As much as the UEFA Nations League wants you to believe these matches matter and they’re not just meaningless friendlies, is still a bit hard to get exciting about some of the European international matches this weekend with no major tournament on the horizon.
The USWNT U-17 Women's World Cup campaign took a bad turn on Saturday. Featured on FS2 — one of the few soccer matches on TV in the U.S. on a day dominated by college football — the Americans were routed by North Korea 3-0 in their second Group C match in Uruguay.
The U.S. opened the tournament with a 3-0 win while North Korea lost 4-1. Perhaps the Americans assumed they’d have an easy win based on those scores, but that was anything but the case.
The Scotland women’s national team gave the U.S. all it could handle on Tuesday at St Mirren Park, and although there was warm applause for Alex Morgan and an audible intake of breath amongst the 3,790 in attendance during the USWNT’s best passages of play, the Scots will have left their home supporters looking forward to next summer’s World Cup with keen anticipation.
The U.S. just finished one helluva 2018. But it’s all about getting ready for 2019.
The USWNT concluded an unbeaten year with a 1-0 victory over Scotland on Tuesday in Paisley, Scotland. And a familiar face was responsible for the goal yet again for the No. 1-ranked team in the world.
Alex Morgan scored for the 18th time in 2018 to propel the U.S. to a 10th straight win and increase the USWNT’s unbeaten streak to 28 (25 of which were wins). The U.S. went 18-0-2 in 2018, with draws against Australia and France the lone blemishes.
Women’s soccer is in the midst of an international break right now, which means, as some may be aware, yes, yes the USWNT is playing — but so are many others. One of these others is England, who scheduled a pair of friendlies against European competition as part of its World Cup preparations.
The United States didn’t look as fluid as it did last month when the USWNT cruised to a Women’s Concacaf Championship, but Jill Ellis’ group got it done. With a 1-0 victory over Portugal on Thursday in Lisbon, the USWNT recorded its 500th all-time victory.