9,779 fans watched as Hope Solo tied Brianna Scurry’s record for most shutouts in US history (71) and Sydney Leroux scored her 7th goal of the year to lift the US Women’s National team to a 1-0 victory of France.
The USWNT is now 7-2-2 in 2014 and extended their home unbeaten streak to 83 games, a streak that dates back to November 6, 2004. This match marked a couple of other major milestones for the USWNT including Jill Ellis’s first as full head coach and the celebration of Lauren Holiday’s 100th cap.
When asked about tying Scurry’s record Solo joked, “honestly, I can’t think about the record. I have this, kind of, superstition that if I think about it before the game, I tend to get scored on.”
France relied on the counterattack in the first half, but was able to transition to a more possession oriented attack in the second half. Meanwhile, the USA had a good bit of possession in the first half, but failed to maintain that possession in the second or generate any dangerous chances on the counter.
Following the game Solo hailed her team’s ability to deal with France’s potent counterattack. “France is a great team,” said Solo. “They counterattacked. They didn’t just counterattack with speed, but they [also] counterattacked with numbers. So to shut that down was-I just take my hat off to my defenders.”
After a series of three consecutive corners by the USA, France goalkeeper Sarah Bouhaddi finally picked Holiday’s corner as it sailed into the box and distributed the ball quickly for a counterattack in the 8th minute. Elodie Thomis sprinted past Stephanie Cox and got a shot off, but Solo did well to close down the angle and deflected the shot out of bounds.
In the 21st minute Christen Press flicked a ball to Sydney Leroux just inside the 18-yard box. Leroux tracked down the ball and slipped past two French defenders before sending in a low dribbling ball into the right corner of the net to give the USA a 1-0 lead.
Eugenie Le Sommer snatched the ball after a poor giveaway in the midfield by Carli Lloyd in the 30th minute. Le Sommer managed to get a shot off with three USA players trailing her, but she was denied by the right post.
France had two decent chances to equalize just before halftime. In the 41st minute Lousia Necib’s strike from 20 yards sailed over the right corner of the goal. Two minutes later Le Sommer slipped behind USA defender Ali Krieger and headed a cross into the box directly into the arms of Solo. Solo bobbled the save, but managed to hold on and send her team into the locker room at halftime with a 1-0 lead over France.
Despite maintaining the majority of possession in the second half, France wasn’t able to get many dangerous looks on goal. The USA did well to absorb the pressure from France and limited their opportunities.
Alex Morgan replaced Tobin Heath in the 49th minute. It was Morgan’s first international match since November 10th, 2013 when she played 23 minutes against Brazil.
In the 86th minute Laetitia Tonazzi received a ball from over the top, slipping behind the USA back line, but her shot toward the lower right corner of goal rolled past the face of goal and out of play.
France had several opportunities to equalize during stoppage time as the ball bounced around dangerously just in front of the USA goal, but none of the French players in the box were able to get a foot on the ball before it was cleared by the USA.
Despite several chances in the second half, the USA repelled the continued attacks from France to maintain their 1-0 lead and move to 15-0-1 all-time against Les Bleus.
The series of two friendlies is critical preparation for both sides prior to the World Cup because both face less than stiff competition in their qualifying campaigns. “It is important for the team to play against very highly ranked [FIFA] teams because the World Cup is coming up and within the qualifiers there are not the best teams in the world so it is good to compare ourselves to very good teams,” explained French defender Ines Jaurena. “That is what we expect to do in the World Cup.”
Solo provided some insight regarding how the USWNT prepared to face such a formidable opponent. “Honestly, Jill took us into the meeting and she said ‘This is about us. This meeting is about us. It’s about our line-up. It’s about our decision making, our pressure, our team defensive shape.’,” explained Solo. “And then we went from there. It was the first step to building into the World Cup for next summer. We are a year out and that was the first step. I think it was a very good step.”
This is the first match for Ellis as the full time head coach of the USWNT. When asked about what she felt went well on the night, she responded:
“I thought our attack and shape. That is as big as we have been in our attack and shape. The confidence to really push the ball around. We are going to make some mistakes, but overall our tempo we had in the first half [was good]. I think our organization and discipline defensively. Those are two things we’ve talked about in four days together. Again, [we are] already seeing some things we like. This is a good picture.”
Solo also noted the importance of moving forward as a team with Ellis at the helm and commented on whether she felt it was an easy coaching transition. “Yeah. I mean, that is kind of over and done with,” said Solo. “We’re in with Jill. She is awesome. The whole team is behind her. It is time to, who cares about that now, she is our head coach and we are moving forward.”
The USWNT will play France again on Thursday June 19th in East Hartford Connecticut at 7:30 PM. The match will be streamed at usssoccer.com