The United States was once again victorious against Mexico Thursday evening by a score of 4-0. The win took place in front of 5,680 fans on a chilly evening at Sahlen’s Stadium in Rochester, New York. Though still a comfortable win for the US, the match was not the complete routing the previous match up was.
Jill Ellis made four changes from Saturday evening’s 8-0 win; opting to start Kelley O’Hara at left back and replacing the entire front three of Alex Morgan, Abby Wambach and Christen Press with Sydney Leroux, Amy Rodriguez and Tobin Heath. One question that arose from the lineup change was the omission of Wambach, who most expected to get the start in her hometown of Rochester. Ellis commented on that decision after the match. “She’s done very well in camp and she’s a player that understands that I’ve got to see other players, she was fine with that. Obviously Abby wants to be on the field 90 minutes, but the reality is we’ve got to have some other people to be evaluated.” Wambach echoed those sentiments, expressing her trust in the decision making of Ellis and the need to have a solid bench moving into World Cup qualifiers and the World Cup itself; adding that she is ready and willing to start a game or come on as a sub if needed.
The lineup changes proved fruitful for the US as they scored the first goal of the match in the 9th minute. Megan Rapinoe applied heavy pressure to the Mexico back line and was able to win a ball that she poked over to Rodriguez. Rodriguez, looking to take advantage of being named in the starting lineup, calmly put it through two defenders and past the Mexico goalkeeper.
Having done a lot of the work to make the first goal happen, Rapinoe would get one herself in the 37th minute. Meghan Klingenberg sent an excellent ball in right around the penalty spot that was headed by a Mexico defender right to Rapinoe whose one time volley took a slight deflection off a Mexico player into the net.
Rapinoe showed a lot of hustle, challenging the Mexico defense and distributing the ball from different areas of the field. Having had a hand in the first two goals of the evening, she was a factor in the third as well. Rapinoe received the ball about five yards past the midline, turned and was able to find Heath in space. Heath raced toward Santiago and with a defender on her heels, had a beautiful finish to give the US a 3-0 lead right before the half.
The US managed to score one more goal in the 79th minute, this time from the head of Alex Morgan. Morgan, who was completely unmarked, received a ball from Heather O’Reilly and had no problem putting past Santiago and into the far corner of the net.
The US survived quite the scare in the second half when an errant pass from Becky Sauerbrunn forced Solo out to the corner of the box. Under pressure from Charlyn Corral, Solo’s pass back to Sauerbrunn went right to Veronica Perez who had a wide open net and would have scored had Sauerbrunn not made a sliding effort to block the ball. Other than that miscue, the back line did a good job of containing a Mexico team that did apply slightly more pressure than in the previous match.
Despite the 4-0 victory, there are still things the US needs to work on leading up to World Cup qualifiers. The possession was generally better this match, but is still something that needs to be improved on, especially through the midfield. Ellis commented on the players’ individual skill, but expressed the need for improvement in the build up and play through the midfield. Another adjustment still being made by the team is the formation. Wambach noted that the forwards especially are usually used to having two up front and that having a third has been adjustment but is something they are getting used to.
Ellis is now faced with the task of cutting down the 28 player camp roster to a 20 person qualifying roster for the upcoming tournament in October, which by all accounts is not going to be an easy task with Ellis noting that it is a “tough, tough job. That is a fantastic group of 28 players; they made it hard”. One of the major questions in regards to roster seems to be which forwards will make the team. When asked if there was room for both Rodriguez and Leroux on the qualifying roster, Ellis had this response, “Yeah, I mean, it’s good choices. They’ve both competed very, very, hard. It’s a riches as far as our forward line.” It will be interesting to see what factors Ellis takes into account in deciding which forwards to take to qualifying. Leroux, Wambach, Morgan and Press have seen more national team minutes as of late, but Rodriguez’s stellar NWSL season as well as her performance last night makes a compelling argument as well.
Another area that Ellis hopes to settle in on is the left back position, particularly in choosing a player to fill the starting role on a consistent basis. “We will definitely settle in. I felt like because it hadn’t been locked down, per say, I had to see other people there. That’s why we’ve been rotating through. I think I have been very open and very fair with giving people opportunities there.”
One position that does seem to be locked down, or at least more firmly established, is the role of backup goalkeeper. Having dressed these last two friendlies, it seems like Ashlyn Harris is going to be the number 2 goalkeeper heading into qualifiers. Though a very capable backup, Harris only has three senior team caps and it was thought that she might see minutes in Saturday’s match against Mexico, though she was an unused sub. Moving forward it will be interesting to see if and when Harris or any other goalkeeper will start seeing minutes, as it is important for both the starting and backup keepers to be as solid and prepared as possible.
The United States kicks off their World Cup qualifying tournament against Trinidad and Tobago in Kansas City, Kansas on October 15
