Gold Cup gave USWNT chance to find answers, CONCACAF left with questions

The CONCACAF W Gold Cup concluded Sunday evening with the U.S. women’s national team hoisting their rose-tinted trophy to the San Diego sky after defeating an imposing yet offensively subdued Brazilian side.

The tournament provided clarity for the USWNT in a time of transition amongst a team still waiting for its head coach, Emma Hayes, to take charge. But the competition itself was multidimensional, demanding similarly urgent questions and answers from the confederation about the region it oversees, and the place it wants to occupy globally as women’s soccer continues to grow.

Multilayered competition, Olympic-like experience

Alex Morgan earned her first national team cap on March 31, 2010. There’s not much the veteran striker hasn’t experienced with the squad in nearly 14 years since, but on the eve of the final, she found herself navigating the first edition of a regional competition that she’d always yearned for.

“I definitely get jealous sometimes of the Euros and all the European tournaments that go on,” Morgan said. “We don’t get the opportunity to have as many tournaments as them, so having the first women’s Gold Cup is a great opportunity to do so and have two confederations (CONCACAF and CONMEBOL) come together to play for a trophy, and all we wanna do is play for a trophy.”

The chance to compete for hardware was just part of the Gold Cup’s appeal. The tournament’s simulation of a grueling Olympic schedule — with a game every three days during the group stage, six days’ interim, and then a quarter, semi, and final within a week — provided a near-perfect atmosphere for players to make a case for a spot on the 18-player roster for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, with kickoff just four months away.

In that sense, the timing of the W Gold Cup was advantageous for players like Morgan and goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher, veterans attuned to the physical and mental demands of an intense tournament schedule who could anchor the team with their experience. Morgan had not initially been named to the tournament roster but was brought in to replace forward Mia Fishel, who suffered an ACL injury in national team camp on Feb. 19. The efficacy with which Morgan settled into her new role on the team proved critical to the U.S.’s success, particularly in its decisive quarterfinal victory over Colombia. It provided a pretty convincing answer to questions about her place on the team heading into this tournament. When asked whether she was actively vying for a ticket to Paris, she joked, “I hope so. I hope I’m fighting for a spot with my play.”

Naeher knows that song well, too.

“I think this tournament has asked a lot of questions of this team,” said Naeher before the final. “I think it’s obviously a time of transition and a time of new coaches, new players, and I think there is this balance on the group right now, of the team, of: still we have a number of great veteran players, and we have a number of young players coming in as well and I think there’s a lot of questions coming in, and I think it’s our job as players to make it hard for coaches to make decisions.”

Even if that evaluation rested solely on Naeher’s contributions to the U.S.’s extraordinary rain-soaked semifinal victory over Canada, in which she saved three penalties and converted one of her own, it would have been enough to afford her several more rounds of the benefit of the doubt. Now, there is hardly any doubt at all. She ended her W Gold Cup run with a golden glove.

And for the players with fewer caps — not necessarily the younger ones, as interim head coach Twila Kilgore consistently points out, since several young players have years of national team experience at this point — it’s difficult to imagine a more comprehensive diagnostic of a tournament than this one. From adjusting to diverse competition to learning how to bounce back from a disappointing result to powering through unimaginable weather conditions, it was the kind of gauntlet that spurs a player’s maturity and whets their appetite for pressure and chaos.

It’s one of the key lessons Jaedyn Shaw will take with her from this tournament. The 19-year-old made a commanding statement, starting three games, netting four goals, and capping that off with a Best Player award. Shaw has said many times that she craves high-pressure moments — and her track record appears to back that up — but admitted after the final that the experience of playing for a title was a new one to adjust to.

“I’m not gonna say it was like the other games because it absolutely was not,” said Shaw, who did not start the match and subbed on for Sam Coffey in the 71st minute. “Brazil really brought it and it was a real battle, and I mean, watching it from the sideline, like, I was literally shaking for the girls out there. But we ultimately did all that we could to get this result, and it really paid off.”

Journeying across the peaks and valleys of a tournament can teach those still gaining experience a lot, though. The team’s loss to Mexico in the group stage finale might have been the most important lesson of the cup.

“I don’t think a lot of teams could lose the way we did against Mexico, which was super disappointing and unacceptable from us, but respond the way that we did,” Coffey said after the final. Firmly in the hunt for more minutes in big games, it was Coffey’s initiative to pluck a stray ball from the middle of the park and release it to Trinity Rodman that led to Lindsey Horan scoring the U.S. go-ahead, game-winning goal in the final.

“I’m not sure we get here without that loss,” Coffey continued, her arms full with a miniature can of Coke, another iced beverage, a Squishmallow, and her confetti-crusted cleats. “I think we’re a team that just takes all the good, all the bad, all the things we’re proud of, all the things we’re not, and use it together for our good and turn it into fuel and things we can learn from and so I just couldn’t be prouder of the team, I think we went through so many ups and downs and we came out on top, and that’s all you can ask for.”

