Is the U.S. in trouble? Former USWNT coach Jill Ellis weighs in after last night‘s disappointing result.

**Rebecca Lowe** (0:03)
This podcast is presented by State Farm, a proud supporter of women's soccer and all women's sports. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

**Brendan Hunt** (0:14)
Have you ever been with Lindsey at closing time of a pub?

**Jill Ellis** (0:18)
Well, when I was coaching, for sure not.
But I think Lindsey would be a lively table dancer at some point. I think she would be up there with a few beers leading the charge.

**Rebecca Lowe** (0:30)
Oh, I love it. From Apple News, I'm Rebecca Lowe.

**Brendan Hunt** (0:34)
And I'm Brendan Hunt.

**Rebecca Lowe** (0:35)
And this is After the Whistle.

**Brendan Hunt** (0:37)
Last night, the US salvaged a 1-1 draw with the Netherlands. And we have a lot of thoughts.

**Rebecca Lowe** (0:43)
Plus US coaching legend Jill Ellis joins to give her take on the biggest challenges facing the US from now and what they can expect out of Portugal.

**Brendan Hunt** (0:53)
Reminder, as ever, there will be adult language.

**Rebecca Lowe** (1:00)
Brendan.

**Brendan Hunt** (1:01)
Rebecca. USA Holland.
It did not disappoint, really, as a match, frankly. Maybe not quite enough goals to qualify as full on fireworks, but they were also fireworks nonetheless.

**Rebecca Lowe** (1:12)
Well, it was tense, wasn't it? I think when you're in it like you are with the US. WNT, we'll get to the nicknames later.
Because, by the way, I've had a few.
I think, and it's the same with England. I think it's actually quite difficult, Brendan, to gauge whether it's a good game or not. If you're so invested in it and it's that tense, which yesterday was because America trailed for so long, I think it's difficult to know whether it's a good game. You just know that it's good because every single second of it to you is engaging. Do you know what I mean?

**Brendan Hunt** (1:44)
Yeah.
Especially to some degree, I guess I wasn't expecting Holland to be quite this good, especially in the first half, because in that 2019 final, it did not feel like an even match. They maybe were not at their best or what have you, but I still had memories of that in my head, but obviously they came out very, very strong in the first half. So let's get into it.

**Rebecca Lowe** (2:06)
Well, before we get into the first half, you're right, they were super aggressive. Can we talk about the fact that he didn't make any changes because that obviously happened first off the bat.
The team news comes in and he names the same starting 11 of Vlad Gandonovsky, which by the way, the last time the USA started the same starting 11 in consecutive group games was 1999 This is a rarity. It's not to say you have to make changes in the group stages, Brendan. It's just massively surprising. Get onto that in a second. So here you are, you get the team news in, same team.
Thoughts?

**Brendan Hunt** (2:42)
On the one hand, I've thought because all the chatter is about like, what changes is he gonna make? And I kind of love when coaches go counter to what chatter is. I'm sure he didn't do it because of the chatter, but like, you know, oh, here's how many changes I'm gonna make, no changes. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it. My name is Vlatko.
Not very good Vlatko impression.
And so I thought it was cool, but like, you know, there's voices out here that are like, okay, now people are tired already.
I'm like, yeah, yeah, okay, that makes sense. I would have thought a little bit that a lineup that was coming out for Vietnam would have had changes in mind for Holland, that's for sure, but I don't know. On some level, I kind of respected it. It just matters now, what will he do for, you know, Portugal, who cannot be underestimated. They can win the group or at least beat us. So now you can't mess around with the B team against Portugal, as you might have fantasized about doing had we won the first two games. So yeah, I don't know.

**Rebecca Lowe** (3:38)
That's one of the things I'm really excited to ask Jill Ellis about our guest today a little bit later. Like what would she do going into this Portugal game? So you're right, those changes. And then we'll get onto the lack of subs later, shall we? Let's get onto the lack of subs later. Let's start with your first half and how you felt as that game, as you say, Holland very much aggressive taking it to America.

**Brendan Hunt** (3:58)
All right, well, my first note was, oh, interesting, Vlachko hasn't changed the lineup. Let's talk about that.