USA 2

The Ultimate New Zealand Soccer Website | home

USA 2

Five-Star USA Sink Ferns In Style

by Jeremy Ruane

Team USA handed the Football Ferns a 5-0 hiding in front of 30,596 fans at Nippert Stadium in Cincinnati on September 19, marking Erin Nayler's fiftieth cap and Kirsty Yallop's final appearance for her country in a manner neither player had hoped for.

Yallop made her debut against the USA in October 2004, coming up against the likes of Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly, Julie Foudy and Brandi Chastain as the USA won 5-0 in Portland, Oregon, so there was a sense of symmetry that she should choose this occasion to call time on a stellar 104-cap career laden with highlights and coveted achievements.

The hosts fielded a much-changed line-up for the second encounter between the teams, and were swiftly into their stride against a Football Ferns combination which was very much second-best on the night.

Just two minutes into the contest, Casey Short stormed down the left flank, working a one-two with Megan Rapinoe before whipping in a delicious cross which was matched by Mallory Pugh's delicious cushioned lay-off to Rose Lavelle.

The Cincinnati local is on the comeback trail after a recent injury, and only played for the first half-hour of this encounter. She should have marked it with a goal from this attack, but dragged her effort wide of the target.

Three minutes later, a twenty-five yard screamer from Kelley O'Hara skimmed the roof of the net as the USA sought an early goal, one which Christen Press couldn't provide after darting in to get on the end of another Short cross, the fullback having been released by Rapinoe's deft back-heel in the eighth minute.

The USA contrived a lovely move two minutes later, Becky Sauerbrunn releasing Pugh down the right before the speedster picked out Julie Ertz's run to the near post. The midfielder duly steered it across Nayler towards the far corner, but the 'keeper plunged to her right to tip the ball to safety.

The offside flag denied Sam Mewis the opening goal in the fourteenth minute, after Nayler had spilled Rapinoe's teasing cross, while the same player just failed to get on the end of Lavelle's probing through ball two minutes later, as the USA continued their high tempo start to proceedings, denying the Football Ferns any chance to string together a few passes of their own.

The visitors finally got a look-in in the twentieth minute, with Yallop igniting a slick move which also featured Katie Bowen, Rebekah Stott, Rosie White, Bowen again and overlapping captain Ali Riley, whose cross, which had White and Hannah Wilkinson as its targets, was headed to safety by Sauerbrunn.

That scare roused the USA into renewed attacking vigour, but after Meikayla Moore had denied Rapinoe, and Pugh sent one skidding narrowly wide after picking Annalie Longo's pocket some twenty-five yards out from goal, White and Longo both had attempts on goal blocked in the 32nd minute, following a well-weighted cross from Stott.

The goal the USA had been threatening materialised nine minutes before half-time, but would never have come to pass had Nayler been better positioned in her goalmouth.

Mewis hoisted the ball forward towards the edge of the penalty area, allowing early substitute Lindsay Horan, with her first touch, to climb above Ria Percival and send a header arcing over Nayler, who was stranded on the edge of her six-yard box and could do little but look on forlornly as the ball arced over her into the net beyond.

Nayler made amends two minutes later, denying Press after the striker had worked a one-two with Horan. But when the pair teamed up again two minutes before half-time, Horan's pass found Pugh dashing in off the right flank to streak past both Moore and Riley before steering the ball inside Nayler's near post - 2-0, right on half-time.

When the teams emerged for the second spell, the host nation decided it was time to unleash Alex Morgan's formidable firepower upon the Football Ferns, and within 28 seconds, the substitute made her mark as only she can.

Securing possession inside her own half, Morgan slipped the ball to Pugh before motoring downfield. Pugh brought Ertz into play prior to racing down the left for a return pass, which duly arrived, allowing the speed merchant to slip the ball first time into the stride of Morgan.

The newcomer eluded Percival then instantly rifled an acute-angled shot between the advancing figure of Nayler and her near post - 3-0, and game effectively over as a contest, as there was no way

the Football Ferns would come back from this double-blow either side of the half-time whistle.

