Are you tired of this soccer picture yet? Credit: ELSA / GETTY IMAGES
Are you tired of this soccer picture yet?
Are you tired of this soccer picture yet? ELSA / GETTY IMAGES

The group stage of the 2019 Women’s World Cup closed out with the U.S. beating Sweden 2-0. They finished first in their group.

Thursday’s game was the only real test for the U.S. team, a squad so dominant that they squashed Thailand, and the record for most goals scored in a U.S. game, 13-0. Last Sunday’s game against Chile was a less exciting, but still successful 3-0 win. Sweden had beaten both teams as well and famously knocked the U.S. Olympic team out of the quarterfinals in the 2016 Rio games.

Just looking at the stats, the U.S. dominated the game. According to this report from the Los Angeles Times “the U.S. outshot Sweden, 18-6, held the ball nearly 60% of the time and completed 238 more passes.” Yet, all I could see from how the game progressed was the inconsistency of the U.S. defense.

The only scoring opportunities Sweden had were from breakdowns of the U.S. back line. Whether it was Crystal Dunn—a force on the left side, both defensively and offensively—getting caught out of position in the wake of a turbulent Swedish transition to offense, the center backs not communicating and scrambling for the same ball, or right back Kelley O’Hara giving away an easy corner with a messy passback, the U.S. defense did not seem like a well-oiled machine.

Additionally, they’ve got to stop diving into tackles! There was one play where three players dove in—when a defender doesn’t wait, assess, and go after the ball at the right moment—and the Swedes got around them to goal easily. I feel like an authority on this because, as a defender (at the high school club level, so my authority should be taken with a grain of salt), I was the worst at waiting for a tackle. I dove in constantly. That’s why the slide-tackle, when you slide on the grass, extending your leg and taking the ball out from under the players’ feet (a move that can compensate for a mistake or lack of speed) became my signature move. My old soccer coach (hi Steve!) who keeps liking my soccer tweets can attest to this.

Still, to see undisciplined defending from a World Cup team worried me. What happens when we meet France in the quarterfinals?

This man on Twitter has some reassuring figures, however:

Ultimately, Sweden wasn’t able to penetrate the backline. The U.S. scored early off a corner kick that Lindsay Horan knocked in during the first three minutes of play. The second goal was a chip shot into the side net by Tobin Heath.

Boy, is she fun to watch. Here, let me find you some footage of Heath’s nutmegs (for the uninitiated, a nutmeg—or, simply, ‘meg’—is when a player passes the ball between someone’s, typically a defender’s, legs. It’s a point of embarrassment for defenders.).

This was the best I could do:

The round of 16 starts on Saturday with Germany playing Nigeria at 8:30 a.m. PST. France, Germany, Italy, England, the Netherlands, and the United States all finished at the top of their groups. The U.S. will play Spain on Monday at 9 a.m.

Nathalie Graham covers anything she finds fun, weird, or interesting. You can find a lot of that in her column, Play Date. Her work has also appeared around town in The Seattle Times, GeekWire, and the...