Christen Press showed the type of individual talent the US boasts remains relatively peerless.
Neil W. Blackmon
The four games in eight days format is bizarre and the playing surface is natural grass, but the USWNT earned a measure of needed confidence by defeating France 2-0 Wednesday afternoon to win the Algarve Cup, the team’s “competitive dress rehearsal” for this summer’s World Cup in Canada. The victory marked the tenth Algarve Cup championship for the United States, and avenged last month’s friendly defeat to France, which marked the USWNT’s first loss to France in program history and sounded alarm bells for the Americans just months prior to the World Cup.
Questions about whether the Americans remain the world’s best women’s footballing nation (or even an elite one?) will and should linger well into the summer, and the funky Algarve Cup format, even more concentrated than the small sample size World Cup tournaments that define cycles and international soccer programs, means less should be read from winning this tournament than some will read into it.
Additionally, France, who will head to Canada a trendy pick to win, were without a handful of players nearly certain to be starters this summer, including veteran Laurie Georges’ and usual captain Wendie Renard in central defense. Meanwhile, creative 2011 World Cup starlet Louisa Nécib, who has long worn the weight of being dubbed the female Zidane, remained on the bench. So while the Americans had players not in Lorient to aid them, including Hope Solo, the French were a bit shorthanded. Nonetheless, having run roughshod over Denmark and defending World Cup champion Japan, the French entered yesterday’s match in prodigious form and the Americans defeating them (really, anyone) in top form is encouraging.
Confidence typically is earned in teaspoons so when you can grab it in big gulps, you do and that’s a significant takeaway from yesterday’s victory.
Other answers began to emerge in Portugal as well.
Julie Johnston was steady throughout the tournament, and splendid against France. Spelling injured and no longer timeless Christie Rampone and oft-preferred starter Whitney Engen in the center of defense, the 22 year old Johnston gave the Americans a shot in the arm and the lead in the 7th minute with a fine run and finish. It was a tone-setting goal. More critical, Johnston answered the bell technically in the back, winning most aerial encounters and several crucial tackles, including one minutes after her goal that denied the French a chance to equalize.
Questions will remain about whether her deployment should be in the center of defense or as a holding midfielder who can help seal the cracks in the American midfield. What is no longer a question is that Johnston deserves to start. And while that’s highly unlikely to be at the expense of Rampone, there’s a strong argument it should be at the expense of whoever is paired with her. And if it isn’t, there’s still a vision of a USWNT that sits deep and waits to counter that Johnston fits into. And given Jill Ellis’s preference to play narrowly, and the US limitations through the center of the field, that might be the most dangerous USWNT.
While the US issues breaking down opponents through the center continued to present in Portugal, the Americans also showed they have the individual, technical brilliance to overcome them. Yesterday, it was Christen Press who answered the call with a slaloming run through the French defense that gave the US a 2-0 lead.
Again, questions will linger about whether Jill Ellis is utilizing Press properly by slotting her out wide. As a number nine, she can be overpowering or play with great technical skill, sharpened by a stay in Sweden following her rookie year as a professional in the United States. Jill Ellis has utlized her instead as a wide midfielder in what is a very narrow system, one that forces Press to to stay wide when her natural inclination is to tuck in centrally or play facing the goal.
The goal yesterday, coming after winning the ball in the middle on a run where she could gain a head of steam, demonstrated both her fine finishing ability and the dilemma about leaving her potential as a number nine untapped. Questions aside, having a player with the speed, technical and mental acumen of Press as a secondary scoring option is another example of how despite recent results, the US continue to have weapons most nation’s simply don’t. When they get contributions from those elite talents, they are difficult to beat even when they aren’t perfect.
And the Americans remain far from perfect. A snarky comparison to Bob Bradley’s Spain-conquerors is snark for the sake of good copy, which is fine, I suppose, even if its relationship to reality resides somewhere in new Fantasyland. But there are issues.
The midfield remains bereft of a truly creative force, even if Lauren Holiday and Morgan Brian were much better this tournament than the US has seen of late. Against France, both goals came through individual brilliance, and Lloyd’s technical nous in generating both goals vs Norway is also well-documented. That leaves Switzerland as the only match in Portugal where the US scored off sustained build-up play.
Lauren Holiday was better in Portugal, but the US midfield as a whole still lacked bite.
Sermanni utilized Lloyd a bit deeper, hoping her ability to read seams and make strong late runs off the ball would give the US the chops to break opponents who sit back down through the middle. Ellis has not done that, and until the Algarve Cup, Holiday, who is a brilliant club player, had struggled of late internationally. Shannon Boxx played sparingly in Portugal, and it is fair to ask how much she can offer after an extended break and givcen her age. Meanwhile, the US lacks width, a combination of Rapinoe’s struggles and Ellis’s dogged determination to play narrowly. It may be too late to integrate an Erika Tymrak, who got extended camps under Sermanni and adds a creative element, or even a versatile player like Allie Long, into the fold.
Forward, meanwhile, remains a bit mystifying despite ample talent. Picking on the incomparable Abby Wambach is a sport these days, but those hoping she’s left behind are missing the debate rooted in reality. She’s going. Her role in Canada remains undefined. Wambach played only sparingly Wednesday, but given the tournament’s short rest, it is difficult to know if that was because of manager choice or fatigue forced by format. Amy Rodriguez, who played in Wambach’s stead, wasn’t much better. Rodriguez is really fast and as such appears to show for the ball well from time to time, but she’s never been great at getting into good positions and her ability to partner Alex Morgan is murky at best. Wambach, for all she’s lost with age, remains better aerially.
