Lessons still fresh as USA prepare for World Cup qualifying vs. Mexico
SANDY, Utah --
Before the United States women's national team tackles their World Cup qualifiers in a month, and before they presumably head north to Canada next summer in hopes of ending an insufferable 16-year Women's World Cup drought, they have some demons to slay when they face Mexico this weekend (live, Saturday, 9:30 p.m. ET).
It was four years ago, during another World Cup qualifying tournament, that they got their biggest scare and setback in memory. On November 5, 2010, the USA only had to beat lowly Mexico, a regional rival with an awful lot of ground to make up back then, to book their place at the 2011 Women's World Cup in Germany. They gave up a goal in the 3rd minute, equalized in the 25th minute through Carli Lloyd, and then immediately gave up another. A second equalizer wasn't forthcoming.
That fateful game is remembered for the bad field, the threatening environment and the dubious refereeing. Still, the Americans should have won. "I just remember it falling apart," recalled striker Abby Wambach. "Minute by minute as it goes by you just kind of get the sense that something's not right here. Something is going on that you have no control over. Sometimes that's the way football goes. Afterwards, people on our team, rightfully so, were devastated because, man, we didn't qualify."
In the end, the Americans qualified anyway, albeit the hard way. They beat Costa Rica in the all-important third-place game and then Italy in a home-and-away playoff series that they took 1-0 and 1-0. The next summer, they came within a few penalty kicks of winning the World Cup, of course.
This time around, the matchup with Mexico represents the unofficial kickoff to the USA's World Cup year. The Americans have been in an intense training camp here for the last week in preparation for this game and another against the same opponent in Rochester, N.Y. on Thursday. After that, the next time the USA gets together is Oct. 5 in Kansas City, in order to get qualifying started in the so-called CONCACAF Women's Championship there 10 days later.
That isn't to say that the USA can't face Mexico again in qualifying. In fact, it isn't at all unlikely that the make-or-break semifinal game could pit them against El Tri once more, since the teams are in opposite groups for the preliminary stage. Now that the Women's World Cup has expanded to 24 teams, the top three teams will qualify automatically from CONCACAF -- rather than the top two like four years ago -- while the fourth reaches a playoff with South America's number three.
That makes it a tad awkward to be taking on Mexico now. "Is it ideal that we're playing a team that we could face in a month? Probably not," said head coach Jill Ellis. "But I don't see it as a negative because right now we're all focused on what we are doing and how we perform."
There are some strides to make in that performance. The USA has had a mixed year with a worst-ever Algarve Cup performance in March and an unexpected coaching change in April, when Ellis replaced Tom Sermanni. Ellis is overhauling the long-used and highly-athletic American playing style to update it to the modern women's game, stressing possession and sophisticated wing play.
"We're not really focusing on who we're playing at this moment," echoed midfielder Shannon Boxx. "Honestly, it's about us and how we're going to come out and how we're going to play to then go into qualifiers. Because in the end, I think if we focus on ourselves, we're going to do great."
These games, then, are more about progress and fostering a sharpness in a team that hasn't played together as much as in some recent years, because of the National Women's Soccer League season. It's also about whittling the 28 players in camp down to the 20 who will go on to qualifying.
Still, the lesson from four years ago is well learned. "We won't want to go down that road again," said midfielder Carli Lloyd. "Sometimes you're not going to get so lucky."
"It's a nice reminder," added Wambach. "A good wakeup call that nothing is handed to you, especially nowadays. There is a lesson. We want to win big [on Saturday]. We go out to win games as big as possible. If we can kind of harbor that mentality and move forward throughout the entire process of qualifying, I think we're going to be alright."
