The United States Women’s National team will take on Mexico for the second time in five days as the two teams face off at Sahlen’s Stadium in Rochester, New York Thursday evening. USA won the first match up 8-0 with five different goal scorers on the night. Hope Solo also earned her 72nd clean sheet, giving her sole possession of the all time shutout record previously held by Briana Scurry.
Though the USA beat Mexico by their largest margin ever, many of those goals came from the counterattack as the USA had a tough time sustaining possession for any long periods of time. This could be partially attributed to the lack of communication in the midfield, which is particularly interesting given the fact that the majority of those players have been playing together for years. Jill Ellis has been playing around with positioning in the midfield, moving Megan Rapinoe off the wings and into a more central role which could be contributing to the communication errors as adjustments are made and roles being changed. Regardless, improving possession and control in the midfield will be a focus point in this upcoming match and beyond.
Despite calling in a large camp roster for these friendlies, the roster for Thursday’s match up should remain relatively similar to the match Saturday. Ellis has previously stated that she wants to focus on building chemistry leading up to World Cup qualifiers. That’s not to say that changes will not be made, but it is likely line up will be very similar to the one on Saturday.
One roster area that is still questionable is the left back position. Though these friendlies with Mexico won’t expose it as a weakness, the lack of a consistent starter is certainly something that could be seen as problematic and needs to be figured out. In recent matches, we have seen Meghan Klingenberg, Stephanie Cox and Crystal Dunn get the start at left back but none of those players have sealed a position in the starting XI. Another option lies in Kelley O’Hara who was a staple of the team at that position before suffering an ankle injury during the inaugural NWSL season. O’Hara played the entire 2014 NWSL season at forward for Sky Blue FC and was called up for the June friendlies against France as a forward, but ended up coming in at left back in her only appearance during those matches. O’Hara was unavailable for Saturday’s match due to a slight injury as reported by US Soccer. It will be interesting to see who is available, and who gets the start at that position for the match Thursday night.
Another area of note for the upcoming friendly concerns the goalkeepers. With Hope Solo earning her record breaking 72nd shutout on Saturday, the chances of one of the other goalkeepers getting the start has increased significantly. Ashlyn Harris was the other goalkeeper to dress for Saturday’s match and was the starter when Solo was unavailable for the France friendly in June. She would seem the likely choice, though long standing USWNT staple Nicole Barnhart or uncapped NWSL Goalkeeper of they Year Alyssa Naeher are certainly viable options as well. One thing to note about Harris is that if she is one of the 18 to dress for the match again on Thursday, it would strongly imply that she has the #2 position behind Solo locked down; something that has been up for grabs before these friendlies. Regardless of who it is, the #2 goalkeeper needs to start seeing some minutes and this would be the perfect opportunity for that to happen.
The United State Women’s National team plays Mexico on Thursday 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2. This will be the final friendly before World Cup qualifiers begin in October.
