Amid months of questions, the USWNT midfield is now offering answers

Since a tactical change last November, Andi Sullivan and Lindsey Horan have helped the U.S. outscore opponents 13-0 over the last 315 minutes of action.

Andi Sullivan (right) is one of the key players in the U.S. women's soccer team's midfield.Read moreAndrew Cornaga / AP

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Published Feb. 18, 2023, 3:43 p.m. ET

NASHVILLE — After the U.S. women’s soccer team’s win over Canada on Thursday, recent criticism of U.S. manager Vlatko Andonovski’s lineup choices in midfield was brought up to him.

“Controversy” is a relative term, of course; it’s not like sports talk radio stations have suddenly started debating the merits of Andi Sullivan, Taylor Kornieck, Kristie Mewis, and Sam Coffey. But Andonovski answered the charge with the savvy of a WIP veteran.

“Thank you for letting me know,” he said, prompting a round of laughter from the reporters in front of him. “I don’t read papers, or try not to. I’m not on social media because of the criticism.”

Too bad for us at The Inquirer or Andonovski’s hometown Kansas City Star. But of course, he knows what’s out there. He gets an earful about it every time he meets the press.

There’s no question about the amount of talent at his disposal. No women’s national team in the world is more stacked at any position than the U.S., especially in midfield: Rose Lavelle, Ashley Sanchez, Lindsey Horan, and the four players mentioned above.

The criticism has been about ranking the depth chart more than who’s on it in the first place — and whether the individual players fit together as a whole.

“We have a plan and we have a process, and we believe in the plan and the process that we have,” Andonovski said, unintentionally invoking another sports radio hallmark. “The plan is in several stages, and in the stage that we’re at right now, I’m actually very happy with our midfield.”

That last claim is the kind that keeps him off Twitter — and last fall, he had good reason to stay away. When the U.S. lost three straight games for the first time since 1993, problems in the midfield were a big factor.

Sullivan was getting run over trying to fill Julie Ertz’s shoes singlehandedly at the bottom of the U.S. midfield triangle. While Sullivan has loads of talent, she’s simply a different kind of player from the always-ball-hawking Ertz. There were gaps between Sullivan and the more attack-oriented Horan and Lavelle, and if those two had to retreat, the front line became disconnected.

But when Andonovski finally moved Horan back to a position in line with Sullivan’s last fall — putting two players behind one instead of one behind two — the pieces clicked, and the U.S. took off again. The Americans came from behind to beat Germany, 2-1; routed New Zealand, 4-0 and 5-0; then beat Canada, 2-0, in their SheBelieves Cup opener.

Since trailing 1-0 at halftime of that Germany game in November, the U.S. has scored 13 goals and conceded zero in 315 minutes of action. Lavelle and Sanchez have starred as creators, while Horan and Sullivan have been key to that zero.

“I think I just view it as us building chemistry, and understanding and applying different principles that he’s been asking us to apply,” Sullivan said at Saturday’s practice at sparkling GEODIS Park, where the U.S. will play Japan on Sunday (3:30 p.m., TNT, Universo, HBO Max, Peacock). It will be the first meeting in over three years between two teams with lots of history, including the 2011 and ‘15 World Cup finals.

“It’s just kind of these pieces we’ve been layering and layering in, and now we’re seeing them all kind of start to come together and fit together and pay off,” Sullivan said. “And that’s what we want, so we can keep strengthening them coming to summertime.”

As for her role, which is one of the most important on the field, Sullivan said after the Canada game: “It’s a little bit of everything, and I feel like I’ve been learning a lot and enjoying it.”

Those words echoed Kornieck’s remarks a few days earlier about learning her role in Andonovski’s system — emphasis on “learning,” a word she also used.

“I think in this environment, you’re always used to that, just always used to different combinations and playing with different people and having very specific instructions and demands and having to adjust,” Sullivan said. “And I think that’s just a part of being a player in this environment in any position, so I think we’re all used to it.”

It goes to the root of all the chatter: how much learning should the U.S. be doing five months before a World Cup, instead of having a system set and plugging players in where they fit?

The answer is what it has always been: the end product at the World Cup matters most, no matter how you get there. Right now, you can count Canada manager Bev Priestman among the outsiders who think the U.S. will be just fine.

“They looked like they were firing, they look like they’ve had three games [this year], they look like things are starting to jell, and they’re a top team,” Priestman said after admitting that she, too, has heard “a lot of talk” about the U.S. midfield.

“They’ve taken a bit of stick,” the England native said, using her home country’s slang term for criticism. “I never underestimate what the U.S. can do, and I don’t think anybody else in the world will. Because there’s a mindset there; there’s the intensity that they can play with — I felt that on the sideline tonight.”