Hosting a mini tournament on home soil, the U.S. women’s national team was expected to take home the SheBelieves Cup this year, just like last. The Americans needed to beat France to come away on top, but in the end, it couldn’t have gone much worse.
The U.S. lost 3-0 to France in Washington on Tuesday to finish dead last in the four-team competition. After winning the opener against Germany, the United States lost to England 1-0 over the weekend before Les Blues took three more points away at RFK Stadium to win the cup.
Camille Abily scored twice, while Eugenie Le Sommer scored once to seal it. France led 2-0 after just nine minutes, as the United States struggled in the heavy rain, losing consecutive home matches for the first time since 2000.
Is there is reason for USWNT fans to be concerned? Sure. Some of the players on the squad, like Carli Lloyd, are aging, and the display in this competition has been underwhelming and surprising. Following that poor Olympic showing in Rio de Janeiro, more was expected.
But let’s not get carried away as if the SheBelieves Cup is some incredibly important competition. It isn’t the World Cup, and it isn’t the Olympics. It’s just a string of friendly matches, essentially. This team has plenty of time to get things straight, and this tournament showed that this current crop might not be as good as we thought or as we think it can be.
Could Megan Rapinoe be the answer?
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