USWNT barely advances at World Cup with scoreless tie vs. Portugal

The Americans are limping into the knockout stage.

The final match of the group stage at the Women’s World Cup followed the same trend as the first two.

The U.S. got the job done, but by doing the bare minimum, with a 0-0 draw against Portugal that secured second place in Group E, but in thoroughly unconvincing fashion.

Meanwhile, the Netherlands clinched the top spot in the group thanks to a 7-0 beatdown of Vietnam.

As a result, the U.S. is likely to face Sweden — which beat the Americans in the Tokyo Olympics two years ago — in the Round of 16 in Melbourne at 5 a.m. Eastern Time on Sunday.

The opponent will be confirmed after the last round of Group G games early Wednesday morning.

This is just the second time the U.S. has ever failed to win its group at the World Cup, but it was lucky to advance at all.

Portugal’s Ana Capeta had a brilliant chance to win the game in the 91st minute, getting behind the American defense for a chance all alone on goal.

Capeta beat Alyssa Naeher, but her shot pinged off the right post, allowing the U.S. to escape eight minutes of added time with its tournament intact.

Deep into the game, the Americans looked wholly unsure of themselves and wholly at risk of an early exit from the World Cup.

Following a late Portugal free kick that Naeher fumbled, nearly leading to a goal, coach Vlatko Andonovski went defensive with his substitutions, playing for a draw by bringing on Emily Sonnett for Lindsey Horan in the 84th minute.

That unto itself amounted to an admission that the Portuguese — playing in their first ever World Cup — had played the Americans to their limits.

And with Capeta’s chance, they would push even further, forcing the U.S. to rely on a few inches of the post to keep its World Cup alive.

Portugal can count itself unlucky to be flying home following a match in which it was tantalizingly close to a monumental upset.

After playing an abysmal first half against the Dutch, the U.S. played an abysmal game against Portugal, getting dominated in possession and completing over 100 fewer passes than their opposition.

The U.S. did get some chances in the second half, particularly via Alex Morgan, who had a shot cleared off the line in the 54th minute and couldn’t get on the end of Rose Lavelle’s free kick from just outside the box a couple minutes later. But it’s Portugal that left a win on the table.

Andonovski finally changed his starting 11, bringing in Lynn Williams for Trinity Rodman and Rose Lavelle for Savannah DeMelo.

Not only did that not have the intended effect early on, but Lavelle picked up a yellow card in the 39th minute that will see her suspended for the Round of 16.

Andonovski has found himself under constant criticism and will again after not making his second substitution until the 84th minute on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has the look of a team barely holding itself together.

All it needed on Tuesday was to avoid losing against a team ranked 20 spots behind it in the world rankings, and it again took until the second half before the Americans found their footing.

The back line, which has stayed unchanged throughout all three games, was again caught out in the 16th minute when Portugal’s Jessica Silva got in behind 16 minutes into the match, her eventual shot going wide of Naeher’s goal.

Even against a Portugal team that was only comfortable committing five players in attack for the early part of the match, the U.S. looked unnerved in defense and unwilling to be tenacious in attack.

Though the Americans avoided the total calamity that would have come with failing to make it out of the group, they flirted with disaster throughout.

The only game in which they never looked at risk of losing was against Vietnam, and that 3-0 victory ended up costing the U.S. in terms of goal differential.

The Netherlands crushed Vietnam to ensure itself the top spot in the group on Tuesday.

This is still the back-to-back world champion, and maybe the USWNT can find its footing in the knockout stages.

But right now, it is looking like that could be an uphill climb.