World Cup Postmortem: USWNT FIFA Ranking Drops to Third

ZURICH – The pride and joy of the U.S. Soccer Federation has taken another hard blow. Their darlings, along with their loyal supporters, learned this week that the USWNT FIFA ranking had slid to third place.

For the United States Women’s National Team, it is their lowest ranking since 2003. They won two of their four World Cup titles in 2015 and 2019, had spent all but 10 months in the #1 perch since 2008, or just shy of 5800 days.

 I doubt that anyone forecasted that the Lady Yanks would not have at least made it into the finals, if not the semifinals at a bare minimum.

However, during the evening of August 6 in chic Melbourne, Australia, their fate was sealed. In the near architecturally perfect rectangular stadium, the U.S. failed to live up their intimidating demeanor and practically invincible reputation.

They did not score in regulation time, stoppage time, or two extra periods against a damn the torpedoes full speed ahead Swedish side.

Team USA went onto miss three penalty kicks. They were ultimately sunk by a digital VAR image, an image that has been stretch in every possible direction, if not magnified by microscopes. Its hyper-analysis ultimately favored their opponents.

As a result, the referee’s call heard around the world knocked out the USWNT in Round 16.

In losing to Sweden, the Swedes have taken sole possession of first place in the table, while the U.S. dropped two spots.

Not only the did the team fall, so did their amiable head coach, Vlatko Andonovski. He fell from the good graces of his managers, and resigned soon after the team’s charter flight arrived stateside.

Now, with their eyes focused on winning the brightest medal in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, the wounded Yanks will start to take out their frustrations and pain on South Africa in late September, and two additional opponents in October.

In what was to be a highly anticipated two-city homecoming tour through Cincinnati and Chicago for the “2023 Women’s World Cup champions” the pilgrimage of sorts will amount to an anticlimactic series for both the players and their fans alike. 

The muted celebration will be similar to the American’s return from the 2020-2021 Tokyo Olympics with bronze medals.

Photo Credit: John Babiak.

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