The U.S. women’s national team, having won their CONCACAF W Championship group without conceding a goal, is completing their preparations to face Costa Rica on Thursday (7:00pm Eastern, CBS Sports Network and Paramount +) in a match that has major Olympic qualifying implications.
With the W Championship’s structure, winning your semifinal means a shot at an automatic berth in the 2024 Olympics in Paris, while the defeated team will play in Monday’s third-place game needing to win just to maintain hope of qualifying via a playoff over a year from now.
The USWNT has not conceded a goal in the tournament, and has historically bossed matches against Costa Rica, but speaking to media today in a pre-match press conference, head coach Vlatko Andonovski and midfielder Andi Sullivan had nothing but respect for Amelia Valverde’s side.
On the top of their list? A focus on reducing the impact of Portland Thorns midfielder Raquel Rodríguez.
Sullivan said she’s “looking forward to that matchup,” one that will be pretty common throughout given Rodríguez’s status as Costa Rica’s creative hub and Sullivan being the USWNT’s starting defensive midfielder in 2022. “I play against Rocky in the league a lot, and she’s a fantastic player.”
Andonovski also highlighted Rodríguez, but had a long list of players he’s concerned about. Bordeaux winger Melissa Herrera, veteran midfielder Shirley Cruz, and young striker María Paula Salas were all emphasized.
“They do have some weapons that they can hurt teams, and this is something that we’re very well aware of, and we’re very familiar with,” said Andonovski. “Now, it’s up to us to make sure that that doesn’t happen.”
While he was willing to discuss the difficulties of playing one of CONCACAF’s top teams, Andonovski was less ready to tip his hand as far as the USWNT’s goalkeeping situation. Alyssa Naeher, the longtime No. 1, only played in the 5-0 win over Jamaica, while Casey Murphy started the USWNT’s first match of the tournament. After saying the coaching staff would discuss the situation going into the Mexico game, Murphy somewhat surprisingly got the nod.
Still, Andonovski indicated that the position is not a settled issue.
“It is a little bit up in the air,” said Andonovski. “As a staff, we’ve talked a lot about it and who’s going to be in the goal in the next game, and also how we want to approach hopefully the following game. But I’m not at liberty to discuss that right now.”
Youth movement
His choice in goal may remain a secret for another day, but Andonovski was up for talking about how this much younger version of the USWNT is handling the responsibility that comes with being on a team where the standard is to win every game.
Coming off of an Olympic tournament that saw the team lean heavily towards one more go for the generation that won the 2019 World Cup only to come home with a bronze medal, there has been a pronounced shift. Murphy is the youngest goalkeeper in camp, while the team’s two best performers in the group stage were arguably 21-year-old forward Sophia Smith and NWSL rookie Naomi Girma.
There’s a generational shift elsewhere, with Sullivan and Mallory Pugh more firmly ensconced in the squad than ever, and Emily Fox (whose status after being placed in Covid-19 protocols remains unclear) the only natural left back on the roster.
“We trust these young players a lot, and we’re very happy with where they’re at in the development stage of their career,” said Andonovski. “It was good for them to also learn some things on their own. I mean, the game against Mexico was tremendous… It was a little bit stressful. It was a little hostile. The team that we faced was a good team, very well-coached. And they were motivated. They were intense, all together. It was a great opportunity.”
The change in tournament phases has come with a roster adjustment, and the USWNT continued their youth movement. Ashley Hatch’s injury against Jamaica required a replacement being added to the team, but rather than bring another striker in, or call up a veteran, Andonovski went with yet another younger player in uncapped defensive midfielder Sam Coffey.
“We did go a little bit unbalanced in this tournament in terms of how many forwards and how many midfielders we had, but we did that with a plan in mind,” said Andonovski. “When Ashley got injured, we felt like it was a good moment to balance the team back again, and bring Sam in,” before adding that he didn’t want to go outside of the group called in for pre-tournament preparation matches in order to preserve the environment and camaraderie built over the last three weeks.
Sullivan said that on a team where the hunger to win every game is heightened no matter the competition, there’s no real adjustment to make going from the group stage’s World Cup qualification aspect over to the knockout rounds and the built-in pressure of Olympic places being up for grabs.
“We take every game so seriously,” explained Sullivan. “I don’t think it’s that much of (an) adjustment to focus now more specifically on winning the tournament and qualifying for the Olympics.”
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