The glorious career of the double world champion Megan Rapinoe with the US team ended this Sunday with the most bitter end. The veteran striker had the penalty in her boots to get the shootout back on track, but she sent it out of her and her team ended up eliminated in the round of 16 against Sweden. The dream of a historic consecutive triple crown that would enrich an already legendary legacy melted away.
Rapinoe, 38, formed with Alex Morgan an irrepressible pair of forwards that gave the United States the World Cups in 2015 and 2019. She traveled to Australia and New Zealand for her ‘last dance’, but her team ended with the earliest elimination of his story.
And he did it with a movie ending. After thirteen penalties, goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher, who had also scored a penalty, touched Lina Hurtig’s shot, but the ball missed the goal line by millimeters. The VAR review was necessary, which gave Sweden the ticket to the quarterfinals.
Neither Rapinoe nor Morgan saw the door in this World Cup, in which the United States set off the alarm with a modest group stage, in which they only won one game, against Vietnam, before drawing against the Netherlands and Portugal. She advanced as second, something that had only happened once in her nine World Cup appearances, and ran into one of the most prepared rivals, Sweden.
However, the increased demand had a positive impact on the American players. Criticized for allegedly underestimating their opponents in the group stage, the United States played Sweden by far in their best match at this World Cup.
He created an endless series of scoring chances, but ran into the wall raised by the Swedish goalkeeper Zecira Musovic, protagonist with at least three merit saves in the ninety minutes.
The Team USA midfielder lamented her team on penalties in the Round of 16 of the 2023 Women’s World Cup, where a penalty was the difference.
And that, after these difficulties to break equality, the United States had a tailwind in the penalty shootout. They were 3-2 after the first three penalties and Rapinoe was able to take hers to put the round pass on track. There everything changed.
The striker opened up her forehand shot too wide and sent the ball wide. Her reaction was surprising. A nervous smile.
Sweden gave the United States a new chance of victory by missing the fourth penalty, but the players forgave Sophia Smith again, and then Kelly O’Hara shook the woodwork, giving the first ‘match point’ to the Swedish national team .
Lina Hurtig crossed the shot, goalkeeper Naeher sensed and touched the ball, but couldn’t stop it from crossing the line by less than an inch. The image of goal-line technology was harsh for the Americans.
In this way, a legendary cycle is closed for a United States that has four world titles to its credit and that has been dominant in the last eight years.
With Rapinoe just a few months away from her farewell to soccer, US Soccer must begin to prepare a new cycle to recover its scepter in women’s soccer in which the level and number of highly competitive rivals increases every day.
