Alex Morgan isn’t concerned about the USWNT’s abilities following the team’s three-game skid.
Speaking on Saturday during media availability, she said that while the team has been winning games, she doesn’t think they’ve “run through everyone” in previous games. Discussion has been had about the growth of the women’s game in recent years, which Morgan cited.
“The game has just gotten incredibly better,” she said. “The quality across the board has gotten better year after year as federations put more money, more effort, more time and focus into their women’s side as domestic leagues have continued to increase in quality throughout the world.
Now, she says, the USWNT’s job is to figure out how to stay on top as other teams meet the level that the USWNT dominated for years.
“I don’t think for us, losing 1, 2, 3 in a row as we have the last couple of games, that’s not going to hurt us in the big picture,” she continued. “If anything, this is motivation for us going into the World Cup, knowing that what we gave wasn’t good enough and what we need to give in the World Cup has to be better.”
Key to figuring that out prior to next summer’s World Cup is “focusing on the small things,” Morgan says. Players have to be putting in 100 percent all of the time, and the team’s young talent has to learn from bigger moments in games.
Criticism of the team has increased, including from former greats like Carli Lloyd and Heather O’Reilly, as the USWNT has lost three games in a row for the first time since 1993. Head coach Vlatko Andnovski pushed back at claims of the team’s lost mentality on Saturday while Morgan pointed to the team’s opportunity for growth.
“These games, as difficult as they’ve been, I think there’s a lot of good learning points that we’re gonna be taking with us over the next eight or nine months and applying,” she said.
“Trust me, there will be video that will come back of these last three games, because it’s important to remember the low points in order to get to the high points.”