To this point in the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, the United States Women's National Team has not quite lived up to the lofty hopes it had for itself, but the team has done well enough to move on to the knockout stage of the competition.
Megan Rapinoe, a standout player for the team, is ecstatic that they have advanced out of the group; nevertheless, she has made it abundantly obvious that the way they played was not good enough.
According to Fox Sports, Megan Rapinoe commented minutes after the final whistle blew on a 0-0 tie against Portugal in their first tournament match that "I mean, we're onto the next round."
Portugal was playing in their first ever event. "I don't think anybody needs that kind of motivation if you've got to get up for a knockout round match in a World Cup,"
We were successful in advancing to the following round, which was the primary objective we had set for ourselves going into the group round.
It goes without saying that we want to win games. We obviously wanted to play really well and score a lot of goals, but we weren't able to achieve any of those things.
We are aware of our potential for improvement, and moving forward, that must be improved.
This next weekend will tell us whether or not Rapinoe and the United States Women's National Team are able to put everything together for a dominant performance versus Sweden in the knockout stage.