they still boast many of the players who were World Cup finalists.
“They’re incredibly organized,” she said. “They have a very expansive shape in the attack. They don’t give you much space at all to receive and turn or get on the dribble. They’re very quick to close down space…Their defenders are very physical, very aggressive in pressing what’s in front of them so I know I’m going to have a lot of pressure on my back.”
The USWNT co-captain also listed midfielders Jackie Groenen, Danielle van de Donk, and Shenda Spitse as players who are central to the Netherlands’ game plan. “Their midfielders … are just very aggressive players and they transition very quickly as well,” she said.
The reigning champions will now be tasked with improving as the tournament progresses as they aim for an unprecedented World Cup three-peat, but Morgan saw a theme between the USWNT’s imperfect performances and the tournament at large. Only three teams have scored four or more goals so far at the World Cup, which signals that women’s soccer is more competitive than it used to be.
“Looking at the first game in general of all of the teams so far in the World Cup, every game has been difficult,” Morgan said. “There hasn’t been many games where teams have been able to break through easily against opponents so we knew that would be the case with Vietnam.”
As a result, the standard is higher than ever before for the USWNT to maintain their status as the world’s best team. Morgan and her teammates aim to keep ahold of their world-beating status by focusing on themselves.
“The list can go on about things that we know about them,” Morgan said, “but it comes down to our team chemistry and what we have to bring and the style that we’ve been working on over the last year or two under [head coach] Vlatko [Andonovski] and we’re feeling really good about going into this match.”
