Orlando, Fl – Alex Morgan made an early strike for the United States after a mere nine minutes of play to give USA a thirty-six minute lead.
Brazil CBF had chances at an equalizer but a crossbar save would keep the game alive twice in the first half.
Crystal Dunn took a yellow card following a trip to an opposing player. Minor fouls continued early in the half and frustration from the Brazilian team quickly made itself known after a few trips by the U.S. that went uncalled.
Lori Chalupny substituted in for Meghan Klingenberg at the 20th minute, making Chalupny’s final U.S. Soccer team appearance. A standing ovation ensued for the defender as she hugged the on-field players and walked to the U.S. sideline.
Becky Sauerbrunn paced CBF players on a fast break, with Marta assisting Cristiane and a sure-fire shot into the goal but Sauerbrunn would deflect the ball with her attacker and the goal line mere feet from her reach on an incredible save.
As halftime approached Brazil later answered to the U.S. goal in the 45th minute with a score from Cristiane, assisted by Marta, that shot through the posts.
USWNT’s Crystal Dunn didn’t let Brazil’s equalizer close the half as she finds a lane off a deflection from CBF goalkeeper Luciana at the face of the goal to bring the score to 2-1.
The United States capitalized on opportunities in the first half through mistakes in an aggressive Brazilian team, unable to follow through similar opportunities to take the lead.
