Jessica Alcheh-USA TODAY Sports activities
America girls’s nationwide workforce’s 2-0 loss to Mexico on Monday marked solely the second time in 43 conferences that El Tri managed a victory over its rival to the north. It was a radical efficiency from Mexico, who dominated the U.S. from begin to end to prevail because the shock winners of Group A on the Concacaf W Gold Cup.
The People are nonetheless by means of to the quarterfinals, however the loss was a reminder of simply how a lot work is left to be performed after the low level that was the 2023 World Cup. No observer, impartial or partisan, might argue that Mexico was not the vastly superior workforce on Monday. El Tri boss Pedro Lopez received the techniques proper and his gamers executed with a relentless starvation that the U.S. couldn’t reply.
“On the finish of the day, we have been outbattled and it’s unacceptable,” U.S. midfielder Sam Coffey instructed CBS Sports activities after the sport. “There’s no excuse that we are able to make for ourselves. We now have to remain collectively as a gaggle and be taught from it and transfer on. However on the finish of the day, Mexico deserved to win and we now have to take that to coronary heart, and I do know that this group will.”
Lizbeth Ovalle struck an iconic chip to open the scoring within the thirty eighth minute. The purpose got here off a direct play up the backbone of the U.S. protection, with one massive ball excessive following a Mexico purpose kick. U.S. interim coach Twila Kilgore lamented the workforce’s lapses on the set play.
“I believe [a] sport is about moments,” Kilgore stated. “And if we take a look at these moments the place when you take the purpose for instance, it’s a microcosm for the sport as a result of a workforce from a defensive purpose kick for us which is one thing that we usually delight ourselves on and we didn’t win the primary ball, didn’t win the second ball, after which didn’t execute.”
The final and solely earlier time the U.S. misplaced to Mexico was at World Cup qualifying in November 2010, when Morgan was in her first 12 months of representing the senior nationwide workforce. The loss pressured the U.S. into a world playoff with Italy, the place the top-ranked People prevailed over two legs — with Morgan scoring an important purpose within the first leg in Italy — to change into the sixteenth and ultimate workforce to qualify for the 2011 World Cup.
“Concacaf just isn’t what it was 14 years in the past once we had our final loss to Mexico,” Morgan stated.
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A number of issues that plagued the U.S. on the 2023 World Cup reappeared on Monday, from particular person gamers’ incapability to resolve strain to a scarcity of solutions off the bench. Kilgore made a pair of modifications at halftime, swapping Alex Morgan in for Sophia Smith on the No. 9 place and bringing on Emily Sonnett instead of Lynn Williams as a part of a system tweak. The modifications did little to shift the momentum, which Kilgore conceded in reference to a sluggish first 20 minutes of the second half.
“We simply didn’t play practically our greatest,” Morgan stated afterward.
A second-half stoppage time golazo from Mayra Pelayo — who grew up in Southern California, not removed from the location of Monday’s sport, and performed school soccer at Florida and received a passing look within the U.S. youth system — punctuated the victory for Mexico.
Mexico set the tempo from the opening minutes, urgent the U.S. protection into errors excessive up the sphere and successful second balls in midfield. Kilgore stated they anticipated Mexico “leaping out from their form” based mostly on their scouting, however the U.S. had no reply.
“I believe there was a superb sport plan,” Kilgore stated. “I believe they’d an ideal — a superb — sport plan. I believe we had a superb sport plan and easily they only executed there’s higher than ours. And a part of that does need to do with depth that usually could be measured by issues like tempo with the ball, but additionally defensive issues like successful first tackles and successful second balls.”
