- USWNT held to a 1-1 draw by the Dutch
- Andonovski defended the lack of substitutions
- Twellman slammed the coach for his excuse
WHAT HAPPENED? The defending champions looked uncharacteristically toothless in the attacking third against the Dutch as they were held to a 1-1 draw in their second group-stage encounter at the 2023 Women's World Cup. They conceded early in the 17th minuteafter Jill Roord scored for the Dutch and it was only after the hour mark that they found themselves on level terms when Lindsey Horan cancelled out the openerafter scoring from a corner swung in by Rose Lavelle.
Despite the lack of goals, Andonovski refused to make the most of his bench strength, which boasts of having players like Lynn Williams, Alyssa Thompson, and Megan Rapinoe, and made just a single change when he brought on Lavelle in place of Savannah DeMelo at half-time. After the match, he defended his tactics and claimedit was a strategic decision not to make any substitutions which has been criticised by MLS legend Twellman.
Please enable Javascript to view this contentWHAT THEY SAID: The former USMNT player quoted a tweet which carried Andovovski's justification and wrote: "Am I wrong to think that with #USWNT bench this makes no sense?!"
THE BIGGER PICTURE: Whilethe USWNT did have 18 shots in the match, only four of them were on target which shows that the front-three of Trinity Rodman, Alex Morgan and Sophia Smith was having an off-day on the pitch and some fresh blood might have changed the outcome of the match.
IN TWO PHOTOS:
WHAT NEXT? The USWNT will look to turn around their fortunes when they face World Cup debutants Portugal in their final group game on August 1.