USWNT plots response against England after wake-up call in France
Any lingering notions of a smooth ride to Vancouver faded away with each French pass in Lorient on Sunday. France delivered the United States women's national team an inescapable dose of reality to accompany the rhythmic dissection. The gulf between the two sides on the day gave the French a deserved 2-0 victory and left the Americans with plenty to ponder ahead of their trip across the English Channel.
"It's a big wake-up call for us," USA forward Christen Press told reporters after the game. "We like to win, we don't like to have these kinds of performances, but we know how much work we have to put in. The drive and the motivation is there, it's always there, but now we have even more reason to come back and get these guys again when it counts."
In the long game of preparing for the FIFA Women's World Cup, the defeat served its purpose. There is no masking of flaws, no obscuring of the issues, no placing the blame at the feet of a few injured players or a suspended goalkeeper now. There is work to do over the next few months. And the setback placed the need for improvement in stark relief.
The path toward addressing those concerns and prodding this group toward top gear starts in Milton Keynes against England (live, Friday, 2:30p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, FOX Sports Go). It is another arduous, high-profile test for a team in need of stern challenges before confronting Australia, Nigeria and Sweden in June.
"We're in the process of trying to get answers and playing different players and we knew France would be a fantastic test for us," U.S. coach Jill Ellis told reporters after the game. "At this point, we're in the process of evaluating and also building and that's why we play strong teams, to test ourselves. I don't think we had great possession, we turned the ball over a lot, but still we had some quality chances, as did France."
Those openings resulted from brisk, direct work from back to front. Alex Morgan impressed in her first appearance since October and showed the potential profit of playing quickly on the break. This team continues to present a dangerous threat when the opposition -- like France did reliably and like England will attempt to do from time to time at stadiummk -- commits numbers into the attacking half and then concedes possession.
Most of the danger dissipates when the opposition finds its stride on the ball, though. French schemer Amandine Henry asserted complete dominion over the proceedings as the Americans -- aligned in a traditional 4-4-2 shape with Morgan Brian and Lauren Holiday partnered in a rather adventurous central midfield duo with Tobin Heath and Carli Lloyd playing narrowly on either flank -- struggled to pick up the right spots in the middle third. Henry passed through the midfield line easily for most of the match with the U.S. women often left to collapse in numbers toward the top of the penalty area to cope with the threat.
Those emergency measures worked for the most part, but they also encouraged the French to mine the wide areas profitably. Lori Chalupny and Meghan Klingenberg buckled under the weight of one-versus-one examination, while the weakness in those departments on either side created concerns about the defensive stability on the whole in front of the impressive Ashlyn Harris.
On the balance of play, the French deserved their triumph and forced the Americans to contemplate how to tweak things moving forward. The most pressing questions at the moment involve the introduction of more balance into the midfield and the quandary with the selections at fullback, but there is room to reassess matters across the board against an England side capable of presenting a few problems on home soil.
Experienced winger Karen Carney noted the importance of competing against better sides in the run-up to the tournament. There is more depth and quality in the squad now as a result of the infrastructure created by former boss Hope Powell and the investments made in the WSL in recent years. Those strides foster expectations of exceeding the quarterfinal appearances registered in the previous two editions despite the international retirement of Kelly Smith earlier this month. This group knows it must test itself often over the next few months to fulfill those objectives.
England internationals Leah Williamson, Alex Scott and Lianne Sanderson hope to kick off their road to Canada with a positive result.
"We did well in qualifying, but Germany were a completely different level of opposition, and USA are in that same category," Carney recently told thefa.com. "We are playing another top-quality team, the same that we will face in Canada, so that can only be a good thing for us ahead of this summer. Sometimes you have to take one step back to take two forward.
It is a maxim Ellis and the Americans can embrace in the wake of their setback over the weekend. There is still plenty of time to suffer the odd rebuke before the showcase starts, but the key is to figure out a way to respond to the setback now to ensure the issues exposed do not derail the quest for glory this summer.
