USWNT seeks to wrap up undefeated Group A run vs. Puerto Rico

USA vs. Puerto Rico
2016 CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Championship
Toyota Stadium; Frisco, Texas
Feb. 15, 2016 (7:30 p.m. CT on NBCSN and NBC Live Extra)

(Via U.S. Soccer) – With the full six points from its first two group games at the 2016 CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Championship – a 5-0 win vs. Costa Rica and a 1-0 win vs. Mexico – the U.S. Women’s National Team has clinched a spot in the semifinal round and now will look to top Group A with a win or tie against Puerto Rico on Monday, Feb. 15 (7:30 p.m. CT on NBCSN and NBC Live Extra).

The USA has played 47 different countries in its history, but never Puerto Rico, which is participating in its first Olympic qualifying tournament.

+Read: U.S. U-17 WNT defeats Korea Republic 2-0 in NTC Invitational

Following the conclusion of the group stage in Frisco, Texas, the U.S. WNT will travel to Houston to compete in the semifinal round on Feb. 19 against a yet-to-be determined opponent. The tournament’s two semifinal winners will book their tickets to Rio 2016. The USA is attempting to win its fourth-consecutive CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Championship and qualify for its sixth consecutive Olympic Games.

Group A Standings – 2016 CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Championship

Team	W	L	T	Pts.	GF	GA	GD
USA	2	0	0	6	6	0	+6
MEX	1	1	0	3	6	1	+5
CRC	1	1	0	3	9	5	+4
PUR	0	2	0	0	0	15	-15

About #USAvPUR:

The match against Puerto Rico will be broadcast live on NBCSN and online on NBCSLE at 7:30 p.m. CT.
The two nations have never met in women’s soccer at the senior level. All remaining matches of the tournament will be broadcast live on NBC Sports Live Extra and NBC Universo, with tonight’s match, the semifinals and tournament final airing on NBC Sports Network (NBCSN).
Puerto Rico is currently ranked 108th in the FIFA rankings. The lowest ranked team the USA has played recently is Guatemala, which is 76th.

In Focus: U.S. Women’s National Team:

The U.S. roster is a nice mix of youth and experience. Of the 20 players on the qualifying roster, nine have 23 or less caps and seven have 70 or more caps. Eight of the players named to the roster have nine caps or less.
13 of the 20 players chosen by head coach Jill Ellis to the USA’s Olympic Qualifying roster were on the USA’s 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup championship team and just seven players were on the USA’s roster for 2012 Olympic qualifying: goalkeeper Hope Solo, defenders Becky Sauerbrunn, Kelley O’Hara and Ali Krieger, midfielders Lloyd and Tobin Heath and forward Alex Morgan.
Solo, Heath and Lloyd are the only players on the roster who also participated in qualifying for the 2008 Olympics.
For the 2012 Olympic qualifying roster, 19 of the 20 players were on the 2011 Women’s World Cup Team. For the 2016 Olympic Qualifying roster, 13 players were on the 2015 WWC Team.
Solo earned her 93rd shutout against Mexico on Feb. 13. With 188 caps and 142 wins, she is the leader for caps and wins by a goalkeeper in U.S. history.
U.S. head coach Jill Ellis started the same 11 players in the first two matches of the tournament: Solo, Krieger, Julie Johnston, Sauerbrunn, Meghan Klingenberg, Morgan Brian, Lindsey Horan, Crystal Dunn, Lloyd, Heath and Morgan and used the same three subs in both games: Christen Press, Mallory Pugh and Jaelene Hinkle.
Brian, Dunn, Jaelene Hinkle, Horan, Johnston, Klingenberg, Christen Press, and Mallory Pugh each made their Olympic qualifying debut against Costa Rica on Feb. 10. Dunn and Press also scored their first Olympic qualifying goals in that game.
Pugh is the youngest player ever named to a U.S. Olympic qualifying roster. She also became the youngest female player in WNT history to play in an Olympic qualifier match at 17 years, 9 months and 12 days old when she came on for Dunn in the 68th minute against Costa Rica.
Seven players have played all 180 minutes so far in the tournament: Solo, Brian, Heath, Horan, Klingenberg, Lloyd and Sauerbrunn.
Four players have scored the USA’s six goals in the tourney so far: Lloyd (2), Morgan (2), Dunn (1) and Press (1).
The USA is carrying two yellow cards, one for Heath and one for Johnston, but yellow cards are wiped away before the semifinal round so as long as neither receives a card against Puerto Rico, the USA will be free of suspensions for the semifinal in Houston.
Lloyd now has 10 career goals in Olympic Qualifying, just four short of Abby Wambach’s record of 14. Morgan has six.
Lloyd has scored 21 goals in the USA’s last 16 matches starting with the Round of 16 game at the WWC.
Morgan’s goal 12 seconds into the match against Costa Rica is the earliest in U.S. WNT history (she definitely has the latest, scoring in the 123rd minute against Canada in the semifinal of the 2012 Olympics), and the quickest in CONCACAF qualifying history, besting Abby Wambach (35 seconds vs. Dominican Republic on Jan. 20, 2012).
Morgan has 59 international goals, just one short of tying Shannon MacMillan for eighth on the USA’s all-time scoring list.
Press became the 18th player to score 30 or more goals for the U.S. WNT when she tallied against Costa Rica on Feb. 10.
Five of the 11 goals over the two games in 2016 for the USA have been a direct combination of Lloyd and Morgan with one providing the assist and the other the goal.
Dunn’s goal vs. Costa Rica on Feb. 10 was the fifth of her career and first in Olympic Qualifying. She became the 21st U.S. WNT player to score in an Olympic qualifier and Press became the 22nd.
Four players on the roster have played 100 times for more for the USA, led by Lloyd’s 214 caps. Solo has 188 caps followed by Heath’s 109 and Morgan has 102. Sauerbrunn could hit 100 during the qualifying tournament as she is currently at 98.

