What USWNT can emulate from rest of Women's World Cup contenders in search of attacking firepower

The U.S. women are in need of a statement game and other participants in the World Cup can show them the way

Heading into the final day of group stage play at the Women's World Cup, Vlatko Andonovski and the United States women's national team find themselves in unfamiliar territory. A tie or a win against Portugal (Tuesday, 3 a.m. ET) will see them through to the knockout stage. If they somehow lose to a Portuguese side participating in its first Women's World Cup, the USWNT could find themselves crashing out of the group stage for the first time in the history of the program depending on results in the Netherlands-Vietnam match.  1 United States 2 1 1 0 4 1 3 4 2 Netherlands 2 1 1 0 2 1 1 4 3 Portugal 2 1 0 1 2 1 1 3 4 Vietnam 2 0 0 2 0 5 -5 0

A draw against the Netherlands wasn't all that surprising in the grand scheme of things, but it might prove to be costly if they can't take care of business against Portugal. The midfield was unable to get much going and Andonovski only made one substitution to try and change things up despite having one of the most talented squads in the world available to him at his disposal. 

The gap between the United States and the rest of the world is smaller than it has ever been talent-wise, and usually by now the USWNT would have already had a statement game to announce their intentions of winning it all. In 2019, the United States hung as many goals on Thailand (13) as they would go on to score during the remainder of the tournament. This time out, other contenders like Germany and Spain have produced standout performances. Germany put six past Morocco and Spain scored five against Zambia. The United States have yet to turn heads the way they are so accustomed to do in previous iterations of the World Cup.