The USA completed the formalities of their World Cup qualifying campaign with an emphatic 6-0 victory over Costa Rica to win the CONCACAF Women’s Championship at PPL Park in Philadelphia.
Abby Wambach scored a first half hat trick en route to bagging four goals for a rampant USA team who had steadily improved throughout a tournament they were expected to dominate, and did — even if early performances against bunkered opposition had made for some grim viewing.
An emphatic win over Mexico on Friday night had already qualified the USA for Canada and continued their run of not having conceded a goal throughout the tournament — one of the pre-tournament aims for coach Jill Ellis.
Against Costa Rica, the USA picked up where they left off against Mexico — immediately camping in the Costa Rica half. It didn’t take long for them to make the breakthrough against a Costa Rica sitting fatally deep early on. In the fourth minute the Ticas failed to clear their lines, and one of the promising younger US generation, Morgan Brian, curled a ball in from the left of the box for Abby Wambach to glance home a straightforward header from the edge of the six yard box.
After 17 minutes, the USA doubled their lead — Philadelphia local Carli Lloyd flicked on a Wambach header from a Megan Rapinoe corner. Lloyd should have added to that tally when clean through in the 31st minute, only to fire her shot over the bar when going for power past the Costa Rica keeper Dinnia Diaz.
She soon made amends — the USA went 3-0 up in the 35th minute through another Wambach header. Lloyd got to the byline, and her perfectly floated cross to the back post found Wambach getting her head to the ball before the scrambling Diaz could reach it.
And while Costa Rica tried to keep the USA honest with occasional balls over the top for Wendy Acosta to chase, it looked like a lost cause from the start. Christie Rampone, the USA captain, may have been making an astonishing 301st appearance for her team, but the defensive line she was running was rarely stretched.
In the 41st minute Wambach had her hat trick. Again it was another perfectly chipped ball to the back post by Lloyd, who could have been forgiven for having mixed feelings about helping her team mate, now on six goals, overtake her own tournament-leading five.
The USA continued to press in the second half, though at first there was an understandable dip in intensity, with the game long gone as a contest. There was still time for Wambach to add another note to the record books though, as she added her fourth goal in the 71st minute. It took her to a US record 18 World Cup qualifying goals and her first four goal haul since overtaking Mia Hamm’s individual world record for international goals last year.
It was a great goal too — substitute LeRoux turned defense into attack with a perfectly placed diagonal ball upfield for Wambach to race onto and float a perfectly paced shot over Diaz from the edge of the box.
Two minutes later LeRoux was on the scoresheet herself, rising to head home a Tobin Heath cross and make it 6-0.
As statements of intent for Canada go, the USA did as much as they could, in winning every game without conceding a goal, though the absence of the Canadians themselves probably robbed the tournament of meaningful opposition — there’s currently a fairly steep drop-off after the top two teams in the region and with one team exempt from qualifying, the best the USA could do was also in many ways the least they could do.
More meaningful challenges lie ahead then, but it’s also fair to say that Ellis has her team well-drilled and demonstrating an impressive understanding of each others’ play as the tournament went on, along with giving the coach the luxury of selection dilemmas in preparing for the World Cup.
Costa Rica meanwhile, may have ended the tournament as also-rans in the final but that couldn’t mask what has been a great week for Costa Rica soccer, within a great year. After the heroics of the men’s team in the summer, the women will now have their own World Cup to contest next year, while three Costa Rica teams have also reached the knockout stages of the CONCACAF Champions League.
Third place game: Trinidad and Tobago 2-4 Mexico
Earlier in the day, Mexico beat Trinidad and Tobago 4-2, after extra time in the third place game.
In some ways, the third place game was the more urgent of the two matches, as it carried the last automatic qualification spot for next year’s tournament, with the loser dropping into an awkward playoff game against the fourth placed CONMEBOL side Ecuador. The USA and Costa Rica had already qualified for the finals on Friday night by winning their respective semi-finals.
Mexico had raised a few eyebrows by leaving out key players against the USA in what turned out to be a predictably one-sided affair in their semi-final. It began to look like a shrewd decision by coach Leonardo Cuellar on Sunday though, when Mexico’s fresher looking side began to use their wing play to stretch a more physical Trinidad team, who’d been taken to a wearying penalty loss against Costa Rica on Friday night.
Mexico opened the scoring in the 24th minute when Sandra Stephany Mayor picked up a cross near the penalty spot, cut inside and placed a firm shot past a partially unsighted Kimika Forbes in the Trinidad goal. From there they looked the most likely to score again in the first half, as their defense mopped up the few direct threats the Trinidadian team could muster.
Although they were pressing more in the second half, set pieces appeared to be Trinidad and Tobago’s best hope, until a poor Mexican clearance, allowed Akheela Mollon to send a cross to the back post for Kennya Cordner to head home from a narrow angle to tie the game in the 57th minute.
The equalizer stung a complacent Mexican team into action, and three minutes later they were unlucky not to retake the lead as a scramble in the Trinidad six yard box saw the crossbar come to Forbes’ aid as she and her scrambling defense struggled to clear the ball off the line.
Trinidad were not done battling though and in the 78th minute they pulled ahead as Cordner’s cross from the left saw Brianna Ryce, then Mariah Shade combine to force the ball home from close range. The Trinidad bench cleared and were still returning to their seats when their team got a harsh lesson in concentration, as Mexico went straight up the other end to equalize — Mayor’s cross being met with a straightforward back post header by Monica Ocampo.
In extra time Mexico again looked to be in the ascendancy, and got the breakthrough when a raking crossfield ball by Kenti Robles was coolly brought down in the box and slotted past Forbes by Veronica Charlyn Corral, in the 104th minute. Then a minute after the turnaround she was again on the end of a through ball down the right channel of the box, to finish Mexico’s fourth with a low shot across the keeper.
Those goals were enough to send Mexico to the World Cup and Trinidad and Tobago on to that playoff game.
How their federation will feel about that extended campaign, after the teams’ very public tribulations during this tournament, remains to be seen. The Soca Princesses had arrived in the country with only $500 for expenses, prompting a desperate Twitter call for assistance by their coach, Randy Waldrum. That resulted in some successful impromptu fund-raising to provide the team with everything from training facilities to food while they were in Dallas for the opening stages of the competition. However they finance their bid, Trinidad are still on the road to a spot at the World Cup. USA, Costa Rica and Mexico are already there.
