USA Women accused of not putting 'winning first' in latest World Cup dig

08 August 2023 , 19:27

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Commentator Taylor Twellman is the latest person to level criticism towards the USWNT players following their early exit from the World Cup (Image: Bill Barrett/ISI Photos/Getty Images)

Former US international Taylor Twellman is the latest person to criticise the USWNT after their poor showing at the World Cup ended with an early exit.

The Stars and Stripes had a campaign to forget at this year's World Cup, with their unconvincing showing in the group stages followed by a penalty shootout loss versus Sweden. Not only was their performance in Group E the worst in their history, their defeat in the Round of 16 represents their earliest exit ever.

Overall, their four games Down Under yielded just one win in the form of a 3-0 defeat of Vietnam in their opening game, while Vlatko Andonovski's players scored just once in the rest of their games. After coming into the tournament as favourites to win a third successive World Cup - as the world's best-ranked team, no less - their struggles have come as something of a surprise.

Now former New England Revolution forward Twellman - who currently appears as an analyst for Apple TV - has called for wholesale changes from top to bottom after the team's shock exit. The 43-year-old expressed his concerns at how the US were outplayed by their opponents in Australia and New Zealand during a summer to forget.

Speaking to TMZ Sports, he said: "In this World Cup, [in terms of] technical, tactical [aspects] they were completely outdone! It was obvious. They didn't score a goal in 238 minutes. You are the No. 1 nation in the world, that's inexplicable so now this is a watershed moment."

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"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result. I think top to bottom, the United States Federation on the women's side has to look at development, they have to look at the collegiate part of it, they have to look at the development within the professional leagues.

"Are the professional leagues developing the players the right way? Is technique a huge part of it, or is it just about being bigger, faster, and stronger than the other countries? It's not gonna work anymore."

The USWNT were knocked out of the World Cup in the round of 16 for the first time in their history (Robin Alam/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)

In a further dig at the group of players who headed to this year's tournament from the US, Twellman backed up previous comments from former US stalwart Carli Lloyd. The former star criticised the players following their poor performance in the group stage. "It started to shift post-2020 and there are a lot of off-the-field things that are happening. You never want to take anything for granted."

For Twellman, Lloyd's words resonated and he expressed his concern that the team simply did not carry the same mentality that served them so well at the two previous tournaments when they emerged as winners. He said: "This women's World Cup has exposed the failure of the United States women to develop, and this generation, I think, did not carry on the mentality that winning comes first.

"Everything else is secondary, and I think some of that criticism has been correct on that. I really think it's telling that she brought it up because what we saw during the World Cup kind of backs Carli Lloyd's opinion."

Tom Beattie