Soccer’s cruelty was summed up Sunday in Australia by the literal thinnest of margins, when the U.S. women’s national team crashed out of the World Cup just as it was starting to reclaim its dominant identity.
World Cup 2023
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As Alyssa Naeher parried away Lina Hurtig’s decisive penalty kick mere millimeters after it crossed the goal line, giving Sweden a 5-4 shootout win after a 0-0 draw, the United States — a four-time World Cup champion that had never finished worse than third — was ousted in the round of 16.