Women's World Cup 2019: USA hand England lesson in what is required to win when it matters

It had even more drama than the Luzhniki, even more controversy than Guimaraes, but ultimately England felt painfully short of another World Cup final on Wednesday night, losing in circumstances that were as narrow and painful as any other. How close they came right at the end to taking the game to extra-time - one equaliser denied by the most marginal offside decision imaginable, another potential equaliser missed from a penalty kick - only for the USA to hold on.

But take another look at the game, at the USA’s long dominance in the first half, their control at the end, and the more isolated England attacks, and it felt as if this was a match between two teams that were not quite matched as equals. USA simply had more experience, more know-how, more nous. At least for now. As they will probably show again on Sunday.

In that sense it was a lesson in efficiency and precision and the well-honed skills that have made the USA so successful in this competition in the past. Everything the USA did, they did with purpose and focus and the confidence of a side that has seen and won it all before.

That much was clear from the way they scored their two first-half goals, goals that looked like they had been scored hundreds of times before on the training ground and in games. There was nothing complex about how they played, how they planned to exploit the gaps they had seen in the English defence, the individual vulnerabilities, especially in goal.

That was clear with the opener, as Kelley O’Hara stormed down the right and played the perfect cross back to Christen Press, coming in off the left, left in more space than she should have been and ruthless enough to take advantage. The second goal was built on precisely the same combination of decisive skills. Perfect delivery, this time from Lindsey Horan drifting in from the left, another clever run, this time from Alex Morgan, and another thumping header into the net.

England could not always attack with the same patience. As hard as they pushed out there there was always something frenetic or rushed about their game. But their work earned them an equaliser, when Ellen White slid in a cross from the left, angling her finish into the far top corner of the net.

And in that famous frantic second half, when twice England thought they were on the brink of pulling the United States back and making it 2-2, they could not. The margins were desperately fine, they always are at the serious end of knock-out tournament football. White’s front foot was centimetres offside when she ran on to Jill Scott’s flick and slotted the ball expertly behind.

White was so close to not being tripped by Becky Sauerbrunn in the box and scoring that simple equaliser, only to have her footing taken away. Houghton, nine times out of ten, would have buried that penalty kick. But this time, perhaps feeling the pressure of the occasion, and the weight of the stakes, she skewed her kick badly straight at Alyssa Naeher.

So there is always a danger in reading too deeply to these little contingent details, damning a defeated team, taking their loss as proof of some fatal flaw. But ultimately the USA were able to attack more efficiently than England were. They played with more patience, more control, and left less to chance. They did not need a penalty, they scored two unambiguous goals themselves.

And in the final few minutes of the game, after Houghton’s missed penalty, the difference in the mental state of the two teams was clear enough again. Millie Bright was sent off for a second yellow card, although the tackle might have been worth a red itself. The USA took advantage of the extra player, slowed the game down, took the ball into the corners, and hung on. England had given them the fright of their lives in that second half, but the USA had still found something deep in their experience, a nous, a method, just enough to get to the final instead.