After a rather inauspicious win against Trinidad and Tobago on Wednesday, the United States has a chance to virtually advance to the knockout round tonight against Guatemala in Chicago. The United States and Haiti are tied with three points and Trinidad and Tobago and Guatemala have zero in Group A. In what was supposed to be a simple formality, the United States seemed to struggle to beat Trinidad and Tobago 1-0 as they looked to be playing down to their opponents. Abby Wambach scored her unprecedented 171st goal in international competition but there was nothing much else that happened.
The USWNT was still dominant as ever on the stat sheet but it’s clear that they need to work on their finishing. Only a single goal out of 29 shots is an alarming lack of scoring. It’s clear that the US is the best team in the group, but the low scoring games invites other teams to capitalize on a single moment and can possibly defeat the US in a game they can’t afford to lose if they want to go to the Women’s World Cup. At this point, I can’t see the US losing tonight and there’s really nothing to panic about yet. But if it’s 11:00 and Guatemala has beaten the US, you are going to see some people start to panic.
