USWNT blanks Costa Rica to advance to CONCACAF W Championship
Think of the CONCACAF W Championship as a game of musical chairs. It started last week with eight teams circling four seats, each one representing a spot in next summer’s World Cup.
Those have all been claimed.
Now the music picks up a bit and the pace gets a little quicker, because with wins in Thursday’s semifinals, the U.S. and Canada are the only teams still in the game. And the chair they’re circling represents the region’s lone automatic berth in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Who gets that seat will be decided in Monday’s tournament final.
The top-ranked U.S., which, like Canada, has already clinched a spot in the World Cup, advanced with a 3-0 win over Costa Rica before a tiny crowd at massive Estadio Universitario. Canada, ranked sixth in the world, followed with a 3-0 victory over Jamaica.
The last time the teams met was in last summer’s Olympic semifinals, a game Canada won on its way to a gold medal.
The winner of the probable U.S.-Canada match Monday could also determine which country can claim to be the region’s true soccer power.
But for forward Alex Morgan, Monday’s rematch isn’t so much about settling scores from the last Olympics as it is about qualifying for the next one.
“The rivalry has definitely heated up the last couple of years. But it’s really not about looking back, it’s about looking forward,” she said. “Look at this squad. There’s a lot of girls that weren’t even there last year.
“This will be an opportunity for us to punch our ticket to the Olympics [and] prove to ourselves and the world why we have that No. 1 ranking.”
It’s been more than four years since reigning World Cup and Olympic champions have faced off, with the U.S. beating Germany in the 2018 SheBelieves Cup. It’s been more than seven years since the two champions played in an official match; that was in the final of the 2015 World Cup, where the U.S. beat Japan.
Those were games a lot of women on the current U.S. team watched on TV since 10 players on the roster are 25 or younger and 12 entered this month’s tournament with 15 or fewer international appearances.
So if the first four games of the CONCACAF championship served to get the U.S. to the final, they also provided valuable experience for a team in transition.
“We wanted to put them in a tough situation in must-win games,” coach Vlatko Andonovski said after Thursday’s win. “I’m glad that we could expose them to a game like this.”
Morgan said the veterans have had to get involved with the learning process too.
“The one thing that I have increased this tournament is vocally, on the field, helping players with positioning, set pieces, the things that this team takes pride in,” she said. “The mentality, kind of just push players along a little bit.”
Emily Sonnett’s first career goal, in the 34th minute, proved to be the only one the U.S. would need.
The sequence began with Mallory Pugh bending a corner kick into the center of the box where it hit a Costa Rica defender and deflected off the far post to Sonnett, who poked the rebound through the legs of Costa Rica’s Gabriela Guillen while going to the ground in the six-yard box.
Pugh made it 2-0 in first-half stoppage time and Ashley Sanchez closed things out in second-half stoppage time, which should probably count as running up the score since the U.S. hasn’t lost a World Cup or Olympic qualifier — or even allowed a goal in one — in 12 years.
Including Thursday’s result, the U.S. is 30-0 and has outscored opponents 148-0 since a 2010 loss to Mexico.
The latest addition to that list was more sloppy than commanding, however, with the U.S. holding the ball for nearly an hour and outshooting Costa Rica 15-2, but wasting more chances than it converted. And that won’t do against Canada.
Kristie Mewis scored late, and the USWNT defeated Mexico 1-0 in the group-play final Monday. Mexico’s high hopes for this tournament were dashed.
“We made too many technical errors, too many for the players on the field,” Andonovski said. “We know they can set up the ball and pass and execute. And that’s something that we’re going to look into, to see what it is. Is it the mental preparation or physical preparation? Whatever it is, we’re going to have to fix it.”
They have three days to do that. Because when the music stops Monday, only one team will have a seat at the next Olympics while the other will have to look toward a playoff to get in.
“I’m super excited for the game,” Canadian coach Bev Priestman said. “You always want to test yourself. The U.S. are an incredible team. I know that they will definitely be coming into this game with Tokyo in the back of their mind. They want to put that right.
“There’s a lot on the line. It’s the Olympic Games and we want to make sure that we’re not out.”
