2010 us world cup rivalry
The USWNT in the 2010s: A decade of opponents
The United States Women’s National Team had a phenomenal decade, with 2 Women’s World Cup titles, an Olympic gold medal, and several other accomplishments in the 2010s. The team went an astounding 177-14-29 (W-L-D) from 2010-2019, and from Portugal to Jacksonville, they terrorized opponents quite frequently.
The team faced 41 unique opponents in their 220 matches, including friendlies, World Cup qualifying, Olympic qualifying, and friendly tournaments like SheBelieves Cup and the Tournament of Nations. Who did they face the most? Let’s see who the most common opponents were for the best team on the planet:
China was the USWNT’s most familiar opponent, lining up against the world champions 16 times this decade. It may not be that surprising, as the USWNT liked to schedule the same team twice in the same international window so that they didn’t have to figure out the logistics of two separate teams flying to the United States. Japan, Mexico, Sweden, Canada, France, Brazil, Costa Rica, and Germany each faced the USWNT 10 times or more, and with friendly competitions like the Algarve Cup, the Kirin
The stakes of this game were so wildly high. It had been hyped up for months, since people realized the World Cup draw had set up the tournament's two best teams to meet way too early in the quarterfinal. There was a chance at the World Cup on the line, obviously. But also, the US team’s equal pay suit was built on the back of its soccer record, and for its case to hold up, it really could
not
lose in the quarterfinal. And there was that Twitter thing with Trump.
If you weren’t following the USWNT, here’s the thing you might not realize about this game: A lot of people didn’t expect the US to win it. The team had won the 2015 World Cup, sure, but it had spent a lot of the next four years in a pretty bad funk. (I’d like to state for the record that I blame coach Jill Ellis.) It hadn’t beaten France in its last three meetups; months earlier, it had lost to France 3–1.
Then there was Rapinoe. There was a time where a lot of people thought she was basically done with the USWNT. After an ACL tear at age 30 and a bad 2016 Olympics, a lot of people were
happy
to write Rapinoe out — partly because she had knelt during the national anthem in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick. And y
World Cup 2010: One-sided rivalry remains football's grand illusion
One of the many splendours of modern technology is that it is able to transmit round-robin witticisms to those who might otherwise find themselves short of an
aperçu
at the most opportune of moments. Consider the embarrassment averted this morning at Port Elizabeth airport, when the BlackBerry of an England supporter beeped obligingly into life. The screen was consulted.
"This is great," he bellowed to assembled travellers, sweetly extending the bounty to those who were not in his touring party – and indeed those not fortunate enough to have won first prize in the lottery of life and been born an Englishman. "This World Cup is exactly like the second world war," he guffawed. "The French surrender early, the US turn up late, and we're left to deal with the bloody Germans."
It brought the house down. Unfortunately, he wasn't buried in the rubble.
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The US and the 2010 World Cup
Our series on the US at the World Cup continues with a look at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Following its poor showing at the 2006 World Cup, the US was clearly in need of new leadership, and three weeks after it’s exit from the tournament, the US Soccer Federation announced that head coach Bruce Arena’s contract would not be renewed. When negotiations to hire Jurgen Klinsmann as the new head coach could not be completed, Bob Bradley was named as interim head coach in December of 2006. In May of 2007, the interim tag was removed only weeks before the start of the 2007 Gold Cup tournament. There, Bradley coached the US to the final on June 24 in front of 60,000 spectators at Chicago’s Soldier Field where a 2-1 win over Mexico capped a six game run in which the US outscored its opponents 13 goals to three.
Four days later, the US played its opening group game at the 2007 Copa America in Venezuela, its first appearance in the tournament since 1995. With little time to rest, and using a squad largely comprised of young MLS players, the US was grouped with, Argentina, Colombia, and Paraguay in Group C. It was a disappointi