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Jessica Alcheh-USA TODAY Sports activities
The United States women’s national team’s 2-0 loss to Mexico on Monday marked solely the second time in 43 conferences that El Tri managed a victory over its rival to the north. It was a radical efficiency from Mexico, who dominated the U.S. from begin to end to prevail because the shock winners of Group A on the Concacaf W Gold Cup.
The People are nonetheless by means of to the quarterfinals, however the loss was a reminder of simply how a lot work is left to be finished after the low level that was the 2023 World Cup. No observer, impartial or partisan, might argue that Mexico was not the vastly superior group on Monday. El Tri boss Pedro Lopez obtained the ways proper and his gamers executed with a relentless starvation that the U.S. couldn’t reply.
“On the finish of the day, we have been outbattled and it’s unacceptable,” U.S. midfielder Sam Coffey informed CBS Sports activities after the sport. “There’s no excuse that we will make for ourselves. We now have to remain collectively as a bunch and be taught from it and transfer on. However on the finish of the day, Mexico deserved to win and now we have to take that to coronary heart, and I do know that this group will.”
Lizbeth Ovalle struck an iconic chip to open the scoring within the thirty eighth minute. The objective got here off a direct play up the backbone of the U.S. protection, with one massive ball excessive following a Mexico objective kick. U.S. interim coach Twila Kilgore lamented the group’s lapses on the set play.
“I feel [a] sport is about moments,” Kilgore mentioned. “And if we have a look at these moments the place for those who take the objective for instance, it’s a microcosm for the sport as a result of a group from a defensive objective kick for us which is one thing that we usually delight ourselves on and we didn’t win the primary ball, didn’t win the second ball, after which didn’t execute.”
The final and solely earlier time the U.S. misplaced to Mexico was at World Cup qualifying in November 2010, when Morgan was in her first 12 months of representing the senior nationwide group. The loss pressured the U.S. into a worldwide playoff with Italy, the place the top-ranked People prevailed over two legs — with Morgan scoring a vital objective within the first leg in Italy — to grow to be the sixteenth and ultimate group to qualify for the 2011 World Cup.
“Concacaf will not be what it was 14 years in the past once we had our final loss to Mexico,” Morgan mentioned.
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A number of issues that plagued the U.S. on the 2023 World Cup reappeared on Monday, from particular person gamers’ lack of ability to unravel strain to an absence of solutions off the bench. Kilgore made a pair of modifications at halftime, swapping Alex Morgan in for Sophia Smith on the No. 9 place and bringing on Emily Sonnett rather than Lynn Williams as a part of a system tweak. The modifications did little to shift the momentum, which Kilgore conceded in reference to a sluggish first 20 minutes of the second half.
“We simply didn’t play almost our greatest,” Morgan mentioned afterward.
A second-half stoppage time golazo from Mayra Pelayo — who grew up in Southern California, not removed from the positioning of Monday’s sport, and performed faculty soccer at Florida and obtained a passing look within the U.S. youth system — punctuated the victory for Mexico.
Mexico set the tempo from the opening minutes, urgent the U.S. protection into errors excessive up the sector and successful second balls in midfield. Kilgore mentioned they anticipated Mexico “leaping out from their form” primarily based on their scouting, however the U.S. had no reply.
“I feel there was sport plan,” Kilgore mentioned. “I feel they’d an amazing — — sport plan. I feel we had sport plan and easily they simply executed there’s higher than ours. And a part of that does must do with depth that usually could be measured by issues like tempo with the ball, but in addition defensive issues like successful first tackles and successful second balls.”
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