The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: World Cup, USWNT, and More

Welcome back, Mane Landers. Originally, I was going to write about the Pride match, but the weather kept that from happening. Not to say they didn’t eventually play, but it was getting quite late for the article I intended. As such, I hope you got to watch the match, as I won’t be covering it at all.

The Good

Croatia advanced to the final of the World Cup. Let me write that again, Croatia advanced. The second smallest country to advance did so with a 2-1 win over England (which, according to everyone, should have had no problem with Croatia). Despite going up 1-0 in the fifth minute, the Three Lions weren’t able to hold on for the win. This is good because we now have an opportunity for a country that has never won the World Cup to do so on Sunday. Unfortunately, it means that despite the hype, despite the song, the Cup is not “coming home.”

The Bad

Jill Ellis has made it known that she will be calling up NWSL players prior to next weekend’s games. That potentially means that she will take Alex Morgan and Ashlyn Harris to the senior team prior to the Pride’s match against the Seattle Reign. It might not seem like a big deal given that Sydney Leroux and Haley Kopmeyer are available, but any time away from the squad is detrimental and the Pride-Reign match has major league playoff race ramifications. It gets worse when Brazil and Australia call up their players for the same Tournament of Nations. Here’s where the supposed depth of Tom Sermanni’s squad comes into play.

The Ugly

The rest of Orlando City’s season is the potential ugly. As of right now, the Lions would need to turn around their run of form to make the playoffs, and turn around this season. I don’t think that will happen. As such, there’s plenty of losses and disappointments to come for the remainder of the season. I could be wrong. I hope I am. However, unless James O’Connor and his staff are able to work miracles, we should start planning for another rebuilding off-season. I’m not saying that it couldn’t happen, but it would take quite a turnaround to do so. Like I said, I hope that O’Connor proves me wrong.

That’s going to do it for this week. Let me know if I missed anything or if you have something to add in the comments. Half the fun is talking with you folks in the comment sections. Go City and Go Pride!