Andi Sullivan knows the USWNT needs to run up the score vs. Portugal in their World Cup group stage finale

AUCKLAND, New Zealand — There’s nothing unusual about U.S. women’s soccer team manager Vlatko Andonovski’s desire to win games through controlling them.

It’s a logical way of seeing the world, and there’s plenty of proof that it works. Soccer is a game of space and vision as much it is about running, shooting, and tackling.

But if you focus too much on controlling a game and don’t succeed at it, you might end up in a situation that you can’t control. And right now, Andonovski is in a big one.

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

Because the Americans tied the Netherlands instead of beating them, they could get overtaken in the standings if they only win Tuesday’s group stage finale against Portugal (3 a.m. ET, Fox29, Telemundo 62, Peacock) by controlling it. The 2019 World Cup’s finalists are tied on points atop the Group E standings with four each, with the U.S. leading on a goal differential tiebreaker, 3-1.

The Dutch are set to face last-place, already-eliminated Vietnam at the same hour (FS1, Universo, Peacock). Vietnam has given up five goals through two games, and if it gives up enough this time, that could overturn the goal differential margin.

So the Americans have a major incentive to floor it against a Portugal team that beat Vietnam, 2-0, and is very much still alive in its first women’s World Cup. The group winner gets the second-place team from Group G, while the second-place finisher gets that group’s winner — likely old rival Sweden, which demolished Italy, 5-0, on Saturday.

There’s some irony in saying the U.S. needs to hit the gas pedal. For many years, the biggest criticism leveled at the Americans was that they played the game too fast, instead of the more thoughtful style used by the rest of the world’s rising powers. Can this squad now pick up the pace and run up the score?

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

Yes, you read that last sentence right. Four years after a certain caucus of TV viewers ripped the U.S. for running up the score in a World Cup game, any of those same viewers who want the Americans to win will be rooting for them to do exactly that.

“I think the conversation began right after the [Netherlands] game, when we debriefed as a team — that we’re going to need to play fast and score a lot of goals,” U.S. midfielder Andi Sullivan said. “We also just want that for ourselves, regardless of the game, the situation. Because we know our first two performances have been solid, but we know we have more to give, especially in putting goals up.”

Raising the tempo isn’t just about the attacking side of the ball. It’s about the defensive side too, and how much the U.S. dials up the high press that has run opponents over for decades. It was there at times against the Netherlands, but it too often wasn’t, and Sullivan knew it wasn’t clicking.

“We weren’t in sync,” Sullivan said. “That happens, and we were able to adjust it and respond. Hopefully, we can do that earlier in the future. … Of course, sometimes when you adjust, it’s going to take a second to get on the same page, and we have full confidence in each other that no matter what we do, we will figure it out and we will execute.”

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The conversations about figuring out have been quite forthright.

“We’re very direct when something’s not going the way that we want it to go,” she said. “You have to be direct, and clear, and honest, and loud. People asking questions, figuring things out — hey, this is working; hey, this isn’t working — so it’s honestly just constantly reviewing, communicating, and encouraging.”

That is not something to take for granted, even in a U.S. program that has long been led by big personalities with no fear of speaking their minds.

“We know where we want to go, and we know that we don’t have a lot of time to do it, a lot of time to get together,” Sullivan said. “And we know that there’s a really high standard, and it’s not something that we just randomly turn on — it’s something we practice every single day, and that we have for years. So it’s not something that’s new for us.”

» READ MORE: All of our 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup coverage in one place, from how to watch to who to watch

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