Mexico (and Puerto Rico, and Argentina, and Costa Rica) would like a word

Victors and their deserved flowers aside, the Gold Cup also supplied vital tournament experience for teams on the come-up. In the ever-changing world of women’s soccer, it is less a matter of skill and more one of repetition, or lack thereof.

On the heels of a heartbreaking and short-lived quest to the 2023 World Cup, Mexico’s women’s national team is in the midst of a beautiful rebirth. Though their W Gold Cup ended at the hands of Brazil, their performances were filled with catharsis and determined joy, raising the ceiling even higher on what they can accomplish in the near future. This tournament’s success only adds to the talent spilling out of Mexico’s Liga MX Femenil, the cohesion of that talent on La Tri, and the team’s ability to churn out consistent victories and qualify for major tournaments.

Mexico shocked the USWNT, winning the final group stage game. (Photo by Jessica Alcheh, USA TODAY Sports)

“I believe that it has been a great idea to join the teams from CONCACAF and CONMEBOL,” said Mexico head coach Pedro López Ramos ahead of their semifinal game. “A lot of future soccer players, they’re seeing very incredible games, not just for men or women. It’s attractive soccer, and I believe it’s going to make soccer grow in each one of the countries.

“I can only be grateful for this tournament because it’s going to make soccer grow in all aspects.”

Mexico winger Maria Sánchez echoed those thoughts, underscoring the visibility a CONCACAF tournament affords local leagues and the quality soccer found there.

“A lot of teams around the world, a lot of coaches around the world, can turn and see the product that has been coming out of a league like the Mexican league that maybe before weren’t rated as high,” said Sánchez, who plays for the Houston Dash in the NWSL. “Being part of this and having that visibility really helps countries like Mexico, where we weren’t able to represent in the World Cup, but we can do it in a tournament like this, and a lot of my teammates and myself are able to have different eyes on us.”

But it’s not just the larger nations in the region who benefit. Though their Gold Cup run was short-lived, there’s much to be said about the attention Puerto Rico, who knocked Haiti out of the tournament in a play-in game and held Brazil to just one goal in the group stage; Argentina, who continued the momentum of their World Cup campaign with a hearty draw with high-flying Mexico and a sound defeat of the Dominican Republic; and Costa Rica, who arguably earned the respect of every Canadian after forcing them to extra time in their eventual 1-0 win.

CONCACAF’s decision to implement a re-seeding mechanism to determine the quarterfinal matchups, instead of set paths, led to back-to-back games between Canada and Costa Rica. The Olympic champions won their first meeting handily, 3-0, but the pressure (and, surely, some sharp answers from Costa Rica) made the second meeting an entirely different game.

And that’s to say nothing of Colombia and Brazil, whose successes don’t require qualification. These teams have shown they have no desire to fade into the background, only emerging into the discourse during big tournament years. They’re here to stay, and the more opportunities they have to showcase their talent by going up against the best in the world, the greater their chances of growing the game domestically and stepping into even greater potential.

Now, CONCACAF must compete with the world

Regional tournaments will only expand from here as the level of competition in women’s soccer spreads more evenly around the world — and if CONCACAF wishes to remain on par with the likes of Europe with its precedential Euros in 2022, or Africa, which organized one of the best African Women’s Cup of Nations tournaments to date the same year, it will need to continue raising the bar or risk getting eclipsed and quickly left in the shadows.

That means giving each match the respect it deserves: minimizing (if not eliminating) weeknight matches to ensure higher attendance numbers, investing in sophisticated marketing for proper promotion of matches and other events surrounding them and perhaps most importantly, prioritizing players’ safety (and thus preserving the quality of competition) during unprecedented weather conditions.

Especially because others likely — and rightly — took notes from this tournament.

That Brazil, a CONMEBOL team, reached the finals of a CONCACAF tournament, begs the question of whether the South American soccer governing body might one day return the favor and host a few CONCACAF teams at the Copa America Feminina, similar to what CONCACAF has done in the Gold Cup. Brazil head coach Arthur Elias wouldn’t rule it out, given the strides he believes the confederation has made to advance women’s soccer in the region.

Brazil dominated the group stage and cruised to the final. (Photo by Orlando Ramirez, USA TODAY Sports)

“I didn’t participate in Copa América, but Copa Libertadores,” said Elias, who was the manager of the women’s team at Sport Club Corinthians Paulista, a legacy club in Brazil. Before the top job at Seleçãeo, Elias had won five league titles with Corinthians, plus two Copa Libertadores.

“I have always said that it is important for us to have Copa Libertadores in different venues, and that goes for Copa América, so they can bring more people, more fans to the stadiums,” Elias continued Sunday night following Brazil’s loss in the final. “This exchange is very positive for us to have more references. The U.S. has a great tradition for women’s soccer with great stadiums, pitches, great organization that contributed to us participating in this Gold Cup, and CONMEBOL is (also) in the right way to promote women’s soccer.”

(Top photo: John Todd/Getty Images)