Alex Morgan calls out the USWNT’s lack of ruthlessness — and her own — at the World Cup

MELBOURNE, Australia — Of all the signs of the U.S. women’s soccer team’s unusual lack of ruthlessness at this World Cup, none is more glaring than Alex Morgan’s lack of goals.

The Americans’ biggest star didn’t lack for shots in the group stage, taking 14 of the Americans’ 63 attempts in those three games and landing five of the team’s 26 shots on target.

» READ MORE: Lindsey Horan, Lynn Williams and the USWNT try to fix what’s wrong before it’s too late

But none, from her saved penalty kick against Vietnam to all her others, have gone in the net. Only Sophia Smith and Lindsey Horan have scored for the U.S. so far, and there hasn’t been an open-play finish since the opening game.

“I think we’ve broken down what went wrong, how we can fix that,” Morgan said Saturday. “In possession, out of possession — how we can capitalize on the chances we have in front of goal, how we can create more chances in front of goal, how I can put away the chances that I’m given.”

Morgan’s drought may be more of a symptom of a cause than a cause itself. The statisticians at Opta measured that the U.S. has had the worst underperformance of its expected goals tally of any team in this World Cup, scoring four goals against a statistical expectation of 7.8. (That expectation is built on the odds that a shot should go in based on the quality of the scoring chances created.)

But while Morgan has had some big chances that she hasn’t finished, she’s also gotten too little quality service overall. That points to a flaw in manager Vlatko Andonovski’s system, and there’s been a pile of outstretched fingers doing that pointing in recent days.

Andonovski said after the scoreless tie with Portugal in the group stage finale that “we have to stick to our principles, we have to stick to our game model, and we have to stick to our philosophy.”

» READ MORE: The USWNT’s failure over its last two World Cup games could make its next one its last

What happens if you stick to principles too much, though? Has that hurt the Americans’ creativity and attacking punch? Andonovski’s words were turned back on him as he faced another grilling — potentially his last pregame news conference as U.S. manager, if his team loses Sunday’s round of 16 game against Sweden (5 a.m. ET, Fox29, Telemundo 62, Peacock).

“So far, when we’ve executed the principles and implemented the game plan and the strategy that we wanted, it worked well for us,” he said. “If at any point in time, if we feel like there are changes that need to be made because it’s not working, then we’re going to execute that.”

Andonovski claimed such a change happened at halftime of the U.S.-Netherlands game, when Rose Lavelle entered as a substitute.

“We obviously had a game plan and went into it, and it didn’t work, or we were not able to execute it because of some of the things that our opponent did,” Andonovski said. “We had to change things at halftime, and we executed very well.”

» READ MORE: USWNT captain Lindsey Horan responds to Carli Lloyd’s criticism of the team’s World Cup effort

That last phrase raised some eyebrows in the packed room of journalists from the U.S. and around the world. Lavelle’s entry was indeed a change, but it was the only one for the rest of the contest. The 1-1 tie ended up costing the U.S. first place in the group.

It feels like Andonovski is suffering from a case of overthinking, and one of the cures for that is blunt speech. Morgan offered a few doses of it.

“Yeah, it hasn’t been the tournament that I would have hoped [for],” she said. “But at the same time, having this incredible opportunity in front of us in the round of 16 facing Sweden, a team we know extremely well — I think that there’s no question we’re highly motivated to play in this game tomorrow.”

Morgan was similarly blunt when asked to reflect on world powers Brazil, Canada and Germany failing to get out of the group stage.

“I don’t think that any of us are sitting back going, ‘Oh, we’re happy that happened,’” she said. “It makes me more motivated seeing the emotions, because I think that we with the U.S. have given everything so far this tournament in terms of emotions.”

The Americans may be only alive in the tournament by the width of a post, but being alive is all that counts.

» READ MORE: Women’s World Cup TV schedule, live streaming, kickoff times on Fox and Telemundo

“There’s no sugarcoating that we had a bad game against Portugal,” Morgan said, “We have moved on from that, and are looking forward to this match. We’ve prepared every second we possibly could between the end of that match and the start of [Sunday], on creating the most chances, on limiting them [Sweden] in chances, and I feel very motivated for this match [Sunday].”

It’s the fifth straight major tournament — World Cups and Olympics — where the U.S. and Sweden have met, and the 10th in major tournaments overall. And for all the Americans’ medals over the years, they’ve beaten the Swedes on those big stages just once in the last 16 years, at the 2019 World Cup. Two years later at the Olympics, Sweden smashed the U.S., 3-0, in their opening group game.

Sweden’s charismatic manager Peter Gerhardsson and veteran forwards Fridolina Rolfö and Kosovare Asllani were asked repeatedly if that history matters, and they all said no.

“I don’t really believe too much in that sort of thinking — I think there’s a tendency to maybe overemphasize this,” Gerhardsson said.

A few minutes later, he added: “You can talk about self-confidence, and you can talk about revenge, the underdog mentality. For me, that’s not what’s going to make the difference [Sunday]. It’s the players who have to play, and the history is nothing.”

» READ MORE: The USWNT is no longer a World Cup favorite after a disappointing group stage performance

Rolfö and Asllani helped Sweden sweep through the group stage with nine points and nine goals scored. They’ve played against the U.S. plenty over the years, and are ready to do it again.

“I’ve heard the discussions that they haven’t performed at their highest level, but we know how good they are,” Rolfö said.

“You can never underestimate them,” Asllani said, putting a strong emphasis on that never. “We know what capacity they have in their team — they have quality players in each position. … It will be a physical, tough game and a big battle, but we’re looking forward to it.”