The U.S. women’s national team exited the World Cup by millimeters in Sunday’s shootout loss to Sweden, and the Round of 16 exit raised questions about the future of the program.

“I think anyone who would say the U.S. is done is very mistaken,” USWNT defender Naomi Girma said after the match. “There’s a lot of us coming up who are going to learn from this, a lot of us who are going to be motivated to get better and get better results. So yeah, I think there’s a lot more ahead of us, and that’s exciting.”

Girma isn’t wrong. Yes, the USWNT was missing key players in Catarina Macario, Mal Swanson, Becky Sauerbrunn, Christen Press and more. But there’s still a lot to be proud of – and to hope for – with this squad.

And as the USWNT sets its sights on the Paris Olympics, it likely will do so with a new coach and a healthier roster. While there are no guarantees, the team has never let its standard slip for long.

The early World Cup exit has brought a lot of talk about the world catching up with the USWNT. But let’s not forget the 16-year period from 1999-2015, in which the USWNT went without winning a World Cup title. More recent fans don’t remember those times, thanks to two straight World Cup wins in 2015 and 2019. But teams like Sweden, Japan and Germany have always been right there with the USWNT. And now new teams like Colombia, Nigeria, Jamaica, Morocco and more are right in the thick of the competition.

Still, even when stacked against new contenders and old rivals, and even after its earliest World Cup exit ever, the USWNT is far from done.

“It’s the U.S.,” Sweden’s Kosovare Asllani said Sunday. “They will raise their standards, and they’re going to come back. I’ve heard there’s been a lot of talk about it, but they will come back for sure. They have so much quality in their team, and this defeat will not take them down. I expect them to be ready for the next World Cup. … I wouldn’t say that they’re out of the game at all. So don’t talk s— about the U.S. women.”

USWNT fans should be “proud” of their team, she continued.

“You have a really good team, and really good players, and they are taking the fight not just on the pitch, outside of the pitch,” she said. “And this is what it takes to raise women’s football to the next level. So I think you should encourage them and be a little bit more positive towards them.”

Sweden’s Magdalena Eriksson added that the USWNT proved in Sunday’s shootout loss that “they’re still an amazing team.”

“They’re definitely the toughest team we’ve faced in the tournament,” she said. “So, no, the future is still bright for the U.S.,” she said. “They’re still a massive powerhouse in women’s football, and they will be for a long time.”

Chelsea’s Magda Eriksson isn’t celebrating the addition of a Club World Cup by FIFA just yet, citing a recent uptick in injuries in an op-ed for iNews.

Eriksson noted in the op-ed that she found it “alarming” that FIFA “did not consult the leagues or the players” despite the recent string of serious injuries to players like Vivianne Miedema and Beth Mead.

“Instead, Fifa president Gianni Infantino just announced it out of the blue,” she wrote.

The announcement also came the day after Miedema left the field for Arsenal in tears, an injury that was later announced to be an ACL tear. Her injury, alongside Mead’s less than a month earlier, “only accentuates the need to give more serious thought to player welfare in the women’s game,” Erikkson writes.

“Fifpro, the players’ union, were right to complain about the lack of consultation,” she says. “I’m all for new ideas but you have to think about the players. If you just add more and more games, there’ll come a time when it just becomes too much.”

While the Swedish defender would be excited to play some of the best teams from other leagues, she argues that FIFA should have consulted with the players union. She also reflects on her own experience following the Euros and attempting to cope not only with the loss but how the tournament affected her body when she returned to her club team.

“When I went back into Chelsea, I had issues with tendinopathy – inflammation in my hamstring and achilles, which is the product of overloading,” she writes. “Every footballer has it somewhere once they reach a certain age, yet it was clear to me my body was struggling.”

Some of her teammates, she says, “are still feeling fatigued from the Euro.”

A two week break like that between the Euros tournament and the beginning of the Women’s Super League season, she notes, isn’t enough for players to recover.

“Next year’s World Cup will start on 20 July and end on 20 August,” she says. “It means you get a few weeks off before the tournament but you end up wanting to stay fit and doing some training on your own. It’s afterwards when you need the break and, as I’ve mentioned above, I don’t think two weeks is enough.

“This is the personal cost that players face and it’s sad to see a loved one like that – yet another reason, therefore, why I feel so passionate about protecting my fellow players.”