Sydney Leroux, at times an unstoppable force under Tom Sermanni, remains out of favor under Jill Ellis. The Americans need her to contend.
For all the remaining questions, the Americans did receive one other crucial answer in Portugal.
Through Carli Lloyd, the Americans received at the Algarve Cup the type of performance from their best player that they’ll need to contend for a third World Cup in Canada. Lloyd, sporting another black eye (practice, she says), brought the US back from the dead (despite an abjectly poor tactical deployment) against Norway and was by some distance the Americans most consistent attacking player in the tournament.
Rocky attitude in her blood RT “@bohratom: @coachgalanis Have to start calling @CarliLloyd "Rocky" now with all the black eyes she has had.”
— Coach James Galanis (@coachgalanis) March 4, 2015
“I’m sick of losing,” Lloyd told SI. “I’m sick of all the naysayers out there saying, ‘You’re [only] second in the world, the U.S. is done, they had a horrible Algarve Cup last year.’ I’m a winner, and I want to go out there and win.”
Lloyd’s two goal performance vs. Norway rescued the Americans from another disappointing defeat, paving the way for yesterday’s triumph over France. More critically, it proved that the Americans continue to have the talent to take control of matches when they fall behind, and it proved they have a leader blessed with both the talent (longtime women’s coach and commentator Tony DiCiccio calls Lloyd “unstoppable when she’s on”) and mental toughness to grind out victories when things become difficult. Winning is not easy. Lloyd understands that.
Lloyd’s performance against Norway opened eyes, not because anyone within women’s soccer circles was remotely surprised, but because with the US struggling and a World Cup visible on the horizon, more eyes are fixed on the women’s game than in the non-World Cup years where Lloyd’s excellence remains confined to the lips of women’s professional league fans and the handful of American soccer writers paying attention.
Carli Lloyd’s talent, well known in women’s soccer circles, shined brightly at the Algarve Cup.
Lloyd’s ability to perform technically and process what it takes to grind out wins, along with Christie Rampone’s age and diminishing quality-no matter how admirable her effort- are reasons armband or no, Carli Lloyd must lead this US team in Canada.
The US aren’t too far removed from wild success. Olympic Champions in London 2012, the USWNT went undefeated in 2013 under Tom Sermanni. But Sermanni was fired in stunning fashion after a disappointing Algarve Cup a year ago, and as 2014 continued, results continued to sour. With pressure building last year, I asked Lloyd what she can offer from a leadership perspective moving forward, understanding that for the US to win or contend in Canada, they’ll need contributions from a new wave of players who are filling in the gaps for aging veterans and heroes of World Cups past.
“It’s my job the younger players go through that, to understand winning. We’ve had younger players, JJ (Johnston), Morgan Brian, they’ve gone through the youth system and World Cups so they kind of know what to expect, but this is the big thing. It’s my job to get them ready.”
I asked her about the different position changes, whether it was playing deeper under Sermanni or more advanced, or potentially playing wider. Lloyd is the rare athlete who despite the personal success, gold-medal winning goals, World Cup finals, seems to thrive on competing, wherever and whenever. There’s a Dean Smith or John Wooden “if you aren’t competing against your old self you aren’t getting better” quality to Lloyd. She’s not concerned with what role she’s in, she’s concerned with performing whatever role she’s asked to perform.
“Whatever role I need to play, I’m totally fine with it. I liked playing the holding role– it’s a different game- I can control the game, dictate temp, gets lots of touches and keep possession for us,” Lloyd said. “But if I’m higher or wider, I can do more attacking. I’m fine with both. I just want to be a teammate.”
Maybe that desire to win and compete is why she doesn’t seem irritated that other teammates receive more attention and earn more endorsements. Alex Morgan, Abby Wambach, Hope Solo (the good and the bad)– these players occupy more space in what small national discussion there is about the women’s national team when the World Cup isn’t happening. Lloyd doesn’t care. She wants to win. She understands what goes into winning.
“I want to become one of the best players in the world,” Lloyd told me. With the team, it’s more obvious. Winning games, winning a World Cup, winning the Olympics but my end goal is to improve myself. I go home and train and put in the work. I’m competing against myself. And I want to make myself better, each and every day. That’s what motivates me, knowing that there is a gap between me and others and I can continue to separate.”
And her leadership role headed into the summer?
“I’m going to leave a lasting legacy when I’m gone,” Lloyd told TYAC. “People know me, they know how crazy I am with training and taking care of my body. This is the number one thing in my life. It comes ahead of every single thing. All my training is geared towards becoming a machine,” she said. “You have a six or seven game tournament with two days to recover. Everything I do is about preparing for that.”
Lloyd understands this is her World Cup. Even if there are more black eyes on the horizon.
“We won the Olympics, and now the road to the World Cup. All that’s left is to take it.”
Neil W. Blackmon is Co-Founder and Co-Editor of The Yanks Are Coming. Follow him on Twitter at @nwblackmon. Reach him at nwblackmon@gmail.com.