Megan Rapinoe rallies the USWNT for its highest-pressure game in years

AUCKLAND, New Zealand — Though much about this U.S. women’s World Cup team is new, the situation in which it finds itself is not.

In fact, it’s been here pretty recently.

Eight years ago in Canada, the Americans started with a win narrower than its score, then a tie that raised lots of consternation.

Back then, it was a 3-1 win over Australia and a scoreless tie with Sweden. This time, it was a 3-0 win over Vietnam and a 1-1 tie with the Netherlands.

There are some definite differences between then and now. The most obvious is that the U.S. wasn’t the reigning champion, never mind the two-time reigning champion it is now. The other is that going into the group stage finale in 2015, the U.S. had a one-point lead over second-place Australia in the standings, instead of being tied for first. So while the finale was a must-win, goal difference wasn’t a factor the way it will be this time.

From a high-level view, though, the two landscapes look pretty similar. So it wasn’t surprising to see a player step up to the podium on Sunday who was there back then and is here now.

And it was even less surprising that the player was Megan Rapinoe.

» READ MORE: Vlatko Andonovski liked how the U.S. played vs. the Netherlands, but not many other people did

“I think being on the U.S. women’s national team, we kind of always feel like this,” Rapinoe said. “When was the last time anybody wrote a headline like, ‘They played the best game, and that’s exactly what we were expecting.’ … That would be you guys [in the media] not doing your job, and that would be us not doing our job, if we’re like, ‘Nope, played great, doing everything we’re supposed to be doing.’”

If quips like that weren’t enough to prove Rapinoe has a future in media — she’s already done plenty on camera over the years — then something she said a moment later was further proof.

“Obviously, if we would have won [the] last game, we would have clinched the group and been through already, but whatever,” she said dismissively, banishing the Netherlands tie to the past ahead of Tuesday’s game against Portugal (3 a.m. ET, Fox29, Telemundo 62, Peacock).

“I mean, this is the tournament — this is what it means, this is the pressure of being the No. 1 team in a World Cup, but this is just the pressure in general of being at the World Cup,” Rapinoe continued. “This moment is going to come no matter what. So it’s not a bad thing, I don’t think, for everyone to be like, ‘OK, let’s strap in and get ready for this game.’”

» READ MORE: Lindsey Horan’s header saves a 1-1 tie for the U.S. vs. the Netherlands at the World Cup

She still has many critics, and they don’t hesitate to pounce whenever Rapinoe shows up. But the rallying cry she gave her team here would have drawn cheers from any Eagles fan had Jalen Hurts said it on a November Thursday.

“For me, I’m excited,” Rapinoe said. “You have a must-perform, must-win type of game. … It’s a pressure moment, and that’s what the tournament is now. Every single game from here on out is that pressure moment, and that’s the best part of being at a World Cup.”

It’s her job to pass that mentality on to the new generation of rising American stars, and she has embraced the role with her full self.

“Everybody’s like, ‘OK, we have to perform better, and we have to get this result,’” she said. “I think that something that just always gets passed down to the generations of this team is — no, we go into these moments like, ‘Hell yeah, this is exactly where we want to be.’”

And as she said a few minutes later, in reflecting on taking everything in at her last World Cup: “I’m trying to stay present as much as possible, but … I just want to [bleeping] win, too. I’m like, ‘Oh, yay, last World Cup, great’ — and I’m like, ‘No, it’s awesome when you win, not when you don’t win.’”

» READ MORE: Naomi Girma and Sophia Smith lead the USWNT’s campaign for mental health at the World Cup

Rapinoe did not play against the Netherlands after coming off the bench against Vietnam. She was one of a few players who might have helped turn the tie into a win had U.S. manager Vlatko Andonovski sent her in.

“For me, the conversations that I’ve had with Vlatko just in general [have been] when the time is right and the situation in the game is ready, that I’ll be ready,” she said. “I think I could have helped, but I think Lynn [Williams] could have helped, and I think Trinity [Rodman, who started] was helping, and I think Soph [Smith] was helping. And it was right there for us — I don’t think that it was like all the players on the field didn’t do their job.”

Few players know Andonovski better than Rapinoe, who has played for him not just with the U.S. but with the NWSL’s OL Reign. For over a year now, she has served as his top lieutenant in the locker room with the freedom to make it a two-way conversation.

“I’m always talking to him, always saying what I think about things, or talking with players,” she said. “Obviously, if I can’t be playing, I can still see the game and see what’s happening, whether that’s at halftime or after the game. So we have a very close relationship.”

The cameras won’t be rolling behind the scenes Tuesday, but there’s no doubt that Rapinoe will have just as much to say to her team as she did to the media on Sunday.

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

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