USWNT Shouldn't Feel Great after Beating England

After looking horribly over matched last weekend against France, the USWNT looked to restore some sense of cohesiveness against England this past Friday night. Alex Morgan’s 50th international goal gave the women a 1-0 victory; although said victory was not without a bit of controversy. English striker Jodie Taylor’s tying goal was incorrectly disallowed, which preserved the win for the offensively challenged US side. Overall, it was a much better effort against a quality opponent, although not nearly on par with the talented French squad they faced last week.

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Coach Jill Ellis inserted Abby Wambach from the start and her presence did raise the effort level of those around her. Ellis continued to employ a 4-4-2 attack which she may stick with for the time being, even though there continue to be problem areas. Center midfield still continues to be a huge issue for Ellis’ squad, although it was slightly better controlled on Friday than it had been the previous week. The team is struggling to find some type of combination, or at least someone to provide an imposing presence, such as Michelle Akers did during the team’s glorious run in the 1990’s.

Regardless of whether it’s some combination of Morgan Brian, Lauren Holiday, Tobin Heath, Lori Chalupny, and Carli Lloyd or someone else (Shannon Boxx??), nothing Ellis has put out there has seemed to work. Morgan Brian did play a little better than she did on Sunday against France, looking not nearly as lost. Megan Klingenberg played a much more solid game than she did against France, picking up her defensive game a bit , but center midfield is just one of several issues Jill Ellis must work out over the next eight games.

It certainly helped the USMNTs confidence that England’s coach Mark Sampson decided to employ a much more cautious attack in the first half and deployed a deep defense and conservative attack. In the second half, he loosened his reigns a little, which resulted in the tying goal, which as we said, was wrongly overturned.

If Sampson let his corps of dangerous goal scorers loose in the first half, things may have gone a different way. It was nice to see Alex Morgan display her range of skills and speed and she looks like she may be getting back into her dangerous form, but the USWNT attack can not simply rely on her. I thought Christen Press played better against France than she did against England, one of the few we could actually say that about. Overall, beyond Morgan, the entire USWNT offense just looks off and disjointed.

Even though the Fox Sports announcers were a little harsh on her, I still feel Ashlyn Harris played another solid game. She looked more confident, and should get another start or two in goal despite the potential return of Hope Solo next month. We know what Solo can do, but developing a solid number two goalie is high on the list of priorities, and that development only comes with more experience. I’d give Harris a solid A- for her efforts on Friday.

Overall, going into the Algrave Cup with a win gives the USWNT some confidence as it ends a string of poor performances, but there are still too many areas of concern. The move of Carli Lloyd to the left just isn’t working, plain and simple. Lloyd is too good of a defender to have that aspect of her game removed.

Yes, critics have been calling for more shifting of players, but this is one shift that has failed. With only four months and eight matches to go before the World Cup, coach Jill Ellis has not inspired much confidence that she has some sense of sending out a lineup that will work. She needs to find a setup that will utilize the firepower of strikers Morgan, Press and Leroux, shoring up a horrendous midfield, and taking advantage of the talents available on defense. Thus far, nothing she has employed has seemed to address any of these three issues.

USWNT Shouldn’t Feel Too Good after Beating England

By Scott Sinclair | Feb 15, 2015

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