The U.S. women\u2019s national team opened its 2016 campaign with a dominant 5-0 shutout against the Republic of Ireland at Qualcomm Stadium in front of 23,309 fans, a record crowd to watch a WNT game in San Diego.
\nIt was all USA from the beginning as midfielder Carli Lloyd scored three goals in 28 minutes with her first coming in the sixth, and was assisted twice by Alex Morgan, who was celebrating her 100th game with the WNT. The scoring duo swapped roles just before the break as it was Lloyd who provided the assist for Morgan for a 4-0 halftime U.S. lead.
\nForward Mallory Pugh, the captain of the U-20 women\u2019s national team that will compete at the U-20 Women\u2019s World Cup in Papua New Guinea later this year, came in for Morgan in the 58th minute of the game to make her USWNT debut. At 17 years, 8 months and 25 days, she is the youngest player to make her debut in the last 11 years of the program and became the 19th player to score in her first cap when she added the fifth and final goal of the game in the 83rd minute of the game.
\nThe WNT is now 12-0-0 all-time vs. Ireland. Of the 12 meetings, seven have seen the USA score five goals.
\nUp next, the USWNT travels to the Lone Star State to begin the 2016 CONCACAF Women\u2019s Olympic Qualifying Championship from Feb. 10 to 21 for a berth to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Goal Scoring:\u00a0
\nUSA \u2013 Carli Lloyd (Alex Morgan), 6th\u00a0minute:\u00a0Alex Morgan ran deep into the attacking third down the left side and crossed the ball on the ground. An unmarked Carli Lloyd outran the defense and finished with her right foot into the back of the net.\u00a0USA 1, IRL 0.
\nUSA \u2013 Carli Lloyd, (Alex Morgan), 21st\u00a0minute:\u00a0Tobin Heath began the play with a deep run on the left flank and crossed the ball towards the back post. Alex Morgan headed it on goal but Ireland\u2019s goalkeeper Emma Byrne punched it out. Carli Lloyd took advantage of the poor clearance and headed it to the back of the net from close range for her second goal of the day. Carli was shaken up after she knocked heads with an Ireland defender on the play but was okay and retuned to the game shortly after.\u00a0USA 2, IRL 0.
\nUSA \u2013 Carli Lloyd, 28th\u00a0minute:\u00a0Carli Lloyd stole possession thanks to a poor Ireland pass to run past the defense and slot the ball past the goalkeeper for her third goal of the game.\u00a0USA 3, IRL 0.
\nUSA \u2013 Alex Morgan (Carli Lloyd), 45th minute:\u00a0Ali Krieger played a great ball from the right side to the middle of the box. Carli Lloyd jumped up for the header but the ball bounced off the post. Alex Morgan was there for the loose ball and tapped it in for the USA\u2019s fourth goal of the game.\u00a0USA 4, IRL 0.
\nUSA \u2013 Mallory Pugh (Christen Press), 83rd minute:\u00a0Christen Press made the first run to get inside the box and looked to cross the ball before running out of bounds. The cross reached Pugh, who was quick to head it to the near post for her first international goal in her first cap.\u00a0USA 5, IRL 0. Final. Key saves and defensive stops:
\nUSA \u2013 Hope Solo, 80th:\u00a0Late in the game, U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo was called into action on back-to-back plays, but both times she was ready to preserve the shutout for the USA. Next on the schedule:
\nThe U.S. WNT heads to Texas to begin the 2016 CONCACAF Women\u2019s Olympic Qualifying Championship that will run from Feb. 10 to 21 in Houston and Dallas. The USA will open the Olympic Qualifying Championship in Group A against Costa Rica on Wednesday, Feb. 10, at 7:30 p.m. CT. TV information will be released at a later date. The U.S. will be attempting to qualify for a sixth consecutive Olympic Games and win the CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Championship for the fourth consecutive time. Social: Twitter (@ussoccer_wnt;\u00a0@ussoccer_esp);\u00a0Facebook;\u00a0Instagram; Snapchat (ussoccer_wnt) Milestone Watch:
\nForward Alex Morgan became the 34th player in U.S. history to play 100 times for her country. Morgan debuted on Oct. 2, 2010, vs. China.
