…the team has a lot of work to do between now and August.
The USA’s Under-20 Women’s National Team won 2:1 over Canada’s U-20 WNT in the 2012 CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship final, but had to overcome an early Canada goal scored via an American error. Two late goals in the final eleven minutes gave the USA a comeback lead.
The U-20 USWNT went down early after Canada’s Jenna Richardson (Oregon State), intercepted an mis-hit pass by the USA’s Crystal Dunn. Richardson raced straight toward goal just to the right of the penalty arc and powered in a grounder to the far post.
For the next 75 minutes, the USA pressed and pressed, but failed to convert. This was partially due to the excellent ‘keeping of Canada’s Sabrina D’Angelo (South Carolina State), but was mostly the result of the USA’s poor finishing: Over the entire match, the USA had 29 shots, just 10 on goal (with most of those being weak efforts or right to D’Angelo), and 15 corner kicks.
In the 76th minute, Kealia Ohai was substituted on for Mollie Pathman. Three minutes later, Ohai latched onto a week pass by Canada’s Jacklyn Sawicki just above the penalty box and pushed forward into the box, on the right side. Ohai passed to Maya Hayes (who started the game), but Hayes’ first touch did not control the ball. After a second attempt, Hayes settled and turned, delivering a low shot into the far corner of the net.
About ten minutes later, American goalkeeper Bryane Heaberlin punts a ball past the center circle, which is cleared by a Canadian defender, but only to Morgan Brian, who was just behind the halfway line. Brian passed to Lindsey Horan, who dribbles toward goal. A Canadian defender tries to stop Horan, but that defender tripped. Before reaching Canada’s penalty box, Horan passed out to Ohai, who is on the left flank. Ohai delivered a pass toward second-half substitute Chioma Ubogagu, but the ball bounced and hit a Canadian defender in the knees. Ubogagu is there to get on the rebound and, as she falls backwards, slide-tackled in a shot to the right side of D’Angelo.
I’ll have more on the U-20 USWNT in the coming days, including a “where do they go from here”-type post.
On the final match, see also CONCACAF.com write-up; US Soccer MatchTracker; US Soccer match report (just a box score at the moment).
Women's Soccer Express 