#but obviously i hope vlatko is fired like immediately lol

[possibilistfanfiction]

Wow uswnt really got knocked out in round of 16 huh

not surprised at all. i’ve been saying this since tokyo — just abt everything that could go wrong at a leadership level (coaching, vets etc) has. i know ppl are saying “mentality” as in they don’t want to win or whatever which is absolute nonsense, but i do think our mentality hasn’t been there in that there hasn’t been joy! togetherness! composure!

& to me those intangibles haven’t been there since 2019. (really since after 2016 but that’s nitpicking.) but yah it’s like. i think from rostering to tactics to mentality it’s all just been shit for a while. vlatko is terrible, we didn’t roster the best 23 players, we didn’t play the best 11 players in a way that would make any sense (pivot 6s) until last night (but not even then… lmao).

not to take anything away from other teams getting so much better, bc they are & it’s incredible. portugal deserved to be in this game to begin with; parity has genuinely always been the uswnt’s goal. but faced with it, i don’t think there’s a togetherness, a trust there that u need to win. tactically we don’t have players who will be patient & hold the ball; we don’t have players who are Really calm in front of goal. we looked more lively & organized last night but that’s bc we needed two 6s the whole time, & potm to sweden’s keeper, but even then! you gotta put it in the back of the net. you have to. that’s the literal sport lol

so to me it’s an issue of composure. to be composed everything else has to line up — your training, your teammates, your positioning. leadership has been making excuses since 2021 for this lack of composure, & this is what happens. ofc we don’t have the same “mentality” but it’s not bc we don’t want to win or were “distracted” or whatever, it’s bc most of our players didn’t know what the fuck they were doing & everyone was just stressed tf out. no joy! no teamwork! no creativity! no clinical precision! japan, england, spain (even w the japan loss), even nigeria — all of those teams have played w calm, w happiness! they want to be on that field — even despite a shitty coach, or injuries, or etc etc etc. we just didn’t, & it starts & ends w leaders.

this is what happens when u don’t actually have a group of players that feel like a team. we weren’t going to be successful in this wc unless leadership took accountability for the lack of good play & changed things — & they kind of did a little in this last game but not nearly enough, & way too late

#i could & have gone on abt this for days w my friends lol #don’t get me started on rodman lol #but obviously i hope vlatko is fired like immediately lol