In Focus: Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico fell 6-0 to Mexico and 9-0 to Costa Rica in the first two group stage matches, and has been eliminated from advancement.
Puerto Rico held Costa Rica to just two goals in the first half, but gave up seven in the second half including three in the last 15 minutes.
Puerto Rico held Mexico to just four goals before giving up two in the final minutes of the match.
In 1998, Puerto Rico participated in the CONCACAF qualifying tournament for the 1999 Women’s World Cup, but lost all three games by wide margins.
Puerto Rico reached this tournament on the strength of a runner-up finish in Caribbean qualifying. Karina Socarras’ goal in the 119th minute gave the Puerto Ricans a 1-0 semifinal win over Guyana, before they fell by the same score to Trinidad & Tobago in the Final.
Puerto Rico goalkeeper Karly Gustafson is from Fayetteville, N.C. and plays college soccer at Winthrop in South Carolina
Garabet Avedissian, who guided Costa Rica to the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, is the head coach.

STORYLINES TO FOLLOW:

Seven In; Five To Go: Seven nations have already qualified for the 12-team Olympic Football Tournament: Brazil and Colombia from South America, South Africa and Zimbabwe from Africa, New Zealand from Oceania, and France and Germany from Europe by virtue of their finish at the 2015 Women’s World Cup. Two teams will qualify from CONCACAF and Asia and one more will qualify from Europe after a mini-tournament in March featuring Sweden, Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland. Long-time African power Nigeria, which gave the USA a strong match in the Women’s World Cup, fell in the third round of African qualifying to Equatorial Guinea, which in turn fell to South Africa, which earned its second straight Olympic berth.

Pugh Makes Jump to Senior Side: Mallory Pugh, who will turn 18 in April of 2016, was called up for January training camp, making her one of the youngest field players called into the full U.S. WNT in the past 15 years. Pugh, who is the captain of the U-20 WNT and will compete in the U-20 WWC in Papua New Guinea at the end of the year, scored in her senior team debut on Jan. 23 vs. Ireland at 17 years, 8 months and 25 days old, becoming the youngest player to debut for the U.S. in the last 11 years and the youngest to score in the last 16 years. She is playing in her second CONCACAF qualifying tournament in a three-month span after leading the USA to the title at the CONCACAF U-20 Women’s Championship in early December in Honduras. Pugh signed a letter of intent on Feb. 3 to play at UCLA starting fall 2016.

WNT History in Frisco: The three U.S. WNT games in group play during the Olympic Qualifying tournament will double the number of games it has played in Frisco. The USA has played at this stadium (formerly Pizza Hut Park and FC Dallas Stadium) three times, in 2007 (6-2 W) and 2014 (1-0 W) vs. Canada, and in 2012 vs. New Zealand (2-1 W). The USA holds a 5-0-0 record at this venue ahead of its matchup against Puerto Rico.

On ussoccer.com:

U.S. WOMEN’S NATIONAL TEAM OLYMPIC QUALIFYING ROSTER BY POSITION:

GOALKEEPERS (3): 18-Ashlyn Harris (Orlando Pride), 20-Alyssa Naeher (Chicago Red Stars), 1- Hope Solo (Seattle Reign FC)
DEFENDERS (7): 19-Jaelene Hinkle (Western NY Flash), 8-Julie Johnston (Chicago Red Stars), 7-Meghan Klingenberg (Portland Thorns FC), 11-Ali Krieger (Washington Spirit), 5-Kelley O’Hara (Sky Blue FC), 4-Becky Sauerbrunn (FC Kansas City), 6- Emily Sonnett (Portland Thorns FC)
MIDFIELDERS (5): 14-Morgan Brian (Houston Dash), 17-Tobin Heath (Portland Thorns FC), 9-Lindsey Horan (Portland Thorns FC), 10-Carli Lloyd (Houston Dash), 3- Samantha Mewis (Western NY Flash)
FORWARDS (5): 16-Crystal Dunn (Washington Spirit), 15-Stephanie McCaffrey (Boston Breakers), 13-Alex Morgan (Orlando Pride), 12-Christen Press (Chicago Red Stars); 2- Mallory Pugh (Real Colorado)

PUERTO RICO WOMEN’S NATIONAL TEAM OLYMPIC QUALIFYING ROSTER BY POSITION:

GOALKEEPERS (3): 20-Maria Guerrero (High Performance), 1-Karly Gustafson (Winthrop University/USA), 13-Sandra Rolon (Romano FC)
DEFENDERS: (5) 17-Adriana Font (Challenegers FC), 2-Kelley Johnson (Unattached), 14-Ashley Rivera (Romano FC), 7-Delyaliz Rosario (Romano FC), 16-Mirianee Zaragoza (Aguilas de Añasco)
MIDFIELDERS (9): 3-Victoria Barris (Quickstrike FC/USA), 12-Alejandra Carrion (Gurabo FC), 19-Stephanie Colon (Unattached), 4-Viviana Fiol (Unattached), 11-Annie Lee Mendez (Bayamon FC), 8-Selimar Pagan (Bayamon FC), 5-Noelia Reyes (Bayamon FC), 18-Nicole Rodriguez (Durham/ENG), 10-Laura Suarez (Romano FC)
FORWARDS (3): 15-Angela Diaz (Caribbean Stars), 6-Ashley Johnson (Unattached), 9-Karina Socarras (Bayamon FC)