Jan. 31, 2020 | BBVA Stadium; Houston, Texas
The USWNT, which is riding a 24-game unbeaten streak and has scored two or more goals in 21 of those games, will face Panama (7:30 CT on Fox Sports Plus and TUDN XTRA 4) to continue Group A on Jan. 31 at BBVA Stadium in Houston. This is the first step on the road to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. The USA will finish group play against Costa Rica on Monday, Feb. 3. All the U.S. group matches will kick off at 7:30 p.m. CT. The USA defeated Haiti 4-0 to win its first game of Group A and currently sits in second place in the group on goal difference. Costa Rica defeated Panama, 6-1, and sits at +5 on goal difference while the USA is at +4.
GOALKEEPERS (3): 12-Adrianna Franch (Portland Thorns FC; 3/0), 18-Ashlyn Harris (Orlando Pride; 24/0), 1-Alyssa Naeher (Chicago Red Stars; 58/0)
DEFENDERS (6): 7-Abby Dahlkemper (North Carolina Courage; 54/0), 19-Crystal Dunn (North Carolina Courage; 97/24), 11-Ali Krieger (Orlando Pride; 104/1), 5-Kelley O’Hara (Utah Royals FC; 126/2), 4-Becky Sauerbrunn (Utah Royals FC; 172/0), 2-Emily Sonnett (Orlando Pride; 41/0)
MIDFIELDERS (5): 8-Julie Ertz (Chicago Red Stars; 96/19), 9-Lindsey Horan (Portland Thorns FC; 79/13), 16-Rose Lavelle (Washington Spirit; 39/10), 3-Samantha Mewis (North Carolina Courage; 61/14), 6-Andi Sullivan (Washington Spirit; 15/0)
FORWARDS (6): 17-Tobin Heath (Portland Thorns FC; 162/32), 10-Carli Lloyd (Sky Blue FC; 289/122), 14-Jessica McDonald (North Carolina Courage; 14/2), 20-Christen Press (Utah Royals FC; 131/52), 15-Megan Rapinoe (Reign FC; 161/50), 13-Lynn Williams (North Carolina Courage; 22/7)
OLYMPIC QUALIFYING FORMAT: All the matches in Group A of the Olympic Qualifying tournament will take place at BBVA Stadium and Group B will play H-E-B Park in Edinburg, Texas, home to the Rio Grande Valley FC Toros of the USL Championship. The round-robin stage of the tournament will be conducted with three doubleheaders in each group. Group A will have doubleheaders on Jan. 28, Jan. 31 and Feb. 3, while Group B – which features Canada, Mexico, Jamaica and first-time qualifier St. Kitts and Nevis – will play doubleheaders on Jan. 29, Feb. 1 and Feb. 4. Canada and Jamaica both participated in the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France. The all-important semifinal matches will be on Friday, Feb. 7 at Dignity Health Sports Park, home of the Los Angeles Galaxy of MLS, with the winners qualifying for the 2020 Olympics in Japan. The championship game on Sunday, Feb. 9 will also be at DHSP.
|
Date |
Opponent |
Time |
TV/Result |
Venue |
|
Jan. 31 |
Panama* |
7:30 p.m. CT |
TBD |
BBVA Stadium; Houston, Texas |
|
Feb. 3 |
Costa Rica* |
7:30 p.m. CT |
TBD |
BBVA Stadium; Houston, Texas |
OLYMPIC HISTORY HAS BEEN MOSTLY GOLDEN: The U.S. will be attempting to qualify for a seventh consecutive Olympic Games and win the CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying event for the fifth consecutive time. In 2016, the USA won the Olympic Qualifying tournament in Frisco and Houston, Texas, winning all five games including a 5-0 semifinal victory against Trinidad & Tobago to earn a berth to Brazil and a 2-0 victory against Canada in the championship game. In 2012, the USA won the Olympic Qualifying tournament in Vancouver, B.C. and then went on to win the gold medal in London. In 2008, the USA won the tournament in Mexico and went on to win gold in Beijing. In 2004, the U.S. won the tournament in Costa Rica and went on to win gold in Athens, Greece. The U.S. qualified for the 1996 Atlanta Games as host and for the 2000 Sydney Games as a top-7 finisher at the 1999 Women's World Cup.
