The U.S. Women’s National Team booked its spot at the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup by rolling past Jamaica 6-0 in the semifinal of the 2018 Concacaf Women’s Championship, and will now look to win its sixth Concacaf Women’s Championship title when it takes on Canada on Wednesday, Oct. 17 at 8 p.m. ET. The match broadcast will likely start on FS2 and then switch to FS1 depending on the completion of the MLB playoff game. The game is also being broadcast on UDN.
The 2018 Concacaf Women’s Championship has qualified two teams to the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France and a third will book its ticket with a win in the Third-Place game. The fourth-place finisher will go into a two-game playoff with Argentina, the third-place team from South America. As winners of their respective semifinals, the USA and Canada have already secured their spots at next summer’s event but one remains for the winner of the Third-Place match between Jamaica and Panama on Oct. 17 (4 p.m. CT; FS2). The loser of the Third-Place Match heads into the two-game playoff.
Follow all the #USWNT and tournament action on Twitter using #OneNationOneTeam and #CWC on @ussoccer_wnt and @ussoccer_esp, and on Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat (ussoccer_wnt).
U.S. WNT CONCACAF WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP ROSTER BY POSITION (CAPS/GOALS)
GOALKEEPERS (2):
18- Ashlyn Harris
(Orlando Pride; 18/0), 1-
Alyssa Naeher
(Chicago Red Stars; 36/0)
DEFENDERS (7): 7- Abby Dahlkemper (NC Courage; 27/0), 19- Crystal Dunn (NC Courage; 72/24), 20- Hailie Mace (UCLA; 3/0), 5- Kelley O’Hara (Utah Royals FC; 111/2), 4- Becky Sauerbrunn (Utah Royals FC; 146/0), 14- Casey Short (Chicago Red Stars; 26/0), 2- Emily Sonnett (Portland Thorns FC; 24/0)
MIDFIELDERS (5): 6- Morgan Brian (Chicago Red Stars; 81/6), 8- Julie Ertz (Chicago Red Stars; 70/18); 9- Lindsey Horan (Portland Thorns FC; 60/7), 16- Rose Lavelle (Washington Spirit; 17/5), 3- Samantha Mewis (NC Courage; 40/8)
FORWARDS (6): 17-Tobin Heath (Portland Thorns; 141/25), 10- Carli Lloyd (Sky Blue FC; 262/105), 13- Alex Morgan (Orlando Pride; 150/96), 12- Christen Press (Utah Royals FC; 106/46), 11- Mallory Pugh (Washington Spirit; 40/12), 15- Megan Rapinoe (Seattle Reign FC; 143/41)
STORYLINES
USA vs. Canada: The USA is 48-3-7 all-time against Canada and the Americans have had a long history of success in this series, but the 12 meetings since the turn of the decade have featured three ties and four one-goal wins for the USA. The most recent meetings were pair of friendlies between the teams, the first on Nov. 9, 2017 at BC Place in Vancouver, Canada, a 1-1 draw that saw Alex Morgan score for the U.S., followed by a second game on Nov.12 at Avaya Stadium in San Jose, California, where the U.S. won 3-1 on goals from Carli Lloyd, Julie Ertz and Morgan.
Most Common Opponent: Canada is the country the USA has played more times than any other in its history. The USA and Canada have been playing since the second year of the U.S. Women's National Team program in 1986 and met in the fifth and sixth matches in U.S. history, which also were the first domestic games for the U.S. Women. They’ve played in back-to-back games in a home-and-away format three times. Multiple meetings in a calendar year between the USA and Canada are far from a rarity. In fact, the teams played five times in both 2000 and 2008, tied for the most meetings in a year for the U.S. team against any opponent.
USA Aims for Sixth Concacaf World Cup Qualifying Title: The USA is 31-1-0 all-time in World Cup qualifying, including 17-0-0 at home. The U.S. WNT hasn’t conceded a goal in 10 straight WCQ games (963 minutes) dating back to 2010. The last goal allowed came in the 27th minute against Mexico on Nov. 5, 2010. Under Jill Ellis the USA has a record of 9-0-0 with 45 goals scored and 0 against. This will be the seventh Concacaf qualifying tournament that USA has contested. The U.S. women have won five of six of those tournaments, finishing first in the qualifying competitions for the 1991, 1995, 2003, 2007 and 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cups. The USA finished third in the qualifying tournament for the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup and had to go through a two-game playoff against Italy to qualify for Germany 2011. The USA played Canada in the championship game of each of the first four tournaments in which both participated (the USA did not have to qualify as host in 1999). The USA has scored 182 goals in WWC qualifying (an average of 5.7 per game) while allowing five, and has played nine different countries in World Cup qualifying with Mexico being the most common opponent with seven games between the teams.
