The reaction to this exit is hilariously overblown. We got knocked out by a team we dominated that is now in the semis because almost our entire team was injured or returning from injury and an extremely weak coach. Without injuries and with a real coach, our forwards would have consisted of Swanson (starting LW), Macario (starting 9/RW), Smith (starting 9/RW), Hatch, Rodman, Press and MAYBE Morgan. Our MF would have consisted of Ertz, Lavelle, Sam Mewis and Horan and we would have played Sauerbrunn, Girma, Dunn and Fox in the back (our defense was actually statistically dominant). There are plenty of other players in the pool that are young and highly skilled that dumbass Vlatko didn't bring in because he is too weak to move past the old guard who actually control the team (a HUGE issue the media is too weak to address).
The old guard were crucial parts of arguably the greatest women's team of all time but their primary concern is staying on the USWNT gravy train as opposed to the best interests of the team. Rapinoe shouldn't have been anywhere near this team much less actually playing and everyone knew it . . . Vlatko, her, the entire USWNT organization . . . but only she could remove herself from the team and she wasn't going to miss out on that sweet WC-related cash. Her greed should tarnish her legacy a bit.
The US development system will put us at a competitive disadvantage going forward but that was not the issue in this world cup. England's bright young attacking talent (Alessia Russo) was developed at UNC in the US system. That said, the European club system is going to get better and better while we are going to continue to rely on a MLS-lite academy system and the ECNL/Division 1 college development system. Our elite players need to move to Europe and I expect that they will as the money gets better and better. I'm not that concerned though because, unlike men, many of the best female athletes in the US play soccer and the coaching and development at the top 100 ECNL clubs in the country is good to elite. Go watch Solar's U-12 team if you think we have weak coaching/tactics at the elite club level. It's also ridiculously competitive with the best players/teams in the country regularly playing against the best. The weakest players on the top teams are also getting weeded out annually at young ages. If your daughter is an ELITE player in almost any city in the country, an ECNL club will almost definitely find you and try to make it work for you to play on their ECNL team. That's reality. The media loves to claim that elite club soccer is an entirely white upper class environment which is inaccurate. Here is a picture of the Solar (DFW's best ECNL program) U-16 2023 ECNL national champions:
This team is no exception. There is a ridiculous amount of talent in the US women's game and the future is extremely bright if USSF gets its head out of its ass which is admittedly unlikely because it is primarily a political organization driven more by the greed of certain of its stakeholders that the best interests of US Soccer.