A happy year is coming to a close with the last game of 2019 facing Costa Rica Nov. 10 in TIAA Bank Field, Jacksonville FL at 8 ET on ESPN2 & TUDN. Their last match was a 3-2 win over Sweden in Columbus OH, but the end was a far closer than it should have been. This, the first match for new HC, Vlatko saw Carli Lloyd score a brace, and Christen Press finish out a great run for the 3rd score. Sweden capitalized on a major miscommunication between the keeper and defense of the US and poor marking to get 2 late goals and make it a bit more interesting than was wanted.
The last 5 games in the USWNT Victory Tour following the World Cup title over the summer saw them get 4 wins and a tie, the sendoff for HC Jill Ellis. Now it is on to Olympic Qualifying after the Ticas. These qualifiers commence Jan. 28, running through Feb. 9 in Houston & Edinburg TX as well as Carson CA. the year of 2019 gave them a record of 19-1-3, with 22 games undefeated following an early year loss to France, they returned the favor in France during their Cup run.
We were of course present as the new HC was introduced, the 43 year old stepped in following each and everyone of the 7 years of the NWSL as a HC, with a pair of titles with KC, in his 5 years there then on to the Reign, totalling 2 Coach of the Year Awards, 2013 & 2019. A new roster on Halloween, this his first camp last week and a win in Columbus with 20,000+ on hand, he is the 3rd youngest to ever coach this team.
Never say lose, thus far in years with games in the double digits, the USWNT has not lost 4x in the 27 years out of their 35 with that quantiy of games, 3 of those have happened since 2013, should they not lose to Costa Rica, it will be overall the 8th time without a loss, they have not lost more than a trio of games in a year since 2001.
Olympic qualifiers begin facing Haiti on the 28th, next up Panama on Jan 31 and finally Costa RIca on Feb. 3. Dignity Health Sports Park, home to MLS side LA Galaxy will host the semis and final on Feb. 7 & 9 respectively.
Costa Rica will feature one local player in Raquel Rodriguez of Sky Blue. While the USWNT now is not just comprised of NWSL players, the local ones include Imani Dorsey of Sky Blue, her teammate Carli Lloyd also of NJ, Allie Long from Reign FC & Tobin Heath of NJ. The one foreign based player for the US is Alana Cook of PSG.
Kwik Kixx:
-3 players are first timers with the USWNT but have appeared with the U-23's.
-50 straight games with at least one goa lwith and average of over 3 per.