Winning: The U.S. team has a 15-0-2 record in 2018 and has not lost since the 2017 Tournament of Nations, a 1-0 setback to Australia. It has gone 22-0-3 over the past 15 months. The USA’s 2018 has so far featured wins over Denmark, Germany, England, Mexico (thrice), China PR (twice), Japan, Brazil, Chile (twice), Panama, Trinidad & Tobago and Jamaica, along with ties vs. France and Australia. The WNT hasn’t conceded a goal in 614 minutes in 2018, with the last one coming against Brazil during the Tournament of Nations on Aug. 2. This is the longest streak without conceding for the WNT since 2016.
100 Goals Watch: After adding two more goals against Jamaica on Oct. 14, Alex Morgan now has 96 goals and at age 29 sits in sole possession of seventh place on the USA’s all-time goal scoring list. She has scored 23 goals over her last 23 WNT matches through the end of 2017 and deep into 2018. With her hat trick against Japan on July 26, the fourth of her career, Morgan is now tied with Michelle Akers in third place all-time in multi-goal games (26) behind Abby Wambach (45) and Mia Hamm (38). She has 22 career two-goal games.
Lloyd Keeps Adding Her Name to the Record Books: On Oct. 7 vs. Panama, Lloyd scored her eighth career hat trick and upped her career total to 105 goals. She is now two goals away from tying Michelle Akers for fourth all-time in the U.S. goals list. With her hat trick, Lloyd tied Mia Hamm for most three-goals games all-time in U.S. WNT history. Hamm also scored two four-goal games in her career. Lloyd is tied with Kristine Lilly and Cindy Parlow for fifth-all time in multi-goal games with 17. Against Panama, Lloyd (36 years, 83 days) became the oldest player to score a hat trick for the U.S. WNT. She broke Wambach’s record of 34 years, 186 days. Since turning 30, she has scored 69 goals in 127 games in six years. The 127 games after the age of 30 rank her fourth all-time in U.S. history in that category and is four caps away from tying Shannon Boxx in third place. Christie Rampone is far and away the leader with 175.
2018 WCQ Goal Scorers: Ten different players have scored in the 2018 tournament thus far: Alex Morgan (6), Tobin Heath (4), Carli Lloyd (3), Megan Rapinoe (3), Rose Lavelle (2), Julie Ertz (2), Crystal Dunn, Lindsey Horan, Christen Press and Samantha Mewis.
The U.S. forwards have combined for 45 of the USA’s 61 goals this year. All six of the forwards on this roster have played in a world championship, and five of them have played in in multiple world championships. Six of the eight players who have not found the net are defenders. Nine players have assists, with Lindsey Horan leading the way with four. The average age of the U.S. roster for this tournament is 27.9. The average age of USA’s 2015 Women’s World Cup Team was just over 28 years of age.
Since the 2017 SheBelieves Cup, the USA has failed to score in just one game (against Australia at the 2017 Tournament of Nations). That’s a 30-game span. Through 2017 and 2018, 14 different players have scored goals for the USA. The U.S. has now scored 4+ goals in six of their last seven games and in five straight.
Team Effort: All 20 players on the U.S. roster have seen minutes so far in the tournament. No player has played the total of 360 minutes, but defender Abby Dahlkemper has been on the field the most (347 minutes).
WCQ History Goal Scorers: Eleven players on this U.S. roster have scored in a Women’s World Cup qualifying tournament: Lloyd (10), Morgan (8), Rapinoe (6), Heath (6), Press (3), Lavelle (2), Ertz (2), Mewis (1), Dunn (1), Horan (1) and Brian (1). Lloyd has now tied Carin Gabarra in fourth place on the all-time goal list in World Cup qualifying. She sits two goals behind third-place Mia Hamm (12).
2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup Qualifiers: The 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup will be held from June 7-July 7 in nine cities in France. So far, 17 countries have qualified with teams from Concacaf, Africa and Oceania still to be determined. The Final Draw for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup will be conducted in Paris on December 8. This will be the second World Cup with 24 nations, up from 16 that were in Germany in 2011. The qualified nations so far are: host, France; England, Germany, Italy, Norway, Scotland, Spain and Sweden from UEFA. Brazil and Chile from South America, and Australia, China PR, Japan, Korea Republic and Thailand from the AFC and the USA and Canada from Concacaf.