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

AUCKLAND, New Zealand — You don’t have to be a former player, a current player, a coach, a diehard fan, a journalist, a tactics savant or an eye-test devotee to know something is wrong with the U.S. women’s soccer team.

It’s obvious, and captain Lindsey Horan is not trying to hide it.

“Obviously we want to play better; we want to perform better — we want to entertain our U.S. fans more, and for ourselves as well,” she said as the team prepares for its round of 16 clash with Sweden on Sunday in Melbourne, Australia (5 a.m. ET, Fox29, Telemundo 62, Peacock).

“But the expectations are always going to be there for this national team, and they’re always going to be great, and we’re always going to be in the pressure-cooker, and we love that,” Horan continued. “So we just need to raise our standards, which we always do. And we move forward, and we go out and we do everything in our power to prepare ourselves for this next game.”

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

The cacophony of complaints has been justified, even if it overlooks two things that shouldn’t be totally ignored. The U.S. hasn’t lost a game yet, even if it feels it has; and it conceded just one goal in its three group stage contests.

Along with the tangible end product missing, some intangibles have been missing too. The joy that the U.S. has so often played with isn’t there, and it is palpable. Horan said the team has spent the days since the group stage-ending scoreless tie with Portugal trying to rebuild that side of its mentality.

“We love this game so much; we’re so passionate about this game; we want to win as much as possible, and we want to play better,” she said. “We all know that. You guys know that; our team knows that. We want to play better and find those little pieces of joy in the game as well.”

If that can happen, Horan said, “once we get a little bit more of that joy back and that feeling, things are going to move a little bit better on the field. We’re going to have more rhythm; we’re going to have more confidence, and things will come — more and more chances will come.”

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

Veteran forward Lynn Williams, who had some of the U.S.’ best scoring chances in the group stage-ending scoreless tie with Portugal, also took a turn in the psychologist’s chair.

“We want this so badly that sometimes I think we lose track of why we started to play and why we’re here,” she said. “It’s because we love the game, and we love absolutely playing, and we love these moments on the world stage — that’s why we’ve put our bodies through so much and sacrificed so much … You just want to go out there and perform so badly that sometimes you forget about all the joy and the reason why you started.”

Though the rest of the world has caught up to the Americans on the field, the World Cup’s bright lights can still trap the world’s greats. Star-studded Brazil and Germany, among the pre-tournament favorites to win it all, shockingly failed to get out of the group stage. Spain was routed by Japan. Canada collapsed in its group finale vs. Australia — which itself was under heaving pressure from the huge crowds and media spotlight surrounding the cohosts.

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

But as Horan has embraced the captain’s armband, she has also embraced one of the U.S. team’s eternal mantras. As former manager Jill Ellis famously put it at the last World Cup: “Some teams will visit pressure, but I think we live there.”

Right now, Horan has the deed to the house.

“We’re playing for these big matches; we’re playing for these big moments, these pressure-cookers, and that’s what we want to be a part of,” she said. “And us being the U.S. national team, we’re always going to have that. You guys always want to talk about us, and we’re going to take that.”

The test in front of the Americans now is daunting, but familiar. The clash with Sweden in Melbourne, Australia will mark the fifth straight major tournament (World Cups and Olympics) in which the longtime rivals have met, and the 10th in major tournaments overall. And the U.S. will be without one of its most important weapons, playmaker Rose Lavelle, because of yellow card accumulation.

» READ MORE: Covering a World Cup is a privilege, but it’s also a month-long grind

Sweden, meanwhile, just finished off a sweep of its group with a 2-0 win over Argentina, after a 2-1 win over South Africa and a 5-0 rout of Italy.

It bears saying, even if you don’t want to hear it, that the U.S. has beaten Sweden just once in a major tournament in the last 16 years — the 2019 World Cup group stage finale. The U.S. also failed to beat Sweden in its last two meetings, a 3-0 Swedish rout at the 2021 Olympics and a 1-1 tie in Stockholm three months earlier.

The last American win in the matchup was a 2019 friendly in Columbus, Ohio, that coincidentally was Vlatko Andonovski’s first game as U.S. manager.

If the U.S. loses this one, Sweden will have been both the first opponent of his tenure, as well as the last.

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