The United States women’s national team defeated Mexico 4-0 on Monday night at Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Connecticut. Head coach Vlatko Andonovski wanted to utilize the friendlies as a final Olympic tune-up for the team ahead of the Tokyo games. The victory is the second consecutive win for USWNT during their Olympic send-off series. Lindsey Horan, Carli Lloyd, and Tobin Heath recorded goals in the Concacaf finale.
USWNT 4, Mexico 0
Scoreboard
⚽ USA: Lindsey Horan 6′
⚽ USA: Carli Lloyd 11′
⚽ USA: Reyna Reyes (OG) 37′
⚽ USA: Tobin Heath 37′
Takeaways
Head coach Vlatko Andonovski made additional rotations to his final starting line up ahead of the Olympics, Rose Lavelle for Kristie Mewis in the midfield, and Heath for Megan Rapinoe and Lloyd for Alex Morgan up top. It was the first start for Heath in 2021, who had been sidelined with an ankle injury since January.
Mexico tested the USWNT in the opening minutes with chances in the final third from Stefany Mayor and Joselyn Orajel, but quick action was short-lived as the U.S. got on the scoreboard in the sixth minute with a goal by Horan.
Lloyd scored the go-head goal just five minutes later when she was left unmarked on diving header.
Christen Press is the lone forward on the top line to get five consecutive starts and has been involved in the USWNT across all five of her starts. After the second goal for the USWNT a potential third goal was disallowed that was initially ruled as offside. In post game comments, Andonovski shared an explanation from the official that the whistle was blown accidentally.
“First, it wasn’t a goal, because the referee, by her explanation, blew the whistle by accident,” said Andonovski
“That was the explanation that was given to us. I cannot believe it happened because I thought that was the most beautiful goal that we scored as a team. It was a perfect display of what we were trying to do, what we’ve been working towards, and how we want this team to look going forward. Unfortunately it was taken away from us, but in my books, that was a goal for this team and a goal for Christen Press.”
Despite the disallowed goal, the team extended their lead by two more goals before halftime with an own goal from Mexican defender Reyna Reyes, and a fourth goal from Heath in the 39th minute.
The team went on to close out their second friendly against Mexico with another 4-0 scoreline, and sixth consecutive clean sheet ahead of the Tokyo Olympics. USWNT captain Becky Sauerbrunn feels confident in the backline’s ability to tackle any challenges from attackers they encounter during the upcoming Olympic games.
“I’m not overly concerned because the people that I have to train against day in and day out, are some of the best attackers in the world. And so every single day I’m facing Alex Morgan, Carli Lloyd, Megan Rapinoe, Christian Press — it goes on, and on, and on,” said Sauerbrunn.
“In training, you’re facing all the best and all sorts of dangerous attacks. So I feel very, very confident that when we are faced with challenges during the Olympics — because yes they are going to come — that we’ve faced them in the training leading up to it.”
The USWNT kick off their Olympic journey to gold on July 21 when they face Sweden in Group G action.
