U.S. WNT aims to win Group A in Concacaf Women’s Championship
(Via U.S. Soccer) – With a spot in the semifinal round booked, the U.S. Women’s National Team enters its Group A finale against Trinidad & Tobago (Oct. 10 at 7:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 2 & UDN) needing a win or a tie to finish atop the group at the 2018 Concacaf Women’s Championship.
Panama and Mexico both have three points, but Panama holds a slight edge in goal difference meaning a win or a tie for Panama will send the Central Americans to the semifinals while Mexico needs to win. Mexico vs. Panama will be the first game of the day on Oct. 10 (5 p.m. ET; FS2).
The USA is coming off back-to-back victories, against Mexico (6-0) that featured goals from Alex Morgan (2), Megan Rapinoe (2), Julie Ertz and Tobin Heath, and against Panama (5-0) that featured goals from Carli Lloyd (3), Christen Press and Samantha Mewis.
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WCQ GROUP A STANDINGS
| TEAM | GP | W | L | D | GF | GA | GD | PTS |
| USA | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 0 | +11 | 6 |
| Panama | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 5 | -2 | 3 |
| Mexico | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 7 | -3 | 3 |
| Trinidad & Tobago | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 7 | -6 | 0 |
The USA and seven other countries are participating in the 2018 Concacaf Women’s Championship with three direct berths available to France. FOX Sports, the home of the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, is showing the 2018 Concacaf Women’s Championship across the FOX Sports family of networks. For viewers on the go, matches can be streamed live via FOXSports.com and the FOX Sports app. FOX Sports will open the authentication level on the FOX Sports App to FS1 authentication, meaning you don’t need to have FS2 on your cable or satellite TV service to watch the USA matches.
The U.S. team holds a 13-0-2 record in 2018 and has not lost since the 2017 Tournament of Nations. It has gone 20-0-3 over the past 15 months and has averaged almost three goals per game, outscoring its opponents 76-17 over those 23 matches while scoring in all 23 games. Since the 2017 SheBelieves Cup, the USA has failed to score in a game just once (against Australia in the 1-0 loss in 2017 Tournament of Nations). That’s a 28-game span.
The WNT’s 2018 has so far featured wins over Denmark, Germany, England, Mexico (thrice), China PR (twice), Japan, Brazil, Chile (twice) and Panama, along with ties vs. France and Australia.
Follow all the #USWNT and tournament action on Twitter using #OneNationOneTeam and #CWC on @ussoccer_wnt and @ussoccer_esp, and on Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat (ussoccer_wnt).
U.S. Women’s National Team WCQ Roster By Position (Caps/Goals)
GOALKEEPERS (2): 18- Ashlyn Harris (Orlando Pride; 18/0), 1- Alyssa Naeher (Chicago Red Stars; 34/0)
DEFENDERS (7): 7- Abby Dahlkemper (NC Courage; 25/0), 19- Crystal Dunn (NC Courage; 70/23), 20- Hailie Mace (UCLA; 3/0), 5- Kelly O’Hara (Utah Royals FC; 109/2), 4- Becky Sauerbrunn (Utah Royals FC; 144/0), 14- Casey Short (Chicago Red Stars; 26/0), 2- Emily Sonnett (Portland Thorns FC; 23/0)
MIDFIELDERS (5): 6- Morgan Brian (Chicago Red Stars; 80/6), 8- Julie Ertz (Chicago Red Stars; 68/17); 9- Lindsey Horan(Portland Thorns FC; 58/6), 16- Rose Lavelle (Washington Spirit; 15/3), 3- Samantha Mewis (NC Courage; 39/8)
FORWARDS (6): 17-Tobin Heath (Portland Thorns; 139/22), 10- Carli Lloyd (Sky Blue FC; 261/105), 13- Alex Morgan (Orlando Pride; 148/92), 12- Christen Press (Utah Royals FC; 105/46), 11- Mallory Pugh (Washington Spirit; 39/12), 15- Megan Rapinoe (Seattle Reign FC; 141/40)
STORYLINES
USA vs. Trinidad & Tobago: The U.S. WNT has played 10 matches in its history vs. Trinidad & Tobago with six of them in CONCACAF qualifying events. The series dates all the way back to 1991 when the USA and T&T met in qualifying for the 1991 Women’s World Cup in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The teams met in World Cup qualifying in 1991, 1994, 2002 and 2014. The USA is 10-0-0 all-time vs. T&T, but the Soca Princesses played its best game against the USA in qualifying for the 2015 Women’s World Cup, holding the USA to a 1-0 win on a goal from Abby Wambach. The most recent meeting came in qualifying for the 2016 Olympics, a 5-0 U.S. victory in Houston that featured three goals from Alex Morgan and single scores from Tobin Heath and Carli Lloyd. Mallory Pugh, Lindsey Horan and Morgan Brian (2) had assists in that match.
