Megan Rapinoe: 'I think I could've helped' in draw with Dutch

AUCKLAND, New Zealand — Much of the talk after the United States and the Netherlands played to a 1-1 draw in both squads' second group-stage match at the 2023 Women's World Cup centered on U.S. coach Vlatko Andonovski's use of his bench — or lack thereof.

Despite having five substitutes at his disposal, Andonovski used just one against the Dutch. It changed the game: Midfielder Rose Lavelle provided the score-equalizing assist to co-captain Lindsey Horan just 17 minutes after entering at halftime.

But the rest of the American reserves — including Megan Rapinoe, the Golden Boot winner and joint-top scorer at the 2019 tournament — could only watch from the sidelines as the USWNT failed to turn the momentum swing into a match-winning goal.

"I think I could've helped," Rapinoe told a packed news conference here ahead of her team's final first-round match versus Portugal on Tuesday (coverage begins at 1 a.m. ET, with kickoff at 3 a.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports app).

Rapinoe wasn't complaining. 

At 38, she understands that she won't be the star of this World Cup, won't necessarily get into every single contest. After settling for a point against the Dutch, Andonovski told reporters he didn't make any other changes because he didn't want to disrupt the rhythm of those already on the field, who he felt would eventually find the breakthrough.

Rapinoe felt the same way.

"I think that they were giving everything and still creating chances up till the very end," she said of her teammates.

Rapinoe added that she fully respected her coach's decision and the explanation he gave to justify it. That doesn't change the fact that she wanted to play. And she probably wasn't alone.

"All of us on the bench," Rapinoe said, "We think we should be on the field as much as players on the field think that they should be on the field. Every player on the field that starts the game thinks that they should play 90 minutes, and every player who doesn't, who's a sub, thinks that they should be on at some point.

"We're always ready," she added. "We know at some point during this tournament, obviously, the bench will be huge. That's a huge asset of ours, a huge reason why we've been so successful with this group [and] obviously historically, winning championships in our past."

If the U.S. is going to claim a fifth World Cup title in program history and achieve its goal of completing a historic three-peat — a feat no women's or men's team has ever accomplished — it starts with beating Portugal.

Just about every USWNT player asked has acknowledged that the Americans haven't performed nearly as well as they're capable of through the first two games. The U.S. beat Vietnam 3-0 in its opener but squandered dozens of scoring chances across both games combined. 

"We're unsatisfied with the way that we've played, but we know the areas that we can be better, and I think there's some really simple fixes that we can do to put ourselves in a better position to have more joy on the ball, especially in the final third," Rapinoe said.

One thing the U.S. must do better, Rapinoe said, was avoid having its wingers pinch too far inside. One of the most fleet-footed teams in the competition — if not the fastest outright — she feels the Americans must stay wide to create space to exploit behind opposing defenses.

"If we keep the field spread and keep our width and keep threatening in behind," Rapinoe said, "things will open up quite a bit more."

Doug McIntyre is a soccer writer for FOX Sports. Before joining FOX Sports in 2021, he was a staff writer with ESPN and Yahoo Sports and he has covered United States men’s and women’s national teams at multiple FIFA World Cups. Follow him on Twitter at @ByDougMcIntyre.