Can the USA win a Women’s World Cup without striker Alex Morgan?
That was perhaps the most pressing question about the USA heading into the tournament as doubts about Morgan’s readiness lingered due to a bone bruise to her left knee. Arguably the team’s best player, she hadn’t played in a competitive match in nearly two months going into Monday’s opener. In fact, she hadn’t even been fully training with the team.
But now it seems the question may not need to be answered. Seemingly out of nowhere, Morgan returned to the field for the Americans as a late sub on Monday and is apparently ready to take the world by storm.
“I’ll be ready to start if (coach Jill Ellis) wants me to,” Morgan told the Guardian after the USA’s 3-1 win over Australia. “The plan is to hopefully build minutes throughout this tournament, but if she wants me to start, I’ll be there.”
That’s a quick turnaround from not fully participating in team trainings only two days earlier. Her first full training with the team in World Cup preparations was on Saturday, according to the team, and the USA women opened their World Cup on Monday.
If Morgan can play a big role for the Americans, they will certainly need it. The USA looked somewhat dumbfounded in the attack for most of the first half against Australia. A very lucky deflection on a Megan Rapinoe shot got the Americans on the board first, but the USA offense was otherwise uninspiring.
Forward Abby Wambach had three clear chances for a header and she failed to capitalize each time. Twice she sent the ball wide and another time, she whiffed her best chance all day, somehow missing a ball that grazed her head. Wambach is known for being clutch, but she hasn’t been so much lately – it’s potentially a side effect of her decision to not play club soccer this year so she could focus on the World Cup.
Sydney Leroux, the other forward in a tandem pair, struggled to get into the match early on, in part because of poor service. She did her best to chase down balls, something Morgan is particularly adept at, but had limited success until the second half when Australia started to look fatigued.
Notably, none of the USA’s goals came from forwards on Monday, but Morgan said that doesn’t necessarily indicate a problem.
“I don’t think it means anything that the three forwards that got in didn’t score,” Morgan said after the USA’s first group-stage match. “It’s a long tournament and we need to pace ourselves.”
Morgan came on in the 79th minute to replace Leroux after the Americans took a cushy 3-1 lead. She looked comfortable on the field, at times displaying how her speed and hustle can create opportunities from nowhere.
“I felt really good. I had no pain whatsoever,” Morgan said. “Obviously, I was running down balls a lot and trying to keep possession and making sure we kept the 3-1 lead. So, I was getting max sprints out of me and I felt good. I’m looking forward to getting more time next game.”
In her first touches of the match, she ran onto a long ball, cut around a defender and fired a long-range shot, which sailed wide. Though she created a spark, her short time on the field raised another question as Morgan works to get back to top form in the middle of a World Cup: how quickly can she shake off the rust and get her finishing back?
Morgan went through this already earlier in the year. She sprained her ankle in October’s World Cup qualifying and was back to full training by late January. Her finishing seemed to suffer for a couple weeks until she scored against England in a February friendly. The World Cup, of course, is a four-week-long tournament.
When Morgan is in form, she is massively productive. She has 51 goals and 32 assists in 85 international appearances for the Americans. When she scored in that win over England earlier this year, she became the third-fastest American woman to reach the 50-goal threshold behind Michelle Akers (49 games) and Wambach (64).
But it may be a challenge to get her finishing back without matches. Given that the USA secured a victory worth three points and sole possession of first place in Group D to start their World Cup, it seems unlikely Ellis will call upon Morgan for significant minutes until the knockout stage. Ellis has made it clear Morgan will be eased into playing time.
Still, Morgan said she is ready to start, and having one of the most potent threats available to be deployed at any time is a mental edge for the Americans, who could see rough waters ahead in the so-called Group of Death.
It may be a sigh of relief for fans, too. In the lead-up to the opener, questions from reporters about Morgan’s return weren’t met with very clear-cut answers. With several weeks until the World Cup, Morgan wasn’t playing or training, and Ellis called it a “precautionary” measure – but as time stretched on, it seemed more like a possibility that Morgan was seriously injured.
Whatever happened between then and now may no longer matter. It seems Morgan has gotten herself into match readiness with remarkable quickness, and if she can get her finishing back just as quickly, the USA’s chances of winning the World Cup seem immeasurably better.
“It’s awesome to see how quickly she’s gotten back into the game and the way she’s taken care of herself over this time,” said teammate Tobin Heath at training on Tuesday. “It’s just shown that she’s able to jump in so seamlessly with us now.”
