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Algarve Cup: USWNT Dispatches Switzerland

By Danielle King

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The USWNT played its third Women’s World Cup contender of the year on Friday, taking on tournament debutantes Switzerland for the second time ever. Switzerland was coming off a solid match against Iceland, kicking off 2015 Algarve Cup group play with a 2-0 win.

It’s worth mentioning that the Swiss have been doing without Ramona Bachmann, easily their strongest attacking force. She was named to the starting lineup, but held out for the second straight match with an unnamed injury. Whatever’s going on, I hope she’s fully fit by June, because the injuries piling up in international women’s football right now are starting to get upsetting.

Before this game ever kicked off, it seemed like things were going to be different. Maybe it was the lineup, featuring Christen Press playing up top, Megan Rapinoe getting her legs back under her on the left wing, and Abby Wambach coming off the bench late in the second half. Maybe it was Julie Johnston getting her second straight start, or the earlier match time and extra sunlight. For whatever reason, this match felt like it might be a turning point for the USWNT.

The first half wasn’t spectacular. The US seemed to have the attacking mindset that they brought out against Norway, but as in Wednesday’s match, there was little execution. The Swiss seemed patient, as though head coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg had been paying attention to recent US performances and had told her squad that blood was in the water.

I was actually fairly impressed with the defensive discipline that Switzerland displayed early, and thought that they did a decent job minimizing the looks at goal that the US attack was able to find. I thought Caroline Abbé did a particularly good job of frustrating Carli Lloyd and Alex Morgan’s attempted baseline runs in the first 45. That said, Switzerland didn’t attempt to clog up their defensive half like Denmark did against the US, instead opting to make fairly frequent attacking runs. They just struggled to consistently connect and to maintain possession in the midfield.

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Then the second half started. And things started to get just a little out of hand.

Amy Rodriguez was subbed on for Megan Rapinoe, who is still building back up to full match fitness. In reaction, or perhaps to try to exert some control over a scoreless game that had seen no shortage of shots from the US, Switzerland came out with a more defensive mindset. And Alex Morgan started to regain her evident enthusiasm for making baseline runs and maintaining enough possession to get the ball into the box.

In the 54th minute, the floodgates opened. It started with a perfectly taken free kick by an extremely patient Lauren Holiday that landed right on the inside of Alex Morgan’s right foot. The US kept their foot on the gas, making numerous attacking runs before Heather O’Reilly and Kelley O’Hara were subbed into the game.

Not long after, Amy Rodriguez was dragged to the ground by Lia Wälti, the last Swiss defender, who wisely took a yellow card rather than forcing her keeper to do one-on-one combat with a hungry ARod. It didn’t do much to deter her, though, because a couple of minutes later, Rodriguez found herself in front of goal once again. After some half-touches and fancy footwork, she chipped the keeper and a desperate attempt at a defensive header to get her first goal in over a year. Her tenacious play earned her player of the match honors.

"“Just a few quick little touches in front of the net. I felt like I had pressure from the ‘keeper and a defender, so tried some quick touches and tried to scoop it in. I’ve been getting a lot of comments about my quick feet so I’m just happy I was able to put it in,” Amy Rodriguez on how she scored her first international goal since returning February 2014"

Minutes later, Morgan was brought off for Abby Wambach in what is easily one of the best tactical moves Jill Ellis has made as head coach of this team. Wambach almost immediately scored a lovely undisturbed ball (poked her way by Shannon Boxx) from the top of the penalty area, over the completely frozen Swiss keeper.

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Fans of the team have got to take this game as a step up from recent performances. Though the Swiss hardly posed the threat of Brazil or France, this looked like it might have been a reasonably competitive match. But on the strength of performances by Holiday, Press, Rodriguez, and Morgan, the US made the second half look almost easy. Solo in particular seemed to take notes from Wednesday’s match, and looked much improved, making vastly better choices and coming up with a couple of pretty great saves and disruptions to Switzerland’s play.

It was encouraging to see O’Hara and Rodriguez get legitimate and productive minutes, and I thought that the second Julie Johnston start went well. JJ is still very much oriented towards defensive midfield responsibilities, getting a bit higher than I suspect Ellis would like her to play; but she is also a terror on pressing players, and has no qualms about dispossession and pushing the ball forward. Klingenberg showed off the speed that keeps her so high in the left back rotation, and it was nice to watch O’Reilly zipping up and down the right flank. I still wish that Crystal Dunn could more minutes at LB, and that we could find a younger “destroyer” than Boxxy.

More than anything, I hope this game has shown Ellis a few things. It’s clear that she’s committed to her plans for the midfield, continuing to play Holiday and Brian (ordinarily attacking midfielders) in deeper defensive roles. To Holiday’s credit, I feel as though she’s noticeably improved at operating in traffic and maintaining possession, while she’s continued to produce high-quality set pieces and service into the box. I feel like Brian still needs some work here, though in an ideal world, she’d just be playing 20-30 yards closer to the opponent’s goal.

When other teams see that Abby Wambach isn’t starting, it should fill them with a sense of dread. Because if she’s available to come on at the end of a match, and has the fitness and the vision to find the back of the net against a tired defense, she is a true difference-maker, maybe even the ultimate super-sub. She won’t win any more Golden Boots if her scoring opportunities are limited by a restriction on her playing time, which is fine; but when she is used as she was in this match, Wambach is being deployed tactically in a way that benefits the team immensely.

Despite some of the pace issues, this match was a noticeable improvement over the Brazil tournament and those early European friendlies. There’s even plenty of progress in terms of converting those chances in front of goal from the Norway match.

From the starting lineup to the rotation of substitutes, this game was a series of slightly better coaching decisions and, particularly in the second half, cleverer play and better execution by the players on the field. And if this match was genuinely the turning point that it seemed, it comes at the exact right time.

Keep an eye on this space, as we’ll be putting together a digest of the first few games of group play at this year’s Algarve Cup for the weekend. And don’t forget to catch another potential Women’s World Cup matchup, when Brazil takes on Germany in each team’s last game of group play on Monday at 1pm EST on Fox Sports 1, to be aired in lieu of the USA-Iceland match because of logistical issues that prevent its broadcast.

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