It was the week before the Women’s World Cup. The Americans, considered the favorites to win the tournament, had just been shut out by South Korea, a team that may not even advance beyond the group stage.

Veteran forward Abby Wambach had a message for American fans. “Everybody, don’t worry,” she told Fox Sports after stepping off the field. “We’re going to be fine. We’re going to head to Canada next week and we’ll be fine.”

The team had been making media appearances all week – they play their first World Cup game against Australia on Monday evening – and players were apprehensive of picking up injuries in their last friendly match, she said. But the game plan for the Americans didn’t look all that different than the one the team has been using for months with varying results. USA worked aggressively to launch the ball into the box, expecting goals would eventually come – but they never did.

Despite Wambach’s assurances, the question heading into this World Cup lingers: has the rest of the world caught up with the Americans? The answer likely won’t come until 5 July, when a new world champion will be crowned. But one thing is clear: women’s soccer is evolving quickly and the rest of the world is getting better.

It used to be that power, speed and endurance were enough to win – and that meant the Americans had no trouble outmatching their opponents with direct, aggressive soccer. The approach helped them win the first-ever Women’s World Cup in 1991 and again in 1999.

But as the rest of the world sheds antiquated notions about women playing soccer and invests more resources into women’s programs, it has given rise to serious national teams in countries with rich footballing cultures. Opponents are becoming more technical, more tactically adept and highly sophisticated. Top teams like France, Japan and Germany are known for their possession and ball movement.

Amid a quickly changing landscape, sometimes USA still look to be playing the same game they always have. Just last month, Ireland coach Sue Ronan remarked that “the US has become quite direct under [coach] Jill Ellis.” When the Americans were shut out by Iceland at the Algarve Cup this spring, their coach Freyr Alexandersson said he would have been unhappy if he were in charge of the US team.

“We saw that when they get under pressure, they tend to resort to the long ball,” he said. “I don’t understand it because they can play the ball on the grass.”

Ellis doesn’t deny that her squad do play direct football sometimes. But it’s not due to an unwillingness to evolve with the game. It’s a strategy. “We have to be able to maximize what an opponent gives us,” Ellis told the Guardian. “You play against England and they’re in their own half for 90% of the game, you just can’t boot it long. When a team sits in, you have to find the width and move the ball laterally.”

“But listen, if there’s a perfect run or a perfect ball in behind, I’ll take it every single day because if we can blow by the opposition, great, that bypasses a lot. Something we’ve talked about as team is that we’ve got to have the balance because you have to know when to push it around and you have to know when to go for the jugular, so to speak.”

With an expanded Women’s World Cup field of 24 slots, many of the teams projected to be the dark horses that represent an increasingly competitive game are led by youth, such as 18-year-old Dutch striker Vivianne “Anna” Miedema, who was the top-scorer in European World Cup qualifying, and 20-year-old Nigerian Asisat Oshoala, who was recently named the BBC’s Women’s Footballer of the Year.

The Americans have youth in their squad too, but on average, the US are one of the oldest teams appearing in the World Cup. Players on the US squad have an average of more than 100 caps, which is some 30 caps more than most teams in the tournament.

On the different ends of the age spectrum, it’s apparent which soccer culture players come from in how they approach the game. In a way, 35-year-old Wambach has become a symbol of the direct American style that seemed almost unstoppable in previous World Cup cycles. If anyone is going to get on the end of a long ball and score, it’s probably Wambach with her head.

But the Americans have younger, different players too, like 26-year-old Christen Press. Unlike her peers who were recruited to the national team via domestic leagues, she found her way to the national team by playing in Sweden and thriving in a more technical, slower-paced environment that rewards possession soccer. When she returned Stateside last year, the game was faster and more physical, she said. It was the traditional American style.

It’s a balance the Americans need to find. Combining the style carried over from veteran players with a more technical approach from younger players isn’t a problem – it’s an asset, according to Press.

“The young fresh spirit – I really do think we have a different style, a different way of being raised in football culture. Mixing that in with the experience, I think that’s a strength of our squad,” Press told the Guardian. “That veteran aspect of our team has a winning mentality. They know what it takes to get to a final and persevere when they’re under pressure. So I think the blending of those two pieces is our biggest strength.”

If coaching the American women was a relatively cushy job in the earliest eras, it’s a much more complicated endeavor now. Change is disruptive, but it is also sometimes necessary. Knowing when it needs to happen is the difficult part.

Former Australia coach Tom Sermanni was put in charge of the US team in 2013, but his approach of capping a slew of rookies while veterans sat on the bench didn’t seem to sit well with the American federation. His efforts to cut the long ball from the US game plan were met with some disastrous results. He was fired and Ellis was brought in a year from the Women’s World Cup.

Now Ellis arrives in Canada having to find the right balance on a precarious teeter-totter of different tactical approaches and different experience levels of players. But the world around her is evolving and she must decide how the US will evolve, too.

Ellis knows that. The first time she met the US women’s national team as its new head coach, she put a quote up on a projector: “Even if you’re on the right track, if you sit where you are long enough, you’ll get run over.”

The US women have 23 other teams charging full speed at them in Canada. How the Americans perform in this World Cup may decide whether they’ve evolved enough.