Can USA still flip the switch? 'It's not like we don't have the pieces'

AUCKLAND, New Zealand — In the aftermath of the United States' worst performance ever in the first round of a Women's World Cup, the players repeated platitudes about achieving their primary goal of advancing to the knockout stage.

Still, they must know in their hearts how lucky they got.

Had that stoppage time shot by Portugal substitute Ana Capeta been just an inch or two closer to the inside of the post behind USWNT keeper Alyssa Naeher, the Americans would be boarding a plane home tomorrow rather than the Portuguese.

"Right now, we are very fortunate to have another opportunity," defender Crystal Dunn said after Tuesday's final first-round game here. Dunn was one of the few members of Vlakto Andonovski's squad to acknowledge just how close the U.S. actually came to a historic first group-stage elimination.

That's not to say the Americans were satisfied with the scoreless draw. How could they be? For the third time in as many games Down Under, Andonovski's team was underwhelming uninspiring, and often downright poor.

Tuesday's display was easily the ugliest of the three.

"I don't think it was a good performance altogether, starting from the backline, midfield, forward," Andonovski said. "I don't think we were able to solve the problems that the opponent was presenting."

They weren't able to do much of anything. 

The U.S. needed a decisive victory to have any hope of winning Group E, what with the 2019 World Cup runner-up blowing out already-eliminated Vietnam in a match played simultaneously with the Americans' bout with Portugal. Instead, they survived by the tiniest imaginable margin, eking out a draw in a game that, had they lost, they would've had only themselves to blame.

The question now is, "Now what?" By