100 Goals Watch: After adding two more goals against Mexico on Oct. 4 – the third time this year she has scored a brace vs. Mexico – Alex Morgan now has 92 goals and at age 29 sits in sole possession of seventh place on the USA’s all-time goal scoring list. She has scored 19 goals over her last 21 WNT matches through the end of 2017 and deep into 2018. With her hat trick against Japan on July 26, the fourth of her career, Morgan is now fourth all-time in multi-goal games (24) behind Abby Wambach (45), Mia Hamm (38) and Michelle Akers (26). She has 20 career two-goal games.
Carli Lloyd Keeps Adding Her Name to the Record Books: On Oct. 7 vs. Panama, Lloyd scored her eighth career hat trick and upped her career total to 105 goals. She is now two goals away from tying Michelle Akers for fourth all-time in the U.S. goals list. With her hat trick, Lloyd tied Mia Hamm for most three-goals games all-time in U.S. WNT history. Hamm also scored two four-goal games in her career. Lloyd is tied with Kristine Lilly and Cindy Parlow for fifth-all time in multi-goal games with 17. Against Panama, Lloyd (36 years, 83 days) became the oldest player to score a hat trick for the U.S. WNT. She broke Wambach’s record of 34 years, 186 days. Since turning 30, she has scored 69 goals in 126 games in six years. The 126 games after the age of 30 rank her fourth all-time in U.S. history in that category and is four caps away from tying Shannon Boxx in third place. Christie Rampone is far and away the leader with 175.
Tickets to France 2019 on the Line: The 2018 Concacaf Women’s Championship will qualify three teams to the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France and a fourth into a two-game playoff with Argentina, the third-place team from South America. The USA is playing all its group matches at the 10,000-seat Sahlen’s Stadium at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, N.C. After round-robin play, the top two finishers from Group A, as well as the top two from Group B which will be playing its group games in Edinburg, Texas, will move on to the all-important semifinals in Frisco, Texas. The winners of the semifinals qualify for France, along with the winner of the Third-Place Match. The loser of the Third-Place Match heads into the two-game playoff.
2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup Qualifiers: The 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup will be held from June 7-July 7 in nine cities in France. So far, 15 countries have qualified with teams from Concacaf, Africa and Oceania still to be determined. The Final Draw for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup will be conducted in Paris on December 8. This will be the second World Cup with 24 nations, up from 16 that were in Germany in 2011. The qualified nations so far are: host, France; England, Germany, Italy, Norway, Scotland, Spain and Sweden from UEFA. Brazil and Chile from South America, and Australia, China PR, Japan, Korea Republic and Thailand from the AFC.
Concacaf Women’s World Cup Qualifying History: The USA is 29-1-0 all-time in CONCACAF Women’s World Cup qualifying, including 15-0-0 at home. This will be the seventh Concacaf Cup qualifying tournament that USA has contested. The U.S. women have won five of six of those tournaments, finishing first in the qualifying competitions for the 1991, 1995, 2003, 2007 and 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cups. The USA finished third in the qualifying tournament for the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup and had to go through a two-game playoff against Italy to qualify for Germany 2011. The USA played Canada in the championship game of each of the first four tournaments in which both participated (the USA did not have to qualify as host in 1999). The USA has scored 169 goals in WWC qualifying (an average of 5.6 per game) while allowing five, and has played nine different countries in World Cup qualifying with Mexico being the most common opponent with seven games between the teams.
Qualifying Goal Scorers: Eight players on this U.S. roster have scored in Women’s World Cup qualifying: Carli Lloyd (10), Megan Rapinoe (5), Alex Morgan (4), Tobin Heath (3), Christen Press (3), Julie Ertz (1), Samantha Mewis (1) and Morgan Brian (1). Lloyd has now tied Carin Gabarra in fourth place on the all-time goal list in World Cup qualifying. She sits two goals behind third-place Mia Hamm (12).
Caps in Cary: The U.S. WNT has played nine matches at Salhen’s Stadium at WakeMed Soccer Park, home to the 2018 NWSL Champion North Carolina Courage. The USA has won all nine games in Cary and allowed just three goals over those games, two in a dramatic 3-2 win vs. Australia in 2008 that was played in the pouring rain and featured a last gasp game-winner from Carli Lloyd.
