WCQ Preview: USA Faces Jamaica with 2019 World Cup Berth on the Line | Sunday, Oct. 14 | 8 p.m. ET on FS1, UDN
The game-winner will earn an automatic berth to the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
The U.S. Women rolled through group play at the 2018 Concacaf Women’s Championship with three dominating performances – a 6-0 victory vs. Mexico on Oct. 4 , a 5-0 win vs. Panama on Oct. 7 and a 7-0 win vs. Trinidad & Tobago – to secure its semifinals berth. The USA will now face Jamaica – the second-place finisher of Group B – on Sunday, Oct. 14 (7 p.m. CT; FS1, UDN), in a match Presented by Volpi Foods, for a berth to the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Panama was the second-place finisher in Group A and will face Group B winner Canada in the earlier game on Sunday (4 p.m. CT; FS1) with the winner of that game also earning its ticket to France.
Group A Final Standings
|
TEAM |
GP |
W |
L |
D |
GF |
GA |
GD |
PTS |
|
USA* |
3 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
18 |
0 |
+18 |
9 |
|
Panama* |
3 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
5 |
5 |
0 |
6 |
|
Mexico |
3 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
4 |
9 |
-5 |
3 |
|
Trinidad & Tobago |
3 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
1 |
14 |
-13 |
0 |
*Qualified for Semifinal round
Group B Final Standings
|
TEAM |
GP |
W |
L |
D |
GF |
GA |
GD |
PTS |
|
Canada* |
3 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
17 |
1 |
+16 |
9 |
|
Jamaica* |
3 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
10 |
2 |
+8 |
6 |
|
Costa Rica |
3 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
9 |
4 |
+5 |
3 |
|
Cuba |
3 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
29 |
-29 |
0 |
*Qualified for Semifinal round
FOX Sports, the home of the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, is showing the 2018 Concacaf Women's Championship across the FOX Sports family of networks. For viewers on the go, matches can be streamed live via FOXSports.com and the FOX Sports app.
The U.S. team has a 14-0-2 record in 2018 and has not lost since the 2017 Tournament of Nations, a 1-0 setback to Australia. It has gone 21-0-3 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 and Trinidad & Tobago, along with ties vs. France and Australia.
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; 35/0)
DEFENDERS (7): 7- Abby Dahlkemper (NC Courage; 26/0), 19- Crystal Dunn (NC Courage; 71/24), 20- Hailie Mace (UCLA; 3/0), 5- Kelly O’Hara (Utah Royals FC; 110/2), 4- Becky Sauerbrunn (Utah Royals FC; 145/0), 14- Casey Short (Chicago Red Stars; 26/0), 2- Emily Sonnett (Portland Thorns FC; 23/0)
MIDFIELDERS (5): 6- Morgan Brian (Chicago Red Stars; 80/6), 8- Julie Ertz (Chicago Red Stars; 69/17); 9- Lindsey Horan (Portland Thorns FC; 59/7), 16- Rose Lavelle (Washington Spirit; 16/5), 3- Samantha Mewis (NC Courage; 40/8)
FORWARDS (6): 17-Tobin Heath (Portland Thorns; 140/23), 10- Carli Lloyd (Sky Blue FC; 262/105), 13- Alex Morgan (Orlando Pride; 149/94), 12- Christen Press (Utah Royals FC; 105/46), 11- Mallory Pugh (Washington Spirit; 40/12), 15- Megan Rapinoe (Seattle Reign FC; 142/40)
STORYLINES
USA vs. Jamaica: The USA has only played Jamaica twice in its history, both in Concacaf qualifying tournaments. The first was in World Cup qualifying in 1994, a 10-0 win in Montreal, Canada. The most recent meeting came at the qualifying tournament for the 2008 Olympics that was played in Ciudad Juarez in Mexico. The USA opened that tournament with an 6-0 victory over Jamaica that featured goals from Carli Lloyd and Tobin Heath, along with two from Abby Wambach and one each from Heather O’Reilly and Lauren Holiday.
Tickets to France 2019 on the Line: The 2018 Concacaf Women’s Championship will qualify three teams to the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France and a fourth into a two-game playoff with Argentina, the third-place team from South America. The USA and Panama, the top two finishers from Group A, and Canada and Jamaica, the top two finishers from Group B will now cross-over to play in the all-important semifinals. The winners of the semifinals qualify for France, along with the winner of the Third-Place Match. The loser of the Third-Place Match heads into the two-game playoff.
No OT in Semifinals: In the Semifinal round, if the score is tied at the end of regulation time, no extra time will be played. Instead the matches will go straight to penalty kicks. In the Third-Place and Final match, if the score is tied at the end of regulation time, extra time will be played. If the score is tied at the end of extra time the matches will go straight to kicks from the penalty mark per the Laws of the Game.
100 Goals Watch: After adding two more goals against Trinidad & Tobago on Oct. 10, Alex Morgan now has 94 goals and at age 29 sits in sole possession of seventh place on the USA’s all-time goal scoring list. She has scored 21 goals over her last 22 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 fourth all-time in multi-goal games (25) behind Abby Wambach (45), Mia Hamm (38) and Michelle Akers (26). She has 21 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.
Qualifying Goal Scorers: Eleven players on this U.S. roster have scored in a Women’s World Cup qualifying tournament: Lloyd (10), Rapinoe (5), Morgan (6), Heath (4), Press (3), Lavelle (2), Ertz (1), 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).
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 29-game span. Through 2017 and 2018, 14 different players have scored goals for the USA. The U.S. has now scored 4+ goals in five of their last six games and in four straight. They longest such streak since Oct. 19 – Nov. 13, 2016.
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 270 minutes, but defender Abby Dahlkemper has been on the field the most (257 minutes). Ten different players have scored in the 2018 tournament thus far: Alex Morgan (4), Carli Lloyd (3), Megan Rapinoe (2), Tobin Heath (2), Rose Lavelle (2), Crystal Dunn, Julie Ertz, Lindsey Horan, Christen Press and Samantha Mewis. The U.S. forwards have combined for 40 of the USA’s 55 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 three. 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.
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, 15 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.
Concacaf Women’s World Cup Qualifying History: The USA is 30-1-0 all-time in Concacaf Women’s World Cup qualifying, including 16-0-0 at home. This will be the seventh Concacaf Cup 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 176 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.