After Ertz had sent a twenty-yarder sizzling past Nayler's right-hand post, the USA made it 4-0 in the 55th minute. Substitute Lynn Williams scorched past Riley - quite a feat in itself, as the Football Ferns' captain is quicksilver speed-wise - before surging into the penalty area, only to pull her cross behind the incoming figure of Pugh.

Horan picked up the pieces and fed the overlapping figure of O'Hara, whose cross found Williams flying in to power a thumping header past Nayler from six yards - there was no stopping this one!

It now became a damage limitation exercise for the Football Ferns, Yallop's withdrawal from the fray for, as it turned out, the final time the first of six changes they would make inside the final half-hour, with three of them coming in the last five minutes of play, including a debut for Katie Rood.

USA coach Jill Ellis had already made four changes to her starting line-up by the time the fourth goal was scored, and newcomers had been directly responsible for three of those strikes - a great example of a coach changing the course of a game through shrewd use of the resources at their disposal.

Pugh, meanwhile, was still creating havoc with her pace, forcing Nayler to smother a twenty-yarder on the hour before landing a curling effort on the roof of the net three minutes later after wrong-footing Percival on the edge of the area.

Cue a rare Football Ferns attack, with Moore and Riley linking up on the left. The latter picked out Betsy Hassett with a cross which she flicked on to Wilkinson, whose shot on the turn, like a couple of long-range efforts from Bowen later in the match, gave USA goalkeeper Alyssa Naehar scant cause for concern.

The world champions' response? They went nap in the 68th minute with a goal of the highest quality from Morgan. Short and O'Hara combined on half-way to send Pugh powering down the left, and she led Bowen a merry dance before slipping the ball inside.

Morgan, in between defenders, latched onto it in an instant, controlling it deftly with one touch before, with her second, battering it between Nayler and her near post into the roof of the net - a blistering left foot volley which put the exclamation mark on a fine USA performance.

Within seconds, the scorer came so close to turning provider for Williams, Morgan's cross being scrambled away at the vital moment by Moore. The roles came close to being reversed six minutes later, with Morgan just failing to get on the end of a through ball from Williams which would have left the hat-trick hunter one-on-one with Nayler.

The silky-skilled Tobin Heath had entered the fray by this time for her first game in six months following a back injury, and she showed that, while more than a little ring-rusty, she hadn't lost her touch during her enforced absence.

But it was Morgan and Williams who proved to be the Kiwis' biggest threats in the time remaining, the latter rifling a twelve-yarder past the post three minutes from time after the former had inspired the raid, while Morgan was only prevented from getting on the end of a Williams cross sixty seconds later by the timely intervention of Stott, who spared Nayler's blushes after she failed to cut out the delivery.

The final 5-0 scoreline was a fair reflection of the gap between the teams, the reigning world champions achieving this two-match series triumph without the injured Carli Lloyd, who adds another dimension still to their play.

Amber Hearn was the only unavailable absentee from a New Zealand squad which is very much in a transitional phase at present, Yallop's post-match retirement highlighting the need for the next generation of players to swiftly get up to speed as those who have served the Football Ferns so well over the last fifteen years or so embark upon the next phase of their lives, ones no longer dominated by training sessions, travel arrangements and tailored fitness programmes.

USA: Naeher; Short, Dahlkemper, Sauerbrunn (Smith, 46), O'Hara; Mewis (Brian, 57), Ertz, Lavelle (Horan, 33); Pugh (Heath, 72), Press (Morgan, 46), Rapinoe (Williams, 46)

Football Ferns: Nayler; Percival (Bott, 86), Stott, Moore, Riley; Longo (Cleverley, 80), Yallop (Chance, 58), Hassett (Rood, 90), Bowen; Wilkinson (booked, 35) (Puketapu, 89), White (Phillips, 76)

Referee: Christina Unkel (USA)

Road To France & Tokyo