Even the replay required a second look, so slim was the margin that separated the United States and Sweden on Sunday night. But there it was, years of work, two weeks of games and two-plus hours of world-class soccer reduced to a single computer-generated image: the ball a fraction of an inch over the goal line, and the United States fully, and unequivocally, out of the World Cup.
For hours, the United States and Sweden had circled one another like prizefighters painting a World Cup classic. They had pushed and shoved, taken shots and saved them, tested their nerve to the limit. And then, after two halves and two extra periods couldn’t separate them, they went to penalties — and even there they were only a sliver apart.
Shot followed shot, save was matched by save, miss was followed by miss. And then Kelley O’Hara, the seventh American to step up to the spot, hit the right post, and Lina Hurtig, the seventh Swede, sent a low hard shot to the right of United States goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher.
Naeher, who had been brilliant all night, saved that shot, too. But as the ball popped up in the air and began to descend, it tumbled back toward the goal instead of away from it. Naeher, still on the grass after her initial save, reached back and swatted at it a second time. She was sure she had batted it clear, and sprung to her feet waving a finger at the referee to insist she was right.
The teams stood frozen in the moment and the crowd held its breath. The French referee, Stephanie Frappart, double-checked. The goal was given. The Swedes sprinted off after Hurtig toward a corner of the field. The United States, the two-time reigning champion, the most decorated and successful team in World Cup history, was eliminated.
“We just lost the World Cup by a millimeter,” Naeher said.
The tears flowed immediately. From Sophia Smith, the young forward who had missed a chance to win it, and from Megan Rapinoe, who missed just before Smith. Others were crying, too, too many to count. The rest of the American players just stared off into the distance, or into the ground, looking, perhaps, for an alternate plane where what they had just seen had not happened.
“Unfortunately, soccer can be cruel sometimes,” United States Coach Vlatko Andonovski said. He may soon find out just how much.
This finish — eliminated in the round of 16 — will go down as the worst in World Cup history for the United States women’s national team, which had always reached at least the semifinals. It was a forgettable denouement to a tournament in which the U.S. team won only once in four games, scored in only two of them, and only in its final game looked like the contender it believed itself to be.
Andonovski will surely take much of the blame for that. But it will be a shared grief for a team that never really found its footing, did not find the goal nearly enough, and now will head home wondering what might have been.
Andonovski declined to discuss his future, saying it would be “selfish” to think about what the defeat means for him on such a devastating night. “I see the players in tears, and it hurts,” he said. “And that’s all I can think about.”
Smith, 22, and young stars like forward Trinity Rodman and defender Naomi Girma, will have more World Cups. Rapinoe, 38, will not. She announced before the tournament that this would be her final World Cup, and it will be her most frustrating. Reduced to a substitute, she had come on in extra time and searched, along with everyone else on both teams, for some moment of magic that would change the ending in their favor.
When her turn came in the shootout, she sent her attempt over the crossbar. “That’s a sick joke,” she said, to miss a penalty, to go out like that.
It could have been different. Naeher had kept the Americans in the game with steady work and a series of solid saves. At the other end, her counterpart, Zecira Musovic, had been even better: The Americans outshot Sweden by more than double, and had put 11 of those attempts on goal to Sweden’s one. But time and time again Musovic denied them, reaching out to parry stinging shots or dangerous chances. She pushed away a rocketed right-footer from Lindsey Horan in the 53rd minute and a close-range header from Alex Morgan in the 88th.
Asked if she had played the game of her life — a common assessment from all sides — Musovic parried that, too. “It was a good game,” she said, “from all of us.”
By then the game seemed fated to a penalty kick shootout. Still, the teams pushed and probed and pressed as the crowd, so tense it fell silent for long stretches, finally awoke in the closing minutes.
“I feel like we dominated, but it doesn’t matter,” Morgan said, probably correct on both counts.
The entire night had been tense, played out in front of a pro-American crowd so invested that it sometimes went long stretches without cheering. That made it possible, at times, to sit in the upper tier and hear players call out defensive assignments and open passes. The shootout, though, brought supporters from both sides out of their seats.
The United States went first, Andi Sullivan and Horan converting in quick succession, their attempts matched by Fridolina Rolfo and then Elin Rubensson. Kristie Mewis gave the Americans a 3-2 lead and Nathalie Bjorn missed and suddenly, the Americans had the opening they needed.
They promptly handed it back, through the unlikeliest of sources: Rapinoe, presented a chance to help her team over the line, to write another chapter in her glittering résumé, sent her attempt high over the bar instead.
Rebecka Blomqvist then missed for Sweden, though, giving Smith the chance to play the hero, to signal a changing of the guard. She shot over the bar as well.
Hanna Bennison pulled the Swedes even, and then Naeher, stepping out of her goal to shoot, and Sweden defender Magdalena Eriksson scored to heighten the drama, if that was possible. O’Hara was next, sprinting to the spot with intent. But her shot kissed the right post and skipped away, and Hurtig beat Naeher through gravity as much as force, and the game was done.
Sweden will move on to the quarterfinals against Japan and whatever might come after that.
The United States will pack its bags and head off into an uncertain future. It will leave behind a World Cup that will be memorable, just as all its previous trips have been.
This time, though, it will be not for what was won, but for what, on a cold night in Melbourne, was lost.
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