The first-ever defeat in California. The second-ever defeat to Mexico. The first loss on American soil in nearly a quarter of a century.
All of those narratives applied on Monday night in Carson, CA, marking a historic stumble for the U.S. women’s national team as it lost 2-0 at the hands of Mexico in the final group stage match of the inaugural 2024 W Gold Cup. Both countries will move on to the quarterfinals as the top two finishers in Group A, but Mexico will be doing so as group winners.
Prior to Monday night’s game, the USWNT held a 40-1-1 all-time record against Mexico, suffering their only defeat to their southern neighbors in Cancun back in 2010 during World Cup qualifying. That loss was a bit different.
“It was on a baseball field in Cancun with things being thrown on the field and more of a long ball situation,” Alex Morgan recalled the game ubiquitously viewed as a fluke before contrasting with Monday’s loss. “Mexico just beat us all around today with their aggression, with getting to the first and second balls, with executing set pieces, throw-ins, restarts, whatever it was.”
That was the story of the night. Aided by a couple of world-class goals, Mexico dominated the USWNT in every aspect of the match, bar possession.
The first Mexico goal came from a massive Becky Sauerbrunn mistake, gifting the ball to Lizbeth Ovalle who proceeded to chip a closing Alyssa Naeher into an empty net. Self-admittedly, Sauerbrunn “probably should have done anything [other] than what I did.” The second Mexico goal was even more stunning as Mayra Pelayo let fly from just over 20 yards to put an exclamation mark on El Tri Femenil’s historic victory in stoppage time.
Mexico head coach, Pedro López, described the victory as a “dream result” which he expects to earn a lot of new fans for El Tri Feminil. For the USWNT, it was just the latest evidence that the rest of the world is catching up, or perhaps they already have.
The resulting growth in women’s football can be appreciated by the USWNT players, even if they wish it wasn’t on the back of their defeat. “People say that everyone’s catching up with us, like, of course, and that’s what needs to happen in women’s football,” Morgan declared. “But yes, do we want to stay on top? Absolutely.”
According to interim head coach Twila Kilgore, finding the path back to top-dog status is, “just about getting right back to the agreements we’ve made, keeping it simple, and executing.”
That journey will begin in the quarterfinals next weekend at BMO Stadium where the USWNT will be desperate for a bounceback win to right the ship.
“We’re not going to forget this one. It’s gonna live on. It’s a tough pill to swallow,” Sauerbrunn acknowledged, “but sometimes you get the best results from learning from the tough times.”
The USWNT will be hoping for just that in a return to winning ways on a tournament-winning run. If they’re able to do so, Monday night’s loss may become water under the bridge. Until then it will remain a historic moment in the hunt to knock the Americans off their perch at the top of women’s soccer.
Smith Williams Rodman…not a lot of creative linking up in those players’ game, then sub in Morgan, who needs service…….
missing Swanson and Macario, and a complement to Lavelle which could allow Twila/Hayes to then slide Horan to the 6
Girma is basically irreplaceable at this point
not sure about that formation either but seems Hayes may want it tho I think Horan can do the pivot alone so we can play 2 8s. will be interesting to see how this evolves and who lines up next game. Williams to the bench and Rodman too for me, bring them on later to run at tired legs when their physical gifts can be more effective, and play Shaw on the field for as long as she can play, more dynamic than all the other forwards on this current squad imo
horan is glacial
she’s played it before very effectively, good in the build out, calm. but the midfield is not the only concern.
the true issues on this team are and remain ideas in the final 3rd and the area, and finishing. when Swanson was grooving and had overcome her yips in front of goal, everything was different. she went down and the lack of depth was acutely exposed.
I don’t like to agree with IV, but moving Horan to the #6 seems like a reboot of moving Bradley to the 6 to keep him on the field. She’s been an attacker most her career. An attacker without much speed or reputation for work rate doesn’t sound like a recipe for stalwart #6.
Yes the first goal was a mistake by the US….but yoooooo, Mexico’s second goal was a thing of beauty.
The quick switch off the throw-in and the finish were great, but Purce could not have allowed a cleaner look at goal either. Wasn’t even defending ball-side.
i think the succession plan here is idiotic. they play in the olympics in 5 months but won’t have a coach for probably 3 more of them. and someone who coaches the team a year is no longer a “caretaker” and should be chosen with more “care” than we use. USSF just seems to exist on some weird planet where you can routinely waste a half-year, or a year, like it’s nothing. and at least in the men’s case, “for what?”
