The U.S. women’s national team wanted its Olympic send-off friendly to be an exclamation point, but ended up walking off the chewed-up pitch at Audi Field with a question mark.
On a surface level, a 0-0 draw against a team the USWNT has beaten in each of its prior 17 meetings is hardly the result the U.S. would have wanted before boarding a Wednesday flight for France.
A frustrating night in withering heat saw the USWNT create enough opportunities to win three games, but between Costa Rica goalkeeper Noelia Bermúdez’s superb performance, an offside call robbing Lindsey Horan of a goal, and some dubious choices in the final third, the badly-needed opener never arrived.
In her press conference, head coach Emma Hayes cited multiple stats — 26 shots, 12 attempts on goal, 67 touches inside the opposition penalty area — that per Opta are the highest such numbers in a match where the USWNT was shut out since the data provider began logging those categories in 2015.
“We need to be more clinical, I don’t need to state the obvious,” Hayes told reporters. “I mean it’s a process, right? Scoring a goal, you can’t just go from back to from to get them, and when you’re playing a team that just sit in a low block and they’ve got eight bodies within the width of the goal — or at least the width of the six [yard box] — it has to be so concise.”
Hayes identified issues in both halves: an inability to find players between the lines early enough in attacking sequences before the break, and then players making runs out of those pockets in the second 45 minutes.
Still, the raw volume of opportunities gave Hayes a platform to identify some positives for her side.
“Listen, if you play a game of percentages or law of averages, we’re creating more and more high-quality chances, and we’re getting more numbers into the key areas,” insisted the former Chelsea boss, who after just four games to prepare will lead her team at the Paris Olympics.
“The last part’s the hardest part. And I’m really patient, because I’ve coached teams that have to break blocks down, and it’s the hardest thing to do in coaching. And if we didn’t create situations tonight then yeah, I might say something different, but I really love the intent of the team.”
Rodman, Horan insist goals ‘will come’
Speaking in a mixed zone after the match, multiple USWNT players couldn’t help but hone in on versions of the same phrase: the goals will come.
“I would say we did the hard parts well, and then once it came to the final pass and the final finish, it wasn’t coming to us,” said Trinity Rodman who was denied a potentially spectacular late winner. “I think that’ll come. We have such a talented group.”
Captain Lindsey Horan identified some aspects of the USWNT’s approach play that could have been sharper, but reiterated the belief her younger teammate has in the group’s ability to find the breakthrough.
“Just the decision-making [in the final third],” said Horan when asked for an example of what the U.S. could improve beyond simple finishing.
The Lyon midfielder identified the team’s timing of “when we’re taking that final shot, when we’re making that final pass” as areas where more patience was needed, but framed the issue as understandable in the context of Tuesday’s draw.
“I think when you get further on in the game and you want to score that goal that’s gonna calm down the match, that’s gonna stop what Costa Rica is trying to do [tactically], it can get frustrating. But again, we kept going, we kept creating those chances. A few of them, maybe decision-making was off, but [at] the end of the day, we’re gonna finish those off, [and] then we’ll be fine.”
Hayes settled on a positive that Costa Rica’s low-block 4-3-2-1 shape offered, noting that in her four matches, the USWNT has faced a different tactical approach every time. That means plenty of examples and film to highlight as the team looks to make progress in its last week before kicking off the Olympics against Zambia.
“If we went into [the match against] Zambia perfect, I’d be worried,” explained Hayes. “I feel the opposite. I think we’ve had — in the Korea [games], the Mexico game, the Costa Rica game — four very different exercises.
“One, as I said earlier, breaking down a mid-block. Two, breaking down an aggressive mid-block. Three, breaking down the team that beat us in the Gold Cup with more man-for-man marking. Four, breaking down a low, low block.
“What great exposures for us as a team. And trust me, you have to do different things in different moments to be able to [succeed against each]. Playing against low blocks, for any team in football, is the hardest to do.
“So I think for us, it’s being mindful that if we keep creating chances in the right area, keep getting numbers in the box, keep getting as many touches as possible in that area, those goals will come. That, I’m sure of.”
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