Phil Neville’s “Are you ready to win the World Cup?” challenge to his players does not rile Megan Rapinoe. “If you’re at this stage of the tournament and you’re not trying to win the World Cup, I don’t know what the hell you’re doing here,” the USA superstar said in response to his comments.
“Every team that qualified for the World Cup should feel like that. Especially one of the biggest teams in the game. They are playing well and had a totally dominating performance, they should absolutely be confident. We like confidence in America don’t we?” she added with a wry smile.
The swagger of this USA team as they power towards reclaiming their status as world champions is unyielding. Except while the Americans have led from the front for so long, streaks ahead of their closest rivals, now they are looking over their shoulders. The Europeans are catching up fast, with increasing investment in the domestic leagues fuelling the charge.
The USA were the only non-European side in the quarter-finals, and they will be flying the flag for the rest of the world in the last four. Rapinoe can see the difference and where they need to improve if they are to pull clear once more.
“It’s no secret we have to get better on the ball, better playing with it,” she said. “The level is just growing every day in the women’s game. You’ve seen some fantastic performances.”
With the heat meaning many teams are training early and late, watching the Lionesses’ 3-0 defeat of Norway was not a planned sit-down affair, but they did catch bits. “England were super-clinical against Norway so we absolutely have our work cut out,” said Rapinoe, who is unsurprised by the growth of this England team. “I think that they, as a federation, have put a lot of money behind that programme and they’ve been on the rise.
“Without that devastating own goal in the last World Cup [which condemned England to a 2-1 defeat by Japan in the semi-finals] we could’ve been facing them in the final in Canada. They have been right there and have such a strong squad and really good young players coming up.”
With five goals to bring her level with her teammate Alex Morgan, England’s Ellen White and the eliminated Australian Sam Kerr, the battle between Rapinoe and Crystal Dunn versus Lucy Bronze and Nikita Parris on the wings will be the focus of Tuesday evening’s semi-final in Lyon.
Ali Krieger, the defender who spoke out on Twitter in support of Rapinoe’s criticism of Donald Trump, said “It’s tough to be silent” after Friday’s 2-1 defeat of the hosts France. “Because you feel like you’re complicit. I don’t want to be that anymore, it doesn’t take a lot of mind space to tweet something and refocus. It’s funny, women can multitask. Imagine that! Two things at once.
“I thought it was really important for me to not make [Rapinoe] feel like she has to process this all alone, and a lot of us have similar feelings.”
Krieger described Thursday night’s England game as “‘great fun to watch”, adding: “The goals were really good. They’re a strong, physical team, they’re mentally tough, but we’re prepared for whatever team comes at us. It’s going to be another exciting game, it’s going to be so much fun because at the highest level you want to play against the best teams in the world – and we’re doing that right now.”
Jill Ellis, the USA coach, said: “I watched some of it. We had training but caught some of the game. I think it was a dominant performance as Megan said. They’ve got a lot of talented players. To single one out? I don’t know, their frontline and the striker is hot right now. I still want to know what this [she does Ellen White’s celebration with one hand] means? But they are a good team front to back, with a lot of experienced players so it’s going to be a good match up.”
The Americans have a day less than England to recover and, having played a more gruelling match, essentially what many have described as a final two games before the actual final, efficient recovery is key.
“We’ve been in this position before, and the tournament is mentally, emotionally, physically draining,” said the 34-year-old Krieger. “You have to take a step back, put the phones away, say hello to your families quickly and get back to refreshing and recovering, getting your body back to 100% for three days from now. It’s tough, but we’re immune to that. We’re very good at it, that’s what we’ve been training for the last four years and some of us even beyond that. We’re used to it, we’re comfortable doing it and we’re prepared to do it.”
Ellis added: “You’ve got to let players enjoy this moment because that was a gritty win. Again, we’re going to have less days recovery than our opponent but that’s the rhythm for us in this cup, so be it.”
