Tampa-
The United States defeated Brazil 1-0 Tuesday night on a gloomy, chilly night at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. A crowd of 14,009 cheered them on, a record for a women’s soccer game crowd in Tampa.
The Americans closed the 2019 She Believes Cup with five points, finishing second in what will be the final “competitive” matches for the US Women’s National Team before heading to France this summer.
A series of Send-Off friendlies and a lengthy pre-World Cup camp remains. But if the SheBelieves Cup was an American dress rehearsal for their World Cup defense in France this summer, there’s plenty of reason to be skeptical about the Americans chances of retaining the World Cup.
From a results standpoint, it’s a bit difficult to comprehend how a team that has lost just one game in the past 19 months could be in trouble ahead of a World Cup. But the US stumbled through late autumn friendlies on European soil and in 2019, have done little to inspire confidence.
The Americans five matches this year have been played against some of the world’s best teams, with the Americans beating Spain and Brazil, losing to France, and tying both Japan and now England. In a vacuum, these results aren’t dire, especially against teams all ranked in the Top 12 of the latest batch of FIFA rankings.
That said, there appear to be significant issues.
The American defense is clearly struggling, and before Tuesday’s clean sheet, had surrendered seven goals in their previous four games. Due to injuries, Jill Ellis tinkering with combinations or some combination of both, the United States had tried 22 different defensive permutations over the last year, the result being a disjointed back four months 94 days before the US play Thailand to open their World Cup defense.
Becky Sauerbrunn returned Tuesday night, offering the US stability, and the defender said reclaiming the team’s defensive edge was a point of emphasis.
“I’m partial to clean sheets,” Sauerbrunn said after the game. “Brazil has a lot of attacking firepower and flair. They have Marta. So to come out and get a clean sheet against them, which no one else in the SheBelieves Cup had done, that’s a statement. We need to build on that from this game on.”
They’ll need to, especially considering the attack hasn’t been terrific away from home. Yes, the United States managed to score 5 goals in the SheBelieves Cup. But in their last four on European soil, where they’ll attempt to retain their World Cup, they’ve mustered only a goal a game.
Worse, the United States have hemorrhaged goals against elite teams, surrendering 3 to France and two each to England and Japan.
Most folks remember the 2015 World Cup championship for the deluge of goals rained in by a hair-on-fire Carli Lloyd and the rampant Americans in the World Cup final against Japan. That was a show we’ll never forget, to be sure, but it’s worth remembering the heavy lifting at that World Cup was done by the American defense.
While the US midfield and attack searched for answers in the group stage, scoring only four goals, the American defense held down the fort, conceding only once and helping the US survive a tricky group with a tough Sweden team in pursuit. The Americans didn’t set the world on fire offensively in the knockout rounds either, scoring just twice against a porous Colombia in the Round of 16 and grinding out a goal against cagey China in a tight quarterfinal. The difference in those games wasn’t a potent American attack– it was Hope Solo, Becky Sauerbrunn, Julie Ertz and the rest of the American defense. The move of Morgan Brian to a pure number six helped, without question, but she’d already been inserted into the lineup– freeing up the dynamic Carli Lloyd to get forward with abandon– before the US exploded for seven goals in the semifinals and final.
In that sense, it was less the good fortune of a Lauren Holiday yellow card suspension that helped the US win the World Cup, as the narrative tends to go, and more the brilliant American defense. That performance came on friendly Canadian soil, not far from home. The challenge this summer, on French soil with a host nation that has defeated you already in 2019 and pre-tournament darlings and SheBelieves Cup champion England just a channel swim away, will be more daunting. Put bluntly, the US can’t afford for the defense to not be right.
At times, the US were better defensively Tuesday night.
How much of that was about Brazil’s lack of bite in midfield and how much was about the return of Becky Sauerbrunn, or Sam Mewis providing a security blanket for Abby Dahlkemper, as she does for the North Carolina courage, remains to be seen. The truth is the US are only now, for a confluence of reasons, settling on a back four for France.
Ellis was pleased with the way they closed the tournament, and insisted it was more than just Sauerbrunn’s return.
“This is why we do this tournament, because coming out of those four games (where the US conceded seven goals) we practiced with even more urgency and focus, drilling into the details and improving. The response was fantastic. It isn’t just about Becky coming back or one player. Individual players have to make decisions: whether to step or drop, of course, but they have to do it together and tonight, there was a lot more synchronization defensively and a collective commitment to winning the ball. It was a great response.”
Maintaining that improvement defensively should be priority one for Jill Ellis and the US before the Americans open the World Cup.
Priority two?
Settling on a central midfield group of three and repping it, over and over.
Jill Ellis promised prior to the SheBelieves Cup that she was done tinkering with lineups, only to again shuffle her central midfield throughout the round robin. That may have been her intention entering the tournament, but due to injuries or happenstance, Ellis changed her mind. The decisions to move Julie Ertz around and insert Mal Pugh into the center of the midfield were new and puzzled fans and analysts alike.
