{"id":1312014,"date":"2019-07-01T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-02T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/england-looks-to-overcome-ruthless-us-in-world-cup-semis\/"},"modified":"2019-07-01T23:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-02T05:00:00","slug":"england-looks-to-overcome-ruthless-us-in-world-cup-semis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/england-looks-to-overcome-ruthless-us-in-world-cup-semis\/","title":{"rendered":"England looks to overcome \u2018ruthless\u2019 US in World Cup semis"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
England’s Ellen White, left, celebrates with teammates Karen Bardsley, center, and Steph Houghton, right, during the Women’s World Cup quarterfinal soccer match between Norway and England at the Oceane stadium in Le Havre, France, Thursday, June 27, 2019. (AP Photo\/Francisco Seco)<\/strong>
AP | AP<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

LYON, France \u2014 England coach Phil Neville says the United States has a ruthless streak.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one of the reasons the U.S. has never missed the semifinals at the Women\u2019s World Cup, and why the team has three overall titles, more than any other nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerica has got that ruthless streak of wanting to win,\u201d Neville said. \u201cYou saw the last five minutes of the (quarterfinal) game against France. The game management was fantastic. They took the ball into the corner, they knew what it took to win, and they celebrated like winners. That\u2019s what I admire, and that\u2019s what my team has now. It\u2019s about winning.\u201d<\/p>\n

The third-ranked Lionesses play the defending champions Tuesday in Lyon. The winner will go on to the championship match, facing the winner of the other semifinal Wednesday between Sweden and the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

England has never broken through to the final at the World Cup. The Lionesses fell to Japan four years ago in the semis in Canada before going on to defeat Germany in the third-place match for the team\u2019s best tournament finish.<\/p>\n

Neville said that\u2019s not good enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy players now want to win,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we don\u2019t get the right result, we\u2019ll feel the disappointment and we\u2019ll see that as a failure. That\u2019s not me being negative, that\u2019s just our expectations, and our belief and our confidence and our mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were questions when Neville was appointed to lead the team early in 2018 because he\u2019d never coached a women\u2019s team. But the former Manchester United and Everton star has answered all the critics by building a team that believes it can win.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve shown throughout this tournament that we can go toe-to-toe with anybody,\u201d captain Steph Houghton said.<\/p>\n

The Lionesses head into the U.S. game with four straight shutouts in France, including a 3-0 quarterfinal victory over Norway. Jill Scott, Ellen White and Lucy Bronze each scored, with Bronze\u2019s goal sealing it.<\/p>\n

White, as well as Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe, has five goals each in the tournament to lead the field for the Golden Boot. Australia\u2019s Sam Kerr also scored five, but the Matildas were eliminated in the round of 16.<\/p>\n

Rapinoe has been particularly dangerous in the past two games, scoring twice in a 2-1 victory over Spain in the round of 16 before another brace in the 2-1 quarterfinal victory over France. The performance in Paris on Friday night came as Rapinoe was embroiled in controversy over a video that surfaced of her saying she wouldn\u2019t visit the White House if the Americans win the World Cup. President Donald Trump subsequently called her out on Twitter.<\/p>\n

The French peppered goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher with shots and the United States settled into a five-man backfield, something French coach Corinne Diacre said she\u2019d never seen the top-ranked Americans do before.<\/p>\n

The United States held firm.<\/p>\n

Christen Press said being able to shift from the team\u2019s normally aggressive attack to a more defensive stand is part of what makes the team ruthless.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would characterize it as optimism that we\u2019re going to win. But there is a ruthlessness to this team. And that\u2019s win at all costs,\u201d Press said. \u201cThat means tactically adapt in a way that we never have in four years. And you have to do that to win. \u2026 It\u2019s incredible that we could change and still be so solid.\u201d<\/p>\n

The United States and England have met just once before in the World Cup, a 3-0 U.S. win in the 2007 quarterfinals. But earlier this year the teams played to a 2-all tie in the SheBelieves Cup.<\/p>\n

The Americans have been called brash and confident at this World Cup, from a resounding 13-0 victory over Thailand in the opener, to a shutout of nemesis Sweden to close the group stage, and finally to Rapinoe\u2019s raised arms in the victory over France. Neville added ruthless to the list.<\/p>\n

Naeher explained that it\u2019s just a part of the team\u2019s DNA.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the root of the U.S. women\u2019s national team, from back to the teams from 20 years ago,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s always been the U.S. mentality and that\u2019s something that every veteran player has instilled in all the new players as we\u2019ve come in. It\u2019s now our job to carry that through.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

More AP soccer: https:\/\/apnews.com\/apf-Soccer<\/a> and https:\/\/twitter.com\/AP\u2014Sports<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

England’s Ellen White, left, celebrates with teammates Karen Bardsley, center, and Steph Houghton, right, during the Women’s World Cup quarterfinal soccer match between Norway and England at the Oceane stadium in Le Havre, France, Thursday, June 27, 2019. (AP Photo\/Francisco Seco)AP | AP LYON, France \u2014 England coach Phil Neville says the United States has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1312014","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-19 22:57:59","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1312014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312014\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1312014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1312014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1312014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}