USA’s Julie Ertz scores the game winner to give the US a 4-3 win against Brazil in the 2017 Tournament of Nations at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego on Sunday.
by Debby von Winckelmann
Down 3-1 with only ten minutes left in their match against Brazil, it looked like the United States Women’s National Team was set to lose their second straight match.
Instead, the US managed a sensational comeback, scoring three goals to defeat Brazil 4-3 in the 2017 Tournament of Nations on Sunday night at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego.
Christen Press, who came off the bench in the 57th minute, received a through ball from Megan Rapinoe, cut it back and sent her shot into the upper, left corner. Press didn’t take the time to celebrate and repaid Rapinoe’s assist with a long cross to the left side of the field. Rapinoe brought the ball down with a flawless touch and sent a hard shot near post to tie the game at 3-3.
In the 89th minute, Rapinoe fed a ball to Kelly O’Hara, who sent the ball into
the box where it bounced off of a couple of players before Julie Ertz, who had also subbed in, knocked it into the back of the net for the 4-3 win.
Although the last ten minutes of the game did well to get the win, it doesn’t erase the 80 minutes of substandard play by the United States.
The US went down 1-0 in the second minute of the game after US goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher let what seemed to be an easy catch on a long shot from Brazil’s Andressinha slip through her fingers and into the net. Samantha Mewis scored the equalizer in the 18th minute, taking a pass from Megan Rapinoe at the top of the box and hitting a low, hard shot that deflected off of Brazil’s Bruna Benites.
Benites scored in the 63rd minute after she was left open at the back post on a corner kick by Marta. Andressinha put Brazil up 3-1 when she scored her second goal in the 78th minute on a nicely-placed free kick.
The US struggled defensively and maybe that’s partially due to the line-up. Becky Sauerbrunn was put in as a defensive midfielder, instead of playing center back, where she is stellar. Head coach Jill Ellis continues to experiment with players, putting Casey Short and Abby Dahlkemper as center backs, with O’Hara at left back and Taylor Smith at right back. This experiment did not look to yield desirable results and Ellis brought in Ertz for Smith, dropping Sauerbrunn to center back and having Ertz take the holding midfielder position.
Offensively, there were simply too many chances not finished. Rapinoe, who was all over the pitch, chased down balls and delivered quality passes, while some of the recipients of those passes were unable to put the ball on target. US captain Carli Lloyd seemed to be AWOL during this game.
It will be difficult for the United States to win this tournament, which concludes at the StubHub Center in Carson, California on Thursday, August 3. Australia sits in first place and only needs to tie Brazil to win the tournament. For the US to win, Australia would have to lose and the US would have to make up the goal differential, which would be the tiebreaker.
A difficult task, but maybe not for a team that can overcome a 3-1 deficit in 10 minutes.
