Defending champions United States have been knocked out of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 after losing 5-4 on penalties against Sweden at the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, Australia, on Sunday.
The match ended 0-0 after 120 minutes and went to penalties.
Sweden converted five out of their seven penalties but the US could only convert four of seven with Kelley O’Hara missing the last penalty which ended her team's journey in the World Cup.
A lot of fans think that the reason the USA is out of the World Cup is because some of their players had their minds on matters that were not related to football.
While some believe that players were way too overconfident as they were the reigning champions they thought no one can actually compete against them.
Here is how Twitter reacted to US elimination
Even though the US had more shots as well as more on target, they could not go past Sweden’s Zecira Musovic who made 11 saves making sure that all the efforts of the defending champions went to waste.
“I’m so proud of the team, of the women on the field and everybody outside. We were criticised for the way we played and I know we were criticised in the group stage,” said USA coach Vlatko Andonovski after the match.
“We came out today and showed what we are all about. We showed the grit, the resilience, the fight the bravery.”
Asked about his future and the future of the US women’s national team, he said, “Look at this team, we had five players that started who are playing for the first time in this tournament, young players.”
This is the first time the USA have been eliminated before the semi-final stage in the history of the Women’s World Cup.
It must be noted that the USA failed to score in successive Women’s World Cup matches for the first time. Not only that, this was also the first time they went three games without a win in the competition.