The U.S. women’s national team faces Colombia Tuesday night in Utah in the second round of a back-to-back set of friendlies designed as preparation for the CONCACAF W Championship.
The USWNT’s 3-0 win offered exactly that, with Colombia offering up a low block and a focus on slowing play down. While the final result—a multi-goal win in which U.S. goalkeeper Casey Murphy faced one shot—was not a surprise, there was a murmur of concern during a first half that saw the USWNT enter the locker room scoreless.
Having looked back on the game, the USWNT seems confident that they’ll be able to score regularly.
“If you look back at that first half, we actually had a lot of opportunities. So I think we were actually exposing (Colombia) pretty well, and we just didn’t finish,” said Sofia Huerta, who came on for the game’s final third. Huerta noted that against an organized lower block, scoring chances may be harder to come by, but that the USWNT had plenty of reason to believe that the goals would come.
“That’s just gonna happen when you’re playing against a team who’s in a low block,” Huerta told reporters in a press conference on Monday. “It is hard to break them down, but I actually think we did, and we didn’t lose any hope that we were going to score.”
Head coach Vlatko Andonovski was very pleased that his team faced a robust challenge of the sort Colombia put forward, where the team’s resolve was tested. In particular, he indicated that watching the USWNT keep their focus against a physical opponent content to stay extremely deep was “tremendous.”
“We talked about that before the game a lot,” said Andonovski. “We talked about it in the halftime, and the fact that we did not waver away from our game plan, and stayed focused on what we’re trying to do, and in fact increased some of the talking points, increased our tempo, increased our intensity, was one of the one of the key moments.”
Andonovski acknowledged the pressure that comes when the USWNT doesn’t score very quickly in a given game. “Everybody, including us, expected to score goal in the first half—which I think that we created enough opportunity to score a goal—but we also know in this game, anything can happen and we didn’t.”
For USWNT opponents, hoping to turn that expectation against the USWNT is generally part of the game plan. Andonovski acknowledged that idea was one they’re probably going to encounter next month.
“Very, very (easily), players can start panicking, and they can start doubting the plan, doubting themselves,” said Andonovski. “I thought that it was very good, the talk that we had in the locker room, but then even the talk that they had among themselves is that this is just a preparation for what is going to happen in the tournament, and we have to stay the course.”
Looking ahead to Tuesday’s rematch, Andonovski indicated there would be plenty of changes. Kelley O’Hara and Andi Sullivan, both of whom started in Colorado, will not start this match, as Andonovski said both are in return-to-play protocol as they overcome injuries that have nagged at them throughout an extraordinarily busy NWSL season with the Washington Spirit.
Andonovski said that Lindsey Horan would play, but as the Lyon midfielder came into camp after some time off, they don’t want to max out her minutes too quickly. On the other hand, NWSL stars like Alana Cook, Emily Fox, and Sophia Smith—who starred against Colombia, scoring two goals—will “probably get some rest in this game as well.”
Andonovski said that one player who isn’t on the W Championship roster—defensive midfielders Sam Coffey and Jaelin Howell, and left back Carson Pickett are the trio in camp that aren’t slated to go to Mexico—will start at Rio Tinto Stadium, but said he couldn’t announce the full starting eleven as he hadn’t told the team yet.
All in all, it seems like the USWNT is ready to apply the lessons from their first meeting to the second, a pattern that will likely play out in Group A next month, as Haiti and Jamaica are not expected to pursue a wide-open game.
“I think it’s just difficult to play teams like that,” said Huerta, summing up what the USWNT can take from these friendlies. “As long as we continue having hope that we’re going to get the goals and not get frustrated, I think obviously, no one can really keep up with us, if we continue to just go at them.”
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