SIX IN, SIX TO GO: Half of the Women’s Olympic Soccer Tournament field is set, with host Japan, Brazil (coached by former U.S. WNT head coach Pia Sundhage) from South America, Great Britain, Netherlands and Sweden from Europe and New Zealand (coached by former U.S. WNT head coach Tom Sermanni) from Oceania having booked tickets to Japan. Still to be determined are the two representatives from Concacaf, one from Africa, two from Asia and the winner of a playoff between the second-placed team from Africa and Chile, which finished second in the most recent South American qualifying tournament.
All 20 players selected to the roster were part of the USA’s January training camp in Tampa, Florida that concluded on Jan. 15. The Olympic Qualifying roster features three goalkeepers (a requirement by tournament regulations) and 17 field players. Eighteen of the 20 players chosen by U.S. head coach Vlatko Andonovski were on the USA’s 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup championship team and 13 players were on the USA’s roster for 2016 Olympic Qualifying.
The 13 players on this roster who were a part of the 2016 Olympic Qualifying team are goalkeepers Alyssa Naeher and Ashlyn Harris, defenders Becky Sauerbrunn, Kelley O’Hara, Crystal Dunn, Emily Sonnett and Ali Krieger, midfielders Samantha Mewis, Julie Ertz and Lindsey Horan, and forwards Carli Lloyd, Christen Press and Tobin Heath. Sauerbrunn, O’Hara and Krieger and Lloyd, Megan Rapinoe and Heath were a part of the team that qualified for the 2012 Olympics. Heath and Lloyd are the only players on the roster who also participated in qualifying for the 2008 Olympics.
The two players on the roster who were not a part of the 2019 Women’s World Cup Team are forward Lynn Williams, who scored 12 goals in the NWSL last season (second in the league) for the North Carolina Courage and has been playing on loan in Australia for the Western Sydney Wanderers this off-season, and midfielder Andi Sullivan, who was the first pick in the 2018 NWSL Draft and had an excellent second pro season for the Washington Spirit in 2019.
Besides Lloyd, eight other players on the roster have scored in Olympic Qualifying. Dunn has six goals with five of those coming against Puerto Rico in 2016 to tie a U.S. record for most in a game. Heath has five, while Press has three. Horan, Mewis, O’Hara, Rapinoe and Williams have one each.
The U.S. roster averages 86.7 caps per player and the average age is 29 years old.
The USA is 19-0-1 all-time in Olympic Qualifying and has scored 102 goals while allowing three. It tied Canada 1-1 in the title game of the 2008 tournament before prevailing in penalty kicks.
In just his fourth camp, Andonovski has already looked at 50 different players.
Four players have scored so far for the USA in 2020: Press, Williams, Horan and Lloyd. Fourteen different players scored for the USA in 2019. Lloyd lead the team with 16 and Alex Morgan and Rapinoe had nine each.
Since its inception in 1985, the USWNT has compiled a record of 522 wins, 66 losses and 77 ties. Over the history of the program, the USA has gone 295-20-31 (90% winning percentage) at home, 53-18-13 away (71%) and 174-28-33 (81%) on neutral ground. Of the USA’s 66 losses, 12 (18%) came at the Algarve Cup in Portugal.
The USA has scored in 52 consecutive matches and has averaged more than three goals per game in that time. Since the end of the 2015 World Cup, the USA has played 95 matches and has an 80-5-10 record.
Lloyd has 58 WNT goals since the start of 2015. Morgan, who has 57, is the only other player with more than 30 goals over the four years.
The USA’s 1-1 draw with Korea Republic on Oct. 6, 2019, ended a streak of scoring multiple goals in 16 consecutive matches. The USA had not scored multiple goals in 14 straight games since March 19-June 13, 1995. That draw also ended the USA’s winning streak at 17 consecutive matches, the third-longest winning streak in team history and one short of a team record. The U.S. Women had not won 15 games in a row since Feb. 10-July 23, 1996. That 17-game streak was the longest since July 25, 1990 – May 25, 1991, which included 18 wins.
The U.S. Women are unbeaten on home soil over its last 41 matches, 36 wins and five draws. The last loss at home was July 27, 2017 vs. Australia, a 1-0 setback in Seattle.
Nine of the USA’s 26 goals in its last eight games have been headers, including recently two vs. Haiti. The U.S. scored 21 goals from set pieces in 2019 (27% of the goals score), including nine at the Women’s World Cup.