US soccer also seems to run more on “rep” these days so they seem to think they can lean on older players who used to have “rep” and all will be fine. “ream” was a miracle cutting against his trend line and the general pattern. the general pattern on reaching for the old calming “binkie” is “reyna and lewis in 2006” — you get clobbered. what amazes me here in particular is elements of the backline had been exposed as recently as the last early olympics exit and we’re back pulling from the same CB well. the defense to me remains positional and passive. more concerned with being in their line than winning the ball. on the goals it’s not that no one is there, it’s they are infinitely backing off. [related point but if you’re jockeying a player — which i am meh on — you line up on a side of the ball and force them a direction — you don’t line up with the ball where they can just cut back right across you.]
last point but soccer is a goals game and not decided by style points or possession. mexico created more chances. mexico had better shots on cage. are we teaching anyone in the fed to finish? both sets of teams need to sit down and think about how am i trying to score goals. what forwards am i trying to set up. which setup players pair well with the forwards’ attributes. to me half the problem is we seem to be implementing abstractions we don’t understand and not thinking basic soccer — who’s my 9, how does s/he like to be fed, and who can feed them. a U14 team might have more of a plan than USSF does right now.
it also strikes me as schoolgirl-type error to just blindly turn and kick, not knowing if you’re being chased, when you can just play it back to the keeper, end of problem.
You would think that Naeher and Sauerbrunn who have like a million caps between them could have, you know, communicated with each other to clear the ball safely.
If the USMNT moved on from GB and was going to have to wait until La Liga was done to get Ancelotti (who accepted the position) would you pass just because Tab Ramos was going to have to coach through Nation’s League? Hayes is that good…
No, because we’d have BJ Callaghan. 😉
I get it, but how was some sort of compromise not figured out for int’l breaks? Weird to essentially punt on a major tournament where even just grinding out results could get you an Olympic medal.
Also, women’s Olympics prep >>> men’s Nations League.
Also, let’s not lose focus on the fact that the “Hispanic conundrum” is still a massive issue on the women’s side. Most of that Mexican team are American-born and developed…a few were in USYNT youth setups…other than Huerta and Sanchez (and I guess Macario if she ever plays again), what other Hispanic/Latinas are in the set-up?
Mexico looked like a prototype Spain at times last night. They used to be one of the softest teams in CONCACAF. That escalated quickly, didn’t it?
Looking at the current player pool, I get very heavy 2017 USMNT vibes.
Some young talent with promise, a few vets hanging on, but very little in the way of real talent in the 24-29-year old age range…which in international football should be the spine of your squad.
Who are the leaders here? Sauerbrunn and Morgan were literal injury replacements and what we saw from Becky last night was closer to a professional career obituary than something useful. Horan is the captain, but neither her nor Lavelle (take your pick on who is playing the Michael Bradley role here) are helping out this team in any real way. It’s a mess.
It doesn’t help that USSF was way too nice with Chelsea and Emma Hayes and they are stuck for half a year with Twila “4th grade teacher has to run gym class for today because the PE teacher is out sick vibes” Kilgore running things. How much time did they waste with the USMNT after 2017? History is repeating itself. It’s likely too late to save the Olympics (a major tournament!) Hayes should already be here in some capacity, having tough convos with the people that need to hear certain things and discerning which youngsters can be part of the corps now and integrating her vision. Have however many Zoom calls you want but without boots on the ground it’s all lip service.
I have no idea what rolling out these random lineups are even achieving.
Who in the top five (heck top 10) in the world can the USWNT even be expected to beat right now?
The USSF keeps resting on its most successful program’s laurels…all the while those laurels are eroding away leaving them closer to rock bottom than they realize.
The women’s game has come so far from even 2019 at this point and likely will only get even better over the next decade. USSF hasn’t been proactive enough in development. Gotta think by 2034 this team will be closer to the top 20 than the top three in the world. What a mess.
Why is Becky Sauerbrunn still getting call ups? Listen, I love her, she’s a legend, but she’s past it and it’s really weird that in our most difficult group stage game we wouldn’t play Girma in the back, or even Tierna Davidson! We continue to play too much hero ball, especially Sophia Smith and Lindsey Horan, and everything was just too slow and methodical for me. If this keeps up they won’t make it past the round of 16, which would be an immense embarrassment on home soil!
In any game, against any competition, the team that plays with more intensity – playing the ball faster, winning second balls, etc – is the team that is more likely to win. Time and time again we see the the USWNT looking lackadaisical going back to the last Olympics. Other teams come in as if it is their World Cup final against this team – every time. Talent levels have risen. Put those two together and even though the US is superior in talent, results like this are going to continue to happen. I really hope the mindset that seems to have infiltrated the culture of the USWNT can be turned around by Hayes. As far as I see it, this is the number one problem facing this program.
USWNT were bad in this game. Mexico took their chances well. Sometimes when you rotate so much it messes with the fluidity of the team from game to game.