The US girls’s nationwide workforce is thru to the Tokyo Olympics after a convincing 4-0 win over Mexico. ASN’s John Halloran is right here together with his ideas on the workforce’s newest triumph.
BY
John Halloran
Posted
February 08, 2020
3:00 AM
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THE UNITED STATES girls’s nationwide workforce is heading to the 2020 Olympic Video games. On the again of a 4-0 win over Mexico, the Individuals secured qualification on Friday night time in Carson, California.
The U.S., because it has all event, bought off to a fast begin within the match with Rose Lavelle tallying within the fifth minute and Sam Mewis including one other solely 9 minutes later. Within the second half, Mewis added a 3rd on a lasered free kick and Christen Press scored on a chip to provide the ultimate end result.
Listed here are three ideas from the match.
THE STARTING LINEUP
For the primary time in his tenure, head coach Vlatko Andonovski confronted a must-win sport and revealed his first-choice lineup. Apart from Carli Lloyd changing Alex Morgan at heart ahead, it was the very same lineup that former head coach Jill Ellis used seven months in the past within the 2019 World Cup last.
Nonetheless, because the U.S. has labored its method by the qualifying course of, it does seem that no less than one change to that lineup must be made—Christen Press must be beginning.
Press has been indomitable all through all the event, tallying 5 objectives by 4 video games, together with some spectacular strikes. And he or she did so once more on Friday, scoring solely 5 minutes after coming into the match and recording the one objective of the night time by any American participant on the entrance line.
Christen Press will get within the sport.Christen Press scores a objective.Christen Press smiles.
That’s simply what Christen Press does. pic.twitter.com/LvjkxDtVk7
— The American Outlaws (@AmericanOutlaws) February 8, 2020
Not one of the different U.S. forwards have appeared as sharp as Press over the previous two weeks and, on Friday, all the workforce’s front-line starters struggled to make an impression.
It’s actually not going to be a simple determination for Andonovski—to bench Lloyd, Rapinoe, or Heath—however based mostly on kind, there’s no respectable argument for protecting Press out of the beginning XI any longer.
JULIE ERTZ CONTINUES TO IMPROVE
Many have written in regards to the impression of Julie Ertz on the U.S. workforce since 2017, when she moved into the No. 6 place and bounce began a return to kind after a protracted interval of shaky outcomes. In that function, Ertz turned the workforce’s destroyer, helped shore up the backline, and launched the Individuals’ exterior backs and wingers to assault with abandon.
Nonetheless, what has been much less apparent over the previous 12 months is Ertz’ continued enchancment within the place. Whereas she has all the time been an distinctive ball winner and competitor, she has now additionally developed into a high quality distributor—each together with her means to recycle possession and discover entry passes into the forwards.
Ertz has additionally develop into rather more adept at enjoying together with her again to strain and discovering outlet passes to alleviate that strain, particularly towards groups which have tried to stifle the Individuals’ assault by carefully marking her.
It’s gone largely unnoticed, but it surely’s been a significant a part of the workforce’s continued enchancment.
CRYSTAL DUNN HITS 100
With the U.S. dominating the competitors all through this event, not a lot consideration has been paid to the squad’s protection. However Crystal Dunn quietly hit 100 caps on Friday, a testomony to her versatility.
The Crystal Dunn turning-point story is all the time the one about being the final participant minimize from the 2015 World Cup workforce, and it is typically been instructed sufficient, however to see her at 100 caps lower than 5 years after that’s exceptional. https://t.co/BcFUceHE7R
— Jeff Kassouf (@JeffKassouf) February 8, 2020
As arguably the perfect No. 10 within the Nationwide Ladies’s Soccer League, the overwhelming majority of Dunn’s caps over the previous two years have come at left again—together with ultimately summer season’s World Cup—simply making her essentially the most adaptable participant in all the U.S. pool.
