USWNT goes unbeaten vs. Ireland but still suffers serious loss: 3 takeaways

By Doug McIntyre
Published

ST. LOUIS, Missouri — The United States women's national team finished April's international window — the Americans' final pair of tune-up games before coach Vlatko Andonovski names his 23-player roster for this summer's FIFA Women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand — with a 1-0 victory Tuesday over the Republic of Ireland.  

Defender Alana Cook celebrated her 26th birthday by scoring the winning goal on a long-range effort just before halftime:

It was the USWNT's second victory over the World Cup-bound Irish in four days, following Saturday's 2-0 triumph in Austin, Texas.  

Here are three quick takeaways from this month's matches:  

We (mostly) know the USWNT's World Cup lineup  

Just as he did in the first game of the year in New Zealand in January, and in the first match of February's SheBelieves Cup, Andonovski went with what looked to be his best starting 11 in the opener.  

Most of the locks were in the lineup last week: Alyssa Naeher in goal; Becky Sauerbrunn, Naomi Girma and Crystal Dunn on the backline; Lindsey Horan and Rose Lavelle in midfield; and Sophia Smith, Alex Morgan and Mallory Swanson up top.  

Swanson, of course, will likely miss the World Cup after injuring her patella tendon in Austin. But her wide forward position is likely just one of two still up for grabs, as veteran destroyer Julie Ertz, who came off the bench in both games, ought to be fit enough to start this summer at the main event.   

So Tuesday served as a final audition for lineup hopefuls such as Cook, right back Sofia Huerta, 18-year-old Alyssa Thompson (who made her first career start — more on that below) plus the six players who entered off the bench. 

"In the first game, I said that I wanted to see how the team performs, the team concept, and I wanted to evaluate certain things from the team perspective," Andonovski said. "In the second game, we were not as focused on the team concept. It was more about individuals." 

And while most of them performed well enough, none gave the coach any reason to consider replacing any of his regulars.  

Lack of goals a little worrying for the Americans  

The Americans scored just twice from open play over 180 minutes this month. Andonovski, for the record, said he isn't concerned. He attributed the lack of finish Tuesday to the lack of cohesion between players who are desperate to impress but just haven't had enough reps together to develop real chemistry.   

The U.S. was also a little unlucky. Sauerbrunn, a St. Louis native who was honored before the game for earning her 200th career cap late last year, rocketed a header off the crossbar on a choreographed play less than three minutes into the contest.  

"It was the perfect setup, and I blew it," the U.S. captain joked afterward. But she also gave Ireland lots of credit for defending the Americans well and not giving up many scoring opportunities over the two matches.  

"I think we just have to be ruthless with the chances that we do get," she added. "That's what you have to do against the top teams in the world."  

Alyssa Thompson can make the World Cup squad  

Thompson wasn't even with the team last week; she was only summoned to St. Louis on Sunday after Swanson, the team's leading scorer this year, went down. Yet there she was in Andonovski's starting lineup Tuesday anyway. She didn't look at all out of place.  

Thompson was involved in two of the USWNT best attacking moments, unselfishly laying off a Morgan pass to Smith in the first half (she might even have taken the shot herself) and racing between two defenders to get to a perfectly weighted through pass from Ashley Sanchez in the second before running out of room and colliding with visiting keeper Courtney Brosnan.  

"For how young she is I thought she came in with confidence and did everything that she knows how to do," Smith said of her fellow forward. "She came in and stepped up and that's a very hard thing to do." 

There's more to be done, of course. Lynn Williams and Trinity Rodman are probably still ahead of Thompson on the coach's depth chart. Same for Megan Rapinoe, who missed this camp through injury. But World Cups are made for fearless young players. With Swanson ruled out, it's possible Andonovski takes a flier on the gifted youngster, who was still in high school when she made her international debut at European champ England last October.  

Either way, Andonovski will have some extremely difficult decisions to make — even if three months out from the World Cup, he now has almost all the data points he needs to select the bulk of his squad.   

"I feel pretty comfortable where we're at as a team and from the decision-making standpoint," the coach said Tuesday. "There's a group of players that we're very comfortable with, and we can make decision [on] tonight."

For the rest, the quest to win a World Cup will continue right up until the end.  

"We have about maybe 10 to 12 players fighting for six, seven spots," Andonovski said, adding that for those hopefuls on the bubble, performances for their clubs will be weighed more heavily than for the proven, established core. That's not the only factor, though.  

"They're going to be evaluated [on] how much their performances are a good fit for what we do as well," he said. "That, in a nutshell, is what we're looking at."

Doug McIntyre is a soccer writer for FOX Sports. Before joining FOX Sports in 2021, he was a staff writer with ESPN and Yahoo Sports and he has covered United States men’s and women’s national teams at multiple FIFA World Cups. Follow him on Twitter @ByDougMcIntyre.

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