A goal by- who else- salvages a strange night for the USWNT.
Neil W. Blackmon
As has happened so many times before, Abby Wambach scored when her team needed her most, hammering home an Alex Morgan cross in the 54th minute to give the US a 1-0 lead it would never relinquish last night in chilly Kansas City. The goal was more relief than anything, giving the Americans three points to start the group, and that Wambach scored it is hardly a surprise.
What was a surprise was the fight of the Soca Princesses of Trinidad and Tobago, who came to the United States with $500, no food, nowhere to train, a volunteer coach, no equipment and no lodging, and needed a full scale Twitter campaign to remedy a situation that has rightfully embarrassed the government back home. The Soca Princesses ability to bunker and stay compact forced the US into shots from distance or bad angles, and for much of the night, the Americans struggled to get the ball on frame. When they did, Trinidad and Tobago goalkeeper Kimika Forbes was up to nearly every task, making several spectacular saves in a performance that was (gulp) Howard vs. Belgium-esque.
The Soca Princesses weren’t able to hold the ball much, which limited their chances on the counter- but when they did take them, they looked dangerous. And after an egregious giveaway by Hope Solo late in the match, Trinidad and Tobago nearly equalized, as a shot over a helpless Solo sailed just high. The performance from T and T was more than admirable given the circumstances facing them when they arrived in the US, and in a group with Guatemala and Haiti, they’ll have a decent chance to qualify for the semifinals and as such, a great chance at making their first Women’s World Cup.
Either way, with Haiti, whose women were recently profiled in a stirring NYT piece, also in the field, the likelihood of a feel-good story emerging from this group is extremely high. (Haiti won their opening match, 1-0, despite losing their goalkeeper Cynthia Chery to a red card in the match.)
But back to the United States, who were bailed out by Wambach.
World Cup qualifying isn’t supposed to be easy, but for the United States Women’s National Team, it has been:
#USWNT 1–0 win over T&T marked 1st time team scored fewer than 3 goals vs a CONCACAF team other than Mexico or Canada (avg: 7.3 per game).
— Peter Hirdt (@PeterHirdt) October 16, 2014
That statistic is staggering, even considering US dominance, and the failure to replicate that success is part about a brave Trinidad and Tobago team, yes, but also about a USWNT that has genuine questions marks eight months away from the Women’s World Cup. Two thoughts on that and more after Wednesday night’s win:
Christen Press has the talent to justify a start, but looked out of sorts on the right flank after a bright start.
First, the US lacked tactical fluidity and despite an abundance of attacking riches, they haven’t figured out what formula works best yet.
Tom Sermanni was sacked and replaced by longtime USWNT servant Jill Ellis but credit Sermanni with this: his teams- until the bizarre Algarve Cup performance characterized by defensive breakdowns- didn’t have trouble scoring goals. Sermanni got Sydney Leroux going and eased the transition and expectation for Christen Press, who started on the right behind Wambach and Morgan last night.
Against a defense that, according to their coach Randy Waldrum was “playing with girls who hadn’t played together before and who I just met two days ago”, the Americans looked out of sorts. Christen Press fought the urge to play more advanced- a challenge against a team sitting as deep as Trinidad and Tobago were- and the US seemed to miss Heather O’Reilly’s presence in the starting 11, if only because O’Reilly forces a defense out of a shell. Meanwhile, with Press advanced on one flank, Megan Rapinoe was consistently behind the play on the other, and just off a bit in her distributions. The net result was Trinidad and Tobago having extra bodies for help defense on one flank and not having to worry about lethal service on the other. Indeed, it wasn’t until Alex Morgan showed a spectacular piece of skill that the Americans could score, despite Wambach and Press hitting woodwork in the first half.
Sydney Leroux came on in the second half and was denied a goal by a brilliant Forbes save, but her evening was otherwise mired in the same frustrations, and Amy Rodriguez, back from giving birth, wasn’t on the field long enough to make an impact.
The Americans formation- theoretically a 4-1-3-2 with Lauren Holiday deep behind Carli Lloyd, played more like a 4-2-4 straight out of the middle-half of last century. Lloyd had her chances, but her traditionally accurate long-distance boots were off the mark, and Lauren Holiday’s presence and skill up the field were more or less negated by playing her as a deep midfielder. There is merit, one would think, to Sermanni’s role for Lloyd, the deeper-lying playmaker role behind another central midfielder in which Lloyd issued some of her finest performances in a US shirt.
Solo’s error nearly cost the US three points.
Second, the Americans were very fortunate to get three points, as Trinidad and Tobago exposed the fragile US back line a bit on their limited counters.
Christie Rampone is still a good player, but at 39, she’s a relic of victories past and isn’t improving. It says a good deal about Rampone that she’s still able to stay fit and healthy and captain the team; it says a greater deal that the Americans can’t produce a player at her position that forces her off the field. The latter point, as I wrote several months ago (linked above by Sermanni), is what may cost the United States a World Cup on North American soil turf grass.
Becky Sauerbrunn is a capable squad player, but she is beaten by pace and on one second half counter last night, lost her mark completely, only to have the forward pass the ball behind another onrushing forward. It was a sequence eerily similar to the one we saw from Jozy Altidore and Clint Dempsey the night before in Boca Raton, where Altidore missed a simple pass on a run where he should have shot and Dempsey fired just wide.
Also eerily similar to the men’s match in Boca Raton was an error by Hope Solo, whose giveaway in the second half left her net defenseless. She rushed back only to see a shot from the right channel zip narrowly over the cross bar. You won’t see Rimando or Solo make those mistakes often- but they did on back to back evenings.
These types of moments can’t happen, especially when you are dominating a game (possession and shot-wise) as much as the United States were last evening. They happened too often at the Algarve Cup against better competition earlier this year, and the US were fortunate to not be punished for their recurrence last night.
Fortunately for the Americans, they escaped on a night they weren’t at their best. The challenge for Jill Ellis is to get them to their best before the semifinals, where they’ll face a team -likely either Costa Rica, Jamaica or Mexico- that can defeat them if they play poorly.
Neil W. Blackmon is co-founder of The Yanks Are Coming. Follow him on Twitter at @nwb_usmnt, and e-mail him at nwblackmon@gmail.com.