\nCarli Lloyd has scored 82 international goals. She is in sixth place on the USWNT all-scoring list. Lloyd has scored 19 goals in the USA\u2019s last 14 matches, starting with the Round of 16 game vs. Colombia at the WWC in 2015. Her three goals today marked this her sixth career hat trick.
\nMallory Pugh made her debut for the USWNT, coming in for Alex Morgan in the second half. Pugh, the captain of the U-20 WNT team that will compete at the U-20 WWC in Papua New Guinea at the end of the year, is 17 years, 8 months and 25 days old, becoming the youngest player to debut for the U.S. in the last 11 years. Heather O\u2019Reilly debuted for the WNT just a few months past her 17th birthday in 2002 at the Algarve Cup in Portugal. Amy Rodriguez debuted at the 2005 Algarve Cup just a few months past her 18th birthday. Lauren Holiday first trained with the senior team a few months shy of her 18th birthday in 2005.
\nWith her goal in the 83rd minute, Pugh becomes the 19th U.S. player to score in her debut. The last player to do it was Stephanie McCaffrey on Oct. 25, 2015 against Brazil. Per Elias Sports Bureau, Pugh is the youngest WNT goal scorer in the last 16 years and sixth youngest in team history.
\nHope Solo recorded her 91st career shutout in today\u2019s match. With 186 caps, she is the leader for caps by a goalkeeper in U.S. history. Briana Scurry earned 173 caps in her career (1994-2008).
\nMidfielder Samantha Mewis made her first career start for the U.S. WNT and earned her fifth cap.
\nDefender Whitney Engen made her first start for the USA since doing so against England on Feb. 13, 2015.
\nJaelene Hinkle, Stephanie McCaffrey and Emily Sonnett all earned their fifth caps. It was Sonnett\u2019s second start. Lindsey Horan earned her seventh cap and fourth start.
\nToday\u2019s attendance was 23,309, which marks the largest crowd to watch a U.S. WNT match in San Diego. The previous record was 12,857 (a 3-0 win vs. China PR on April 10, 2014, also at Qualcomm Stadium).
\nSolo has 143 goalkeeper wins and is the all-time leader in wins for a goalkeeper in U.S. history. Scurry posted 133 wins during her career (1994-2008). Additional notes:
\nCarli Lloyd is the USA\u2019s top scorer on the roster with 82 career international goals. Alex Morgan is next with 57 and Heather O\u2019Reilly has scored 46.
\nHeather O’Reilly earned her 228th cap when she came on at halftime. She\u2019s currently the most capped player on the team.
\nMidfielder Carli Lloyd and defender Becky Sauerbrunn have been named captains of the U.S. women’s national team by head coach Jill Ellis. The duo becomes the 13th and 14th players officially named captain of the U.S. WNT over the 31 years of the program, although many others have worn the captain’s band during a match.
\nOn Jan. 11 at the FIFA Gala Awards in Zurich, Switzerland, Carli Lloyd, the co-captain of the U.S. Women’s National Team, was named the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year, and Jill Ellis, who led the USA to the 2015 Women’s World Cup title, was named as the 2015 World Coach of the Year for Women’s Soccer
\nLong-time U.S. captain Christie Rampone underwent arthroscopic surgery on her left knee before Christmas and midfielder Megan Rapinoe is doing well in her rehab from ACL surgery. Forward Amy Rodriguez is pregnant with her second child and will be off the soccer field for a large part of the year.
\nThe match in San Diego was the USA\u2019s sixth match in “America\u2019s Finest City” and second at Qualcomm Stadium, current home to the NFL\u2019s San Diego Chargers. The U.S. Women have never lost in San Diego but did tie their first match there, 0-0, against Japan on Jan. 12, 2003. This is the second time the USA has played Ireland in San Diego, winning 5-0 both times (July 23, 2006 and Jan. 23, 2016).\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The U.S. women\u2019s national team opened its 2016 campaign with a dominant 5-0 shutout against the Republic of Ireland at Qualcomm Stadium in front of 23,309 fans, a record crowd to watch a WNT game in San Diego. It was all USA from the beginning as midfielder Carli Lloyd scored three goals in 28 minutes […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":267274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"U.S. women dominate Ireland in San Diego friendly","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11559,11551,11553],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-267273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beach-bay-press","category-news","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}