American survival Portugal anxiety
American After a 0-0 draw against Portugal on Tuesday, the defending champions of the Women’s World Cup managed to advance to the round of 16. Portugal was unfortunate not to grab a thrilling victory at Eden Park that would have advanced them instead.
The USA failed to make an impact against 21st-ranked opponents competing in their first World Cup, and Portugal that the draw is 5 maintained, Vlatko Andonovski’s team will finish second in Group E.Following a 7-0 thrashing of a Vietnam team that had been defeated just 3-0 by the Americans in their opening encounter of the tournamenadvanced as group winners.
As a result, pre-tournament favourites the USA will go to Australia to face the group’s victor on Sunday, who is likely to be Olympic silver medalists Sweden.Nothing about the United States’ performance today, in front of over 41,000 spectators in Auckland, or in their two earlier games in the competition suggests they will have it easy going against a team that placed third at the most recent World Cup.
The USA failed to win their group for just the second time in Women’s World Cup history, though on the penultimatedecline from their performance in France four years ago is startling because they had never before won only one group game.
At that time, they racked up 18 goals without answering, winning all three of their games in the opening round. Andonovski has emphasised that a young, fresh team would need time to settle together, a drastic improvement is urgently needed if they want to avoid being eliminated early in the knockout round.In the eight previous World Cups, the US has never failed to get to the semifinals.
Rose Lavelle received her first tournament start in recognition of her game-changing performance off the bench in the 1-1 draw with the Netherlands. Andonovski made two changes from that match.Lynn Williams was called in on the right wing as Trinity Rodman left the game, and Savannah DeMelo made room for her.
Although they needed to win to advance, Portugal played as if there was no pressure at all. Andreia Norton missed a shot in the opening moments, and the vivacious Jessica Silva missed a fantastic opportunity to score shortly after.The much favoured Americans found it difficult to match the ferocity or aggression of a Portugal squad who had defeated Vietnam 2-0 in their previous game, even though they had more of the possession.
