USWNT creep closer to World Cup ticket with smashing win vs. Haiti
WASHINGTON --
All the United States women's national team needs is one more win to secure its place at the 2015 Women's World Cup, following the 6-0 destruction of Haiti in their final group stage game in the CONCACAF qualifying tournament here on Monday night. With the win, the Americans took all nine points on offer and booked a place in Friday's semifinals in Philadelphia. Win that game, or, failing that, the third-place game, and their berth for Canada next summer is secure.
Should they somehow manage to lose both of those games -- in spite of not having lost a game on home soil in almost a full decade, a streak now spanning 90 games -- they'll get a third crack at it in a home-and-away playoff with Ecuador in November.
That all seems utterly improbable though, on the strength of the performance the USA turned in, building further on their slowly growing form. Carli Lloyd, Meghan Klingenberg, Christen Press and Morgan Brian all got a goal while Abby Wambach bagged a pair, extending her world record for international goals to 173.
As expected, Haiti came out with few aesthetic ambitions but every intention of sabotaging a real game of soccer. Murderous diving two-footed tackles were aimed at American ankles from the first whistle. Once again, the referee for a USA match -- Quetzali Alvarado this time; from Mexico, no less -- had no regard for the wellbeing of the contest's participants, let alone the laws of the game.
Haiti sat so deep that the Americans almost always had 10 players in the opposing half. Sometimes, they had all but one defender in Haiti's third. Had Haiti been able to procure an entire fleet of busses, they would have happily parked them in front of their goal as well. They created no notable -- or even somewhat notable -- chances of their own. In that climate, forging chances was difficult.
Wambach managed a look in the 5th minute but rolled her finish from an acute angle within goalkeeper Geralda Saintilus's grasp. Three minutes later, however, she challenged Saintilus on a high ball. The goalie prevailed but punched the ball right at Lloyd, who expertly volleyed home the go-ahead goal.
A short while later, Megan Rapinoe was at the center of two critical plays. First, she was played through into the box, before being stiff-armed to ground by defender. But the play was called off when she was wrongly flagged offside. She then nodded a wide-open header well over on a nice cross from Press.
After the opening quarter of an hour, the game fell into something of a slumber as Haiti consolidated its ranks and the Americans had trouble poking holes into them. At length, in the 39th minute, they found a way through as Press served up another high ball. Roselord Borgella tapped it towards her own goal mid-air and Wambach cut in between her and Saintilus to head it home from up close. A real poacher's effort, as they say.
The Americans stepped their efforts up a gear after the break and from the off it was clear that the Haitian resistance wouldn't be holding much longer. The onslaught was constant, even if the flurry of promising looks took some time to materialize into a clear-cut chance.
Then, in the 57th minute, Heather O'Reilly sent in a low cross that was poorly cleared. It rolled out some 25 yards to Klingenberg, who rifled a bullet of a shot into the corner of goal. Not much later, it was plain that the game was over as a horrid Haitian defensive clearance was skied to the top of their own box. There, Lloyd challenged for it and sent it bouncing through two defenders and into the path of Wambach, who could slam it home.
Then, more wretched defending gifted Press a chance from well inside the box as she pounced on a loose ball that rolled to her freely and drove it home with a well-placed shot. Sydney Leroux did her best to add another with a lovely move to free herself in the box in the 80th minute, but her finish hit the near post. Leroux made amends two minutes later though, when she cut the ball back to the streaking Brian from the back line, for the team's youngest player and only collegian to sweep into the net and register the final score.
“It was a very difficult match for us because obviously we’re amateur part-timers competing against full-time pros,” said Haiti head coach Shek Borkowski. “You could really discern the difference in fitness levels and the understanding of how to play together. They’re the number one team in the world a reason. It was just too difficult for us.”
USA manager Jill Ellis, for her part, was pleased with the progression in form from the first two games. “Gradually, we wore them down,” she said. “In the second half I thought we played very well and moved the ball very well. We got some great combinations and some really good finishes from different people, so I was really pleased.”
After three games in just six days, the Americans have delivered what was expected of them, even if it wasn't always straightforward -- like in their narrow 1-0 opening win over Trinidad and Tobago. With an 11-0 scoring record since then, there isn't a great deal left to criticize, given the defensive mindset of the opponents and the consistently dubious refereeing.
The tournament now begins in earnest. The 2015 Women's World Cup is just a win away.
