What Happened to the USWNT Against Spain?

The USWNT’s loss to England was a bit of a surprise but not shocking due to their rise to the top of Europe. The United States didn’t have their best possible team out on the pitch, and England was better overall as a team. Surely, the team would be able to put that match behind them and focus on a Spain team that was missing 15 players due to issues with manager Jorge Vilda.

Well, Spain shocked everyone, and while investigations of what he did are ongoing, he will feel validated for moving forward with a new group of players and upsetting the USWNT. First, let’s recap a wild USWNT vs. Spain match. 

Spain’s Team

To put this in perspective, any team that loses 15 players will have a tough time adjusting to the coach, system of play, etc. For Spain to turn around and beat the USWNT with some of the players they had missing is astonishing. Spain defended incredibly well over the 90 minutes. The USWNT never was able to create any clear-cut chances and mustered two shots on target.

That has to be one of the worst totals the USWNT has put up in its history. Spain played in a 5-3-2, but their wing backs added a nice wrinkle to their offense when they pressed forward. 

The first goal was just poor defending from the USWNT. An inability to clear the ball would be their downfall. 

Spain takes the lead against the USWNT‼️ pic.twitter.com/Iz2czPnsdv

— espnW (@espnW) October 11, 2022

Laia Codina was able to tuck the ball away into the corner, with no USWNT defenders showing any real urgency to get in the way or clear the ball. Still, the USWNT would press on for an equalizer, but something felt off or missing as they kept trying. 

Lack of Cohesion From the US

Crystal Dunn would come on again, and she’s still getting back into the flow of being out there and getting back to her best. It didn’t feel like there was any real connection between offense and defense or real cohesion. Spain deserves credit for that because they enforced their tiki-taka, possession style of play on the Americans. When was the last time the USWNT actually didn’t have more possession than the other team? It almost never happens. 

Even though the Americans were trailing, it never seemed like they were truly out of the game, and the equalizer would come eventually. However, it would not, and Esther would put the match away with this splendid finish. 

What a TOUCH 😤

Spain makes it 2-0 over USWNT! pic.twitter.com/qEq8IxpRsv

— espnW (@espnW) October 11, 2022

In the past, experimenting with different lineups hasn’t impacted winning for the United States. The injuries for the Stars and Stripes is well documented, and they’ve been dealing with it well with a “next player up mentality.” They finally went up against the top ten teams in the world, not at 100%, and lost back-to-back games.

It’s a rarity for this to happen to the USWNT, but we cannot push the panic button on this team yet. Once other stars return to total health by the summer of next year, this will be the same USWNT that no one wants to play. Yet one thing is sure: we know that the rest of the world has caught up to U.S. Soccer. 

Featured image via @USWNT on Twitter

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