Alyssa Naeher isn’t one of them.
The U.S. goalkeeper was largely a spectator in the first round, playing all 270 minutes but facing only one shot on target, with that one getting by her for a goal in a 1-1 draw with the Netherlands. Not that it was really her fault — when a half-clearance dropped at the feet of Jill Roord, the Dutch midfielder had a relatively simple finish, sending a low strike from the top of box past a diving Naeher at the left post.
Other than that, she’s been untested and unbeaten, rarely touching the ball in three games, two of which ended in shutouts. That may prove to be the lull before the storm, however, because the Americans’ opponent in their first elimination game is Sweden, which scored multiple goals in each of its three group-stage wins and ranks eighth in the tournament with 18 shots on goal.
2023 Women’s World Cup coverage
The U.S., meanwhile, has scored just once since its opener, has been abysmal at ball control and passing and ranks 18th in the tournament in possession. It has lacked chemistry, creativity and both the joy and arrogance that defined its championship teams — and against Sweden it also will be lacking its most dynamic midfielder in Rose Lavelle, who is suspended for too many yellow cards.
If the U.S. doesn’t find solutions to those problems quickly, Sweden will be its last World Cup opponent for at least four years. Kickoff is 2 a.m. PDT on Sunday.
Former world champion goalkeeper Briana Scurry, whose 19 World Cup appearances in goal are the most by an American, says Naeher can handle the challenge.
“She’s a world-class player,” said Scurry, who played in four World Cups, making the penalty-kick save that won the title in 1999. “She proved she can carry the team when she needs to. She proved it to me back in the 2019 World Cup in France, having two key saves in the right moments her team needed her.
“She proved to me that she was worthy.”
A standout basketball player who scored more than 2,000 points as a high school point guard, Naeher focused on soccer in college and led the U.S. to a U20 World Cup title in 2008. But it would be another six years before she made the senior team, spending much of her first three years watching Hope Solo play.
Naeher made just four starts before Solo was suspended following the 2016 Olympics, but when that opportunity came, Naeher was ready.
In her first year as a starter, she lost just two of 11 starts, posting six shutouts. She hasn’t lost as many as two games or posted fewer than five shutouts in any year since, finishing with a clean sheet in 60% of her 95 national team starts, the best percentage in U.S. history. She has lost just six times.
But if she needed little time to establish herself, it has taken her longer to grow into her role as a leader. At 35, she’s the second-oldest U.S. player behind only Megan Rapinoe, and her 95 caps rank seventh on the team.
U.S. goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher makes a save during a scoreless draw with Portugal at the Women’s World Cup on Tuesday.
(Saeed Khan / AFP via Getty Images)
Where she was once quiet, she’s now vocal, especially with the young players directly in front of her.
“Definitely, I see myself as a veteran, as a leader, as a teacher on this team,” she said. “I do think it’s my responsibility [as] goalkeeper to be able to help teach and educate. Even some off-the-field stuff of how to manage video, friends and family at a World Cup, how to manage time and everything else that comes with the World Cup.”
Center back Naomi Girma, arguably the best U.S. player in the group stage, said that help is appreciated.
“She’s been a great leader for us back there,” Girma said. “Just having her to kind of bounce ideas off of, just communicating with me, I think she’s taken on that role really well.”
Naeher is one of just two U.S. keepers to win two Women’s World Cups, backing up Solo in the 2015 final and shutting out the Netherlands four years later. And the experience she gained in those two tournaments has helped in this one, as Naeher has remained steady through her team’s uneven group-stage performance.
“The biggest thing that I learned and remember from 2019 is our focus,” she said. “It’s a seven-game tournament and there’s going to be a lot of things that come up along the way. Keeping our focus one training session at a time, one game at a time, and have that preparation to your mind-set, that’s what’s going to help us kind of stay the course.”
The U.S. got a brief look at what life would be like without Naeher when she limped off the field midway through the first half of the Tokyo Olympics semifinal with Canada because of a hyperextended right knee and bone contusion. Her replacement, Adrianna Franch, gave up the game-deciding penalty kick in the second half and three more goals to Australia in the third-place game, won by the U.S.
Naeher missed six months, then came back to blank Canada in last summer’s CONCACAF W Championship, the qualifying event for the World Cup and 2024 Paris Olympics. That earned her a third trip to both tournaments, but what she’d really like is a third world title. She’ll take the next step on that road Sunday in Melbourne, Australia.
“Whether you are worthy,” Scurry said, “is proven if you win a world championship.”
Naeher has proven herself worthy twice.