The U.S. women’s soccer team moved to the cusp of qualifying for next year’s World Cup on Thursday with a 5-0 rout of Jamaica at Concacaf’s World Cup and Olympics qualifying tournament.
The game was a major improvement over the tournament-opening 2-0 win over Haiti, and not just in terms of the score.
After a shaky defensive performance in the first game, the Americans put the clamps down this time. Centerbacks Naomi Girma and Alana Cook held Jamaica’s star striker Khadija Shaw to one shot, and the Reggae Girlz to just three overall . And the U.S. attack fired from the start. Sophia Smith scored twice in the first eight minutes, the first a spectacular flick and the second a chip that was ruled to have just barely crossed the goal line. Two more potential U.S. goals were disallowed for offside before halftime.
Rose Lavelle added the third in the 59th, Kristie Mewis scored a penalty kick in the 83rd, and Trinity Rodman capped things off in the 86th. The big story of the night was lineup rotation by U.S. manager Vlatko Andonovski. Alyssa Naeher returned at goalkeeper, and is likely to start the rest of the way. Girma started over Becky Sauerbrunn, and made a case to start more often. Sofia Huerta stood in for Kelley O’Hara at right back.
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