Heather O’Reilly scored one final goal in her U.S. Women’s National team send-off, but it was Carli Lloyd that truly stole the show on Thursday night.
Lloyd provided a hat-trick while adding four more assists, leading the way as the USWNT crushed Thailand, 9-0, in Columbus. The match was the 231st and last cap for O’Reilly, who announced that Thursday’s match would be her last as she retires from the international game.
It took just one minute for O’Reilly and Lloyd to link up, as the former provided the latter for a goal within the first minute. A goal from Christen Press three minutes later proved a sign of things to come, as O’Reilly fired her goal in the fifth minute to put the USWNT up 3-0 early via a pair of Lloyd assists.
Tobin Heath pushed the lead to four in the 36th minute, where it remained until several minutes after halftime. Lloyd kickstarted the USWNT’s goalscoring again in the 60th minute with the team’s fifth before substitute Crystal Dunn added a 70th minute finish to push the lead to six. Lloyd fired her third and final goal in the 81st minute before Alex Morgan bagged a late brace to seal an emphatic 9-0 win over an overmatched opponent.
While the USWNT was dominant on the field, much of the pre-match talk centered on Megan Rapinoe, who once again opted to kneel during the national anthem as part of an ongoing protest. After starting the game on the bench, Rapinoe entered as a 46th minute substitute and played the entire second half.
Following the win, the U.S. returns to action Sunday for a clash with the Netherlands at the Georgia Dome.
That was nice to see Heather go out with a goal and a couple of assists. She is a class act and should have been at Rio. IMHO, they should have played the National Anthems before the teams came out on the field, so as to take Megan our of her classless act. What she does with her club is the clubs business. What she does with the National Team is everyone’s business as USA Soccer is supported by the general public and not the Government. She needs to find another outlet for her feelings. Our National Anthem being played before our National Team is not it. She will hurt her future with her actions. Good things she may have expected to happen to her simply will not happen!!!
On another note, the USWNT needs to have another major competition other than the W/C and the Olympics. Maybe The Americas Cup, like the men have, should be instituted for the Women.
There are enough good teams now to where a 12-team Tournament, like in the Olympics, is
certainly viable.
Finally, I am glad to see that Samantha Mewis is finally getting some quality time on an International level. She would be the dominant mid-fielder, the USWNT needs if given more
developmental experience.
They had the Algarve Cup, but I think they are now trying to promote that She Believes(?) Cup that had France and England in it, because then they keep it on home soil and keep all the profit. If they had your America’s Cup with SA and NA it would be ok with Canada and Brazil (Mexico and Colombia are ok but wouldn’t really contend), but your group games would be pretty one sided. Once you get past the first 16 teams in the World the quality appears to drop pretty significantly.
All you need to know about the depth of women’s int’l soccer is that this Thailand team was in the last World Cup. There’s about 10-12 women’s national teams that consistently play at a highly competitive level, by the time you get to #20 the dropoff is steep.