Alex Morgan’s brace propelled the U.S. Women’s National Team to a 2-2 draw with France Thursday night at Rentschler Field in East Hartford Connecticut.
Despite a dominant performance from France throughout the match, the USWNT managed to grind through and equalize twice and preserve their 84 game home unbeaten record extending back to 2004.
Both USA goals came courtesy of returning star forward Alex Morgan. Meanwhile, Louisa Necib and Amandine Henry were the goalscorers for France.
Alex Morgan sounded both excited and relieved following the game. It has been a long road back for the forward. Saturday’s match in Tampa was her first international game since November 2013. “I just feel like, finally, I’m back and doing what I’m supposed to be doing–scoring goals,” explained Morgan. “It feels good.”
The match began with tremendous pace. Christen Press sent in a long ball over the backline to Leroux in the third minute. Leroux wasn’t able to break away and France cleared the ball for the first USA corner of the match.
Ashlyn Harris’s first touch of the game resulted from a failed attempt to head the ball away from goal by Leroux after a free kick from France in the 10th minute.
France generally dominated possession throughout the first half as the USWNT struggled to connect passes of their own in an attempt to maintain any sort of possession. Instead, the USWNT played directly and relied extensively on long balls sent in behind the France back line.
France broke the stalemate in the 27th minute when Louisa Necib converted a penalty kick after Harris came off her line as Necib had slipped in behind the USA defenders. However, Necib was going away from goal and the ball was heading over the endline, which makes the penalty decision somewhat suspect.
After the game Ashlyn Harris stated plainly that she believe Necib flopped to earn the penalty call. “It is one of those things where she knows she can’t beat me, she can’t go through me, she can’t go around me,” explained Harris. “Like any forward, they are going to touch out of bounds and just flop. And that is what she did.”
France continued to control the game as the first half ended.
USA head coach Jill Ellis made two substitutions to start the second half, replacing Heather O’Reilly with Alex Morgan and Whitney Engen with Christie Rampone.
Morgan made an immediate impact, equalizing for the USA in the 56th minute. Allie Long sent in a vertical long ball from midfield to Morgan who settled the ball, cut inside, and slotted a perfectly placed shot off the far post.
France regained the lead 12 minutes later after Henry created space at the top of the right side of the box and blasted a shot, which benefited from a deflection off of Meghan Klingenberg, past Harris and into the back of the net.
Press nearly equalized immediately following the second France goal, but her shot from distance slammed off the post, and Morgan’s attempt to connect with the rebound was thwarted and cleared by a French defender.
Ellis made her final substitutions in the 77th minute as Kelley O’Hara and Amy Rodriguez replaced Klingenberg and Leroux.
The fresh legs reinvigorated the USA attack and the Americans put continued pressure on the France back line for the final 20 minutes of the match.
Alex Morgan finally converted that pressure into a goal in the 85th minute. She took advantage of the space given to her in the box, cutting around several French defenders before slotting her shot between multiple defenders and keeper Sarah Bouhaddi.
Neither side was able to find a game winning goal in the final minutes of the match and the scoreline remained 2-2 after four minutes of stoppage time.
Ellis is still working to implement her 4-3-3 system, but the formation continues to appear on paper only as the team is far more dynamic and interchangeable on the pitch.
“She is trying to implement more of the numbers,” explained midfielder Carli Lloyd. “The number nine up top, the number 10, the six and eight. One is more of a box to box, one holds a little bit more. Depending on the day, we’ve all got to know what those roles are and those responsibilities. I think the interchange that we have, the amount of technical players we have on this team, we can cause a lot of teams a lot of problems by mixing and interchanging.”
Ellis said she felt good about the performance overall, but highlighted the adjustments made in the final 45 minutes. “Second half we sort of stepped it up and solved a few things,” said Ellis. “I was really pleased with some of the adjustments and some of the things we did. Our transition, I thought was really good tonight.”
She pointed out a couple of specific changes the team made in the second half. “We played a little out of the back,” noted Ellis. “That allowed us to connect to the midfield a little bit more. Overall, our ball movement was much better in the second half. We stepped the line [up] a little bit defensively. In the attack I felt like we were able to play out a little bit better.”
The USWNT will have a long break, likely till August, as players return to their NWSL clubs. No doubt Ellis will be watching her players closely as they wrap up the second half of the NWSL season. There are only a couple more opportunities for the team to come together prior to CONCACAF qualifying in October, which will take place in the U.S.