The U.S. women’s national team completed an unblemished run through the CONCACAF W Championship’s group stage, defeating a hard-working Mexico side 1-0 on a late Kristie Mewis goal.
Heading into the game, the USWNT made plenty about wanting this particular game, with a larger and louder crowd on hand to back Mexico, to be a good test of the team’s mentality. While the performance—largely untroubled at the back, but also impatient and predictable going forward—left something to be desired, the theme of the night for the team was that the test will help going forward.
“We knew that if we don’t score early in in the first quarter of the game, that the game will be difficult and we saw at the end, it became a really good atmosphere,” head coach Vlatko Andonovski explained to reporters after the game. “I was coaching a big part of the game with a smile on my face, because to some degree we want that. We wanted to see that.”
“We really wanted some adversity, and we got it,” team captain Becky Sauerbrunn told the Paramount + broadcast after the match. “It’s not very often we get to play in front of a crowd like this. They really came out to support the home (team), and so it was good. It was adversity.”
The crowd at Estadio Universitario did bring the noise, booing USWNT corner kicks and roaring Mexican attacks. While the pattern of play meant many more boos than cheers on a night where the home team was credited with just three shot attempts, Andonovski did admit that the crowd eventually threw the USWNT out of their rhythm.
“As the atmosphere was getting fired up, our team started losing the focus of the tempo. We actually had very good control of the tempo until the atmosphere started getting rattled a little bit, and then our players started starting falling into the trap,” said Andonovski.
That trap was a too-direct approach on the ball that seemed destined to see the U.S., even playing with a numerical advantage after Jacqueline Ovalle was given a 73rd minute red card, end the night with a frustrating scoreless draw against the sort of conservative tactical approach they have spent plenty of time working on breaking down.
However, a moment of inspiration from an old hand changed the game, with Megan Rapinoe’s quickly-taken short corner kick catching Mexico off guard, and eventually ending in a scramble that Kristie Mewis bundled over the line in the 89th minute.
The goal survived a VAR check after some still angles raised major questions over whether Emily Sonnett had been offside before heading on goal moments before Mewis finished the play, but for a younger group learning some old-school USWNT resourcefulness, there’s value in finally breaking through in gritty fashion.
Sauerbrunn, who has seen plenty of big USWNT wins come via that sort of scrappy play, underlined the benefit of a new group showing that trait. “I think that’s what makes the U.S. really special, is that identity of relentlessness, never say die, really will (a goal) in.”
“I was very happy to see at the end that we still found a way,” said Andonovski. “It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t nice, but in order to win big tournaments, we know that sometimes you’re just gonna have to find a way, and we were able to do that.”
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