USWNT: Five Thoughts from Their Victory over China

The U.S. women's national soccer team defeated China 4-1 on Saturday night in front of a sold-out crowd at PPL Park in Philadelphia. It was the team's first of four warm-up matches leading into this summer’s Olympic Games.

Here are five thoughts from the game.

In a seemingly odd move, USWNT coach Pia Sundhage made her roster cuts before the game

Even though 28 players were called into camp for the match, U.S. Soccer, in what seemed to be a very strange move, announced the 18 players who would be rostered for the Olympics shortly before the match began.

Apparently, Sundhage finalized all of her decisions in camp and saw no need to extend the process beyond the game against China.

Considering how often the USWNT trains and plays competitive matches, there is no doubt that Sundhage has had plenty of time to evaluate her players. However, it seems that the announcement could have been done at a less embarrassing time for those who didn’t make the squad.

Pia’s roster for the Olympics leaves little room for error

Part of the difficulty in selecting a roster for the Olympic soccer tournament is that each team is limited to only 18 roster spots.

While this is certainly not an easy job, Sundhage’s selection could put the team in serious jeopardy should anyone be hit by injury, poor form or suspension during the tournament.

On the roster, there are two goalkeepers, six players who have routinely played along the back-line, three players who have routinely played as central midfielders, six players who have routinely played as wide midfielders and five players who have routinely played as forwards. The reason that total does not add up to 18 is because many players, such as Lauren Cheney, have played in a variety of positions for the squad.

While many players on the U.S. squad are versatile and can play a number of positions, there are only three players on the roster who have routinely played as central midfielders for the team over the past few years while the team is overloaded with wide midfielders and forwards.

That decision could come back to haunt the U.S. in an Olympic tournament that will require the team to play six matches in 16 days should they reach the finals.

Shannon Boxx and Carli Lloyd had poor games

It seems almost blasphemous to make any negative comments about Boxx or Lloyd, who have both been stalwarts at the core of the national team seemingly forever.

However, both were dispossessed on multiple occasions Saturday night, including in the run-up to China’s lone goal.

If Boxx and Lloyd have a bad run of form in the Olympic games, the U.S. will be left with few options with only three true central midfielders on the roster and Lori Lindsey left at home.

The game seemed to calm down immediately after the introduction of Lauren Cheney

Cheney has been one of the U.S. team’s most consistent performers over the past year and has excelled as a forward, a wide midfielder and a central midfielder in that time.

In addition to her play-making ability—easily the best on the U.S. squad—Cheney also proved Saturday night that she could create the simple possession that the U.S. needed after she was introduced at halftime.

The troubling question regarding Cheney is that her play-making ability seems to be hamstrung in the team’s current 4-4-2 set-up. With the way Alex Morgan is playing, it would be hard to justify playing Cheney up top, and when Cheney plays wide, she doesn’t seem to get into the flow of the game.

The team could, and presumably will, use her as a central midfielder in the weeks to come, but not only does that create a difficult position battle with Lloyd and Boxx, it drops Cheney further away from the forwards where she seems to do her best work.

Alex Morgan’s goals were superb

For the first goal of the night, Morgan picked up a loose ball in the box and calmly slotted the ball low far-post, bending the ball around a Chinese defender and leaving the goalkeeper helpless.

On her second goal of the night, Morgan used her pace to beat the defender to a ball over the top, her strength to out-muscle the defender to create enough space to get a shot off and her skill to beat the keeper on a one-timer.

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