How do coaches ensure that a team's whole is more than the sum of its parts? That's the question hanging over US women's national team boss Jill Ellis after Friday night's 0-0 Women's World Cup draw with Sweden.
This team remains one of the most talented squads in Canada. They remain eminently capable of beating anyone in the world when things go right. But something just doesn't quite add up. And while they've yet to be punished for it, I'm afraid that the knockout stages – especially with the looming possibility of meeting a real powerhouse as early as the Round of 16 – won't be as forgiving as Sweden and Australia have been.
My Three Things:
1) Don't panic, but do question
First off, it's important to note that no disasters have befallen the USWNT as they hunt for that elusive third world championship this summer. No horrific gaffes, no serious injuries. And if you'd told them a month ago that they could take four points from their first two matches in a tricky Group D, they'd probably have grabbed it, though perhaps not with a smile.
But both the performances and the results thus far are well short of the all-conquering, world-beating persona that this team and its fans have cultivated for many years. With an embarrassment of attacking weapons like Alex Morgan, Abby Wambach, Christen Press and Megan Rapinoe, there's plenty of firepower at Ellis' disposal. But the goals haven't flowed in, and clear chances aren't being created with volume.
The tournament has barely begun, and already this team finds itself in something of an identity crisis (more on that later). After more than a year of tinkering, tweaking and experimenting, it's still unclear what this team's best starting XI looks like, or even what formation is most comfortable or effective. That's on Ellis.
Thankfully, she has settled on a sturdy central defensive partnership, with Julie Johnston having made a late run into the lineup to earn the spot alongside the rock-steady Becky Sauerbrunn. Johnston was relentless, the best player on the field on Friday, and Sauerbrunn wasn't far behind. For now, that foundation gives the rest of the team that extra bit of leeway to figure things out.
2) Where (or who) is this team's inspiration?
Wambach was detached and ineffective in her target forward role against the Aussies on Monday, and found little to no chemistry with partner Sydney Leroux. So Ellis, to her credit, shuffled things up on Friday, benching Wambach and pairing Leroux with the more mobile Press atop a de facto 4-3-3 shape where Rapinoe was more of a free radical with license to roam.
In midfield, cultured young playmaker Morgan Brian came in alongside the established pairing of Carli Lloyd and Lauren Holiday. On paper, it looked great: Arguably the 11 best individual players on the team, set up to keep the ball and stretch the Swedes' back line.
But it didn't work that well. Time and again the Americans hit hopeful long balls into the general area where Wambach usually roams, and yet again the front two were strangers as Press and Leroux spent most of their time chasing lost causes instead of building chemistry or rhythm.
Strangely, Brian was stationed out on the right flank, which might have worked out if she'd pinched inside to combine with Lloyd and Holiday as right back Ali Krieger joined in on the overlap. The Swedes conceded acres of space in those areas, yet were hardly punished for it as Brian and Krieger couldn't sort out the right balance. Brian's not a winger, and shouldn't be asked to behave as one.
Lloyd and Brian are significantly different kinds of players, but both crave the advanced central mid role – and the USWNT hasn't figured out a way for them to share the same oxygen. So the team remains short on creative ideas, most of which came from Rapinoe's “try stuff” mindset on Friday.
Rapinoe is a rare talent, but she's not being used efficiently at the moment and elite teams like Germany will snuff her out in a game like this.
3) What (or who) is this team's identity?
USWNT observers have seen it coming for years: Wambach's generation is headed – slowly but surely – off the stage, and a fundamental shift in tactics and mentality is likely to kick in when they exit. But it wasn't expected to happen in the midst of this World Cup, where so much hype and anticipation has been built around that group's “score to settle” and so on.
Friday's starting lineup looked like a preview of what the next wave might be, but it didn't appear that Ellis & Co. have been practicing it much. Passes were missed, runs were requested with little response, cautious clearances were dumped into Sweden's end.
It makes perfect sense for Ellis to want a more nimble XI with a less direct philosophy than the well-known battering-ram approach.
But we haven't seen much of it in the runup to this tournament and Sweden didn't seem too bothered by it in Winnipeg, especially when they drew back into their own defensive third and denied space.
Pia Sundhage, the USWNT's wiley ex-boss, set her team up to stymie and frustrate the Americans, and it succeeded.
Maybe things just didn't flow like they planned. Maybe Brian and Press need a bit more time to find their feet. But Ellis has to decide quickly who this team is – in a tactical and ideological sense – if all those talented parts are going to add up to a World Cup winner.
