After a 0-0 draw against Portugal early Tuesday morning, the U.S. Women’s soccer team has advanced to the knockout stages of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
The top two teams from each of the eight groups advance, and the U.S. finished second in Group E after playing three matches. It was just the second time the U.S. had not won its group.
“It’s tough to be second,” forward Alex Morgan told Fox Sports after the game. “We wanted to go through first. This team gave everything; we just didn’t put the ball in the back of the net. In the last few minutes, we just had to hold it down. We had to get the result and move on…It’s not the result we wanted, but we move forward.”
“They gave us a really good game,” added midfielder Rose Lavelle, who will miss the next match after picking up her second yellow card of the tournament. “They made it frustrating for us. We’re disappointed in ourselves, but we have another game to focus on. We made it through, and we’ve got to put our energy toward that now.”
In its three matches, the U.S. won one and had two draws, advancing past the group stage by a singular point over Portugal. The team opened with a 3-0 win over Vietnam, although many were not impressed with a slow start, and followed it with a 1-1 draw against group-winner the Netherlands, which won two of its three matches.
The U.S. entered Tuesday morning’s matchup needing a win or draw to advance and narrowly escaped as a shot from Portugal’s Ana Capeta hit the goalpost in stoppage time. A goal would have eliminated the U.S. in the group stage for the first time, but they survived and celebrated the win with their fans, much to the chagrin of many watching.
“I have never witnessed anything like that,” former USWNT forward and current Fox World Cup analyst Carli Lloyd said as footage of the celebration appeared on the screen “…To be dancing and to be smiling? The player of that game was that post. You’re lucky not to be going home right now.”
USWNT manager Vlatko Andonovski was asked about Lloyd’s comment after the game.
“The one thing I want to say is that this team wanted to win this game more than anything else,” the manager said, according to ESPN. “They’ve put everything they could in preparation for this tournament and every game that they go into, so to question the mentality of this team, to question the willingness to win, to compete, I think it’s insane.”
“I’ve never seen this team step on the field and not try hard or not compete,” he added. “Everyone is entitled to their opinion, they can say whatever they want, but I just know how this team feels. It’s not like we played well by any means. We owned it. We know it’s not good enough. We’re not happy with our performance, but we qualified for the next round. We’re moving on.”
The U.S. team marches on and will face the Group G winner, Sweden, at 4 a.m. CT on Sunday.