The United States came into their final game of the group stage of the 2014 CONCACAF Women’s Championship looking to build on the momentum of their second half performance versus Guatemala when they scored four goals.
One notable addition to the lineup was goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris. The hometown keeper who plays her club soccer for the Washington Spirit earned her fourth cap. It may not be a game where she will have to make many saves, but still an opportunity to build tournament experience and work on communication with her back line
The team appeared more energized than their previous two games and looked a bit sharper, but a few things are clearly off. One of the most glaringly issues in the first half was spacing inside the box. The team had myriad crosses into the box and more often than not there would be at least two or three players in the box. Unfortunately, those players were all only two or three feet away from each other and never had the space to put a quality header on frame.
Carli Lloyd had a moment of individual brilliance in the ninth minute when she chested down a deflected shot and volleyed a rocket past Haiti goalkeeper Geralda Santilus. The play was set up by a cross from Meghan Klingenberg, but Santilus wasn’t able to punch it far enough and it fell directly to Lloyd.
The second goal of the first half was created by Haiti defender Roselord Borgella after her attempted clearance turned out to be more of a well placed pass to Abby Wambach who headed in her 172nd career goal.
More poor defensive clearances meant more USWNT goals in the second half. Heather O’Reilly, who replaced Megan Rapinoe to start the second half, had her cross cleared outside the box. Klingenberg ran on to the ball slamming a 25 yard thunder strike into the back of the net, for her first international goal.
In the 60th minute, another failed clearance came down in the center of the box where Lloyd headed it on to Wambach who easily tapped the ball past the keeper giving her a brace on the night.
Five minutes later Morgan Brian nearly connected with a cross from O’Reilly, but the resulting clearance from Haiti was weak and Christen Press made the most of her proximity to goal by pouncing on the loose ball in the box and slamming it into goal.
In the 82nd minute the US scored their first goal resulting from continuous possession. Christen Press pushed up the left side of box toward the end line before laying the ball off to Morgan Brian who was cutting toward goal. The youngest player on the squad slipped a low ball through traffic into the net.
The US ended the night with a commanding 6-0 win over Haiti, putting an end to the small nation’s dream of a World Cup berth.
For the US, there were plenty of positives to take from the game including a tremendous increase in shot efficiency, hitting 30% on the night, as well as giving some well earned minutes to players like Ashlyn Harris and Morgan Brian. Despite those highlights, it still notable that only one of the six goals during the game resulted from continuous possession, while the other five resulted from poor clearances from Haiti.
As the quality of competition rises in the semifinals and finals, it will be important for the US to reach beyond just an impressive scoreline and pair that statistical dominance with a truly impressive and dominant performance with quality linking in the midfield and combination play on the flanks.