Ahhh, Uzbekistan. I must admit, as I was calling the second of two friendlies the U.S. women’s national team played against Uzbekistan for ESPN, I did start to wonder 30 minutes in — after the U.S. had scored six goals — why Uzbekistan said yes to this two-game drubbing.
Growth mindset, I get it. You’ve got to play the best to be the best. Yep. It just seems that you can sometimes extract a lesson less emphatically and in a less psychologically damaging way, no? Uzbekistan, ranked No. 48 in the world, is the lowest-ranked team the USWNT has faced in seven months. The U.S. is ranked No. 1.
As I try and summarize what we learned over this April international match window as it relates to the USWNT, I keep finding myself saying “Yes, but…”
The U.S. team scored 18 goals over two games vs. Uzbekistan. Impressive, indeed.
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Yes, but…
The U.S. had nine different players score those 18 goals.
Yes, but…
That front three of Mal Pugh, Catarina Macario, and Sophia Smith are creative, dynamic, and fun as hell to watch. The U.S. starting front five often looked silky smooth.
Yes, but…
The outside backs of Emily Fox and Sofia Huerta looked impactful and confident getting forward. The subs came in and made an impact.
Yes, but… it was Uzbekistan. Herein lies the problem. You do not want to be taking 38 shots to your opponent’s zero shots (as in goose egg, nada, NOT ONE SHOT AT ALL — not even off target).
You need to get these younger U.S. players time, minutes, confidence, chemistry — all the above — but when it involves teams like Uzbekistan, Iceland, New Zealand, and the Czech Republic (the USWNT’s opponents so far in 2022), it is hard to assess how much growth is even happening.
You can, for sure, check the confidence and chemistry boxes, but this level of opponent does not expose you enough to fully appreciate what needs to be tightened up technically and tactically. It doesn’t expose these young players to those critical moments of adversity that require you to…
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