Jimjamesak
Already insane, UAA making it worse
To me, there never really seemed to be a “they’re really going to lose” moment like in other tournaments. The teams would look good coming in but when the moment came the Euro teams bonked.Maybe. FWIW, I don't believe Sweden was too concerned with their matchup with the USA, and was more focused on the knockout stages. They were a much better team against Germany and the Netherlands than they were against the USA. As you mentioned, France and Spain both challenged the USA. I thought England challenged us too, particularly in the second half. As for the Dutch, they were certainly playing a different strategy, and had they been successful on a counter early on, it would have been a much different game.
One of the main problems, to me at least, is the Euro teams are kind of in an uncanny valley where they’ve advanced so much tactically and technically that can appear to be able to beat the US tactically but then the athleticism takes over for the US and it’s not really close.