Mallory Pugh is one of the most technically gifted and talented players the United States have ever produced. In terms of sheer potential, her ceiling may be the highest of any American player since Michelle Akers. This is not hyperbolic.
She’s also always played out wide and up top for the United States, so the decision to play her in the central midfield against both England and Brazil was a curious one. Against England, it failed, with Pugh very much looking out of sorts, unsure when to press forward and uncomfortable when it was time to dig in defensively. On Tuesday night, the experiment lasted only a half but went slightly better, thanks to the insertion of the settling Sam Mewis in the central midfield next to Julie Ertz.
“Mewis had a wonderful camp,” Ellis said. “Rose’s knee was a bit problematic, so it was a matter of playing the player that was fit and deserved to play. It was an easy decision.”
Sauerbrunn felt it was the right one to strike a better balance in the American midfield.
“Sam Mewis was the best player in this match. She seized the game,” Sauerbrunn said. “She offers so much in attack and defensively. She’s a physical presence in the midfield- the tallest player out there– and she uses that physicality. She can drive at players with the ball, break things up defensively, her presence was really felt and it was what the midfield needed.”
Alex Morgan agreed.
“Sam provided something different for us,” Morgan said. “Sam gets stuck in, defends really well, keeps us organized. So I think that helped us move forward and get the shutout today.”
WIth Mewis settling things defensively and in possession as a distribution fulcrum and Ertz left at her best to break up attacks and play line-busting passes over the top, Pugh was free to play higher and freer, giving the US midfield balance and bite.
Ellis suggests some of the last minute tinkering at the SheBelieves Cup was less by design and more about the demands of the competition. Injuries happen in tournaments and teams need to react to those circumstances, even if that means playing new or less comfortable positions.
“There are going to be injuries in tournaments. Players have to step into other spots and sometimes, that means playing somewhere you aren’t used to. Julie (Ertz) hadn’t played in the back until the Algarve Cup in 2015. She did okay. We have good players who will adjust.”
Still, finding the right “balance” in central midfield is something the US need, especially because their most electric attacking players continue to play on the wing. To access those players- and the lethal Alex Morgan- the US need to find a way to connect the center to the flank and top.
“We can do a better job,” Morgan said. “We need to close the gaps between the midfield line, flank and forward line. There are times we are isolated and too alone on island up there.”
That thought seems strange, given the fact the Americans had by some distance the most touches in the final third of any side at the SheBelieves Cup.
Too often, however, those touches were isolated, with the US left hoping one of their sensational playmakers will make something happen.
The best of those is still Tobin Heath.
Heath had a sensational SheBelieves Cup, one of a trio of American players who looked definitively ready for France. Devastatingly fast, smooth on the ball and a dynamic crosser, she is already difficult to stop even though every opponent the US have know she is the most dynamic player on the field. Imagine her impact in a world where the US generate some level of consistent thrust from the center?
Christen Press played the role of supersub at the tournament perfectly and, in fairness to Ellis, whose moves have rightly been questioned in other areas, the decision to relegate Press to “first player off the bench” seems a perfect one. Press is a unique player, someone who is above average at everything. For a while, this made finding her role difficult– she is so thoroughly competent a soccer player that a manager could be lulled into the sense that there’s nothing she can’t do. The truth, however, is that she’s best as an impact sub on a wing or an out-and-out number nine, a player with tremendous pace and intelligence who puts strain on a defense as legs tire. That was her role at the SheBelieves Cup, and it mattered as the US fought for leads and equalizers in the tournament’s first two games.
Finally, Megan Rapinoe continues to do special things on a soccer field. She looked a step behind at times Tuesday night, which begs the question of how to manage her minutes in the time-demand, compressed format of a World Cup. But even tired, she was an effective passer and dangerous in space. And she’s always capable of something brilliant, like this wonderful rocket she scored in an Audre Lorde jersey.
Finally, the US have questions in goal.
Jill Ellis played a different goalkeeper in every SheBelieves Cup game, which may be entirely because of an opening match injury to presumed incumbent Alyssa Naeher or could be a hint that she doesn’t yet know who will command the minutes in France. In truth, Ashlyn Harris, who started Tuesday’s win over Brazil in her home state, looked the most compelling of the group, though there’s little about her play in NWSL that would suggest she’s the first choice. What’s clear is that at some point, the Americans will need their goalkeeper to make a big play in France and at present, it’s unclear which player Jill Ellis trusts to do that. It’s an issue, and unfortunately, the US are out of “competitive” matches to figure it out. That makes the battle one to be settled in training camp and at friendlies, an unusual spot for a country that has had a dominant goalkeeper for two decades.
All told, leaving the SheBelieves Cup with a win offers the US something to build on. But the US still have plenty of questions to answer ahead of their World Cup defense.
Neil W. Blackmon co-founded The Yanks Are Coming. Follow him on Twitter @nwblackmon.