The first match that opened up this tournament was Costa Rica vs Panama, follow by USA vs Haiti in Houston, Texas. All these as part of Group A action. This tournament will qualify two teams from CONCACAF to the Olympic Games that will take place in Tokyo this summer.
Costa Rica 6-1 Panama:
In the first match, Costa Rica–who had a disappointing World Cup Qualifiers in 2018–came to this tournament with the determination to advance to the Olympics to show the world their improvement in women’s soccer. On the other hand, Panama wants to reassure their female soccer project is going in the right direction.
The match was dominated for the most part by Las Ticas, who showed a great dynamic game plan in the offensive side mixed with a solid defense. They created many chances to score and that paid off early in the match as they net the opening goal in the 9th minute when Melissa Herrera scored her first goal of the night. Only six minutes later, Raquel Rodriguez double the lead for Costa Rica via a penalty kick.
Before going to the half, Katherine Castillo pulled one back for Panama. However, the second half was totally dominated by Costa Rica, who scored 4 more goals via Shirley Cruz, Priscilla Chinchilla who scored a brace, and another one from Herrera to seal the 6-1 victory.
USA 4-0 Haiti:
In the second match of the night, the reigning World Champions played against Haiti in a match that can be referred as the battle between David and Goliath.
The USA is coming to this tournament with a new head coach in Vlatko Andonovski, who is replacing legendary coach Jill Ellis. Also, the team is missing a key player in Alex Morgan, who is out of the tournament as she is expecting her first kid.
Haiti, on the other hand, is coming to this tournament with a mission to compete and gain experience to keep developing the squad.
The match started very good for the Americans as they took the lead only two minutes after the starting whistle. Christen Press scored after a crossed by Lynn Williams. This was the only goal the USWNT was able to score against a very competitive and organized Haiti in the first half.
The Caribbean team scored a goal from a corner kick, however, and even though it looked like a fair goal, it was disallowed by the referee.
In the second half, the Americans were determined to increase the lead. In order to do so, coach Andonovski subbed in Megan Rapinoe, and that changed the game. She helped in the offensive side to create more opportunities and even gave assists like she gave to Williams in the 63’ to double the lead for the USA. Lindsay Horan and former Houston Dash player Carli Lloyd scored one apiece for a final score of 4-0.
Next for these teams on the second day of action of group A, which will continue in Houston on Friday, January 31st , Costa Rica will face Haiti and the USA will battle against Panama. Las Ticas and the Americans will try to seal their pass to the semis, whereas Las Canaleras and the Caribbean team will battle to remain alive in the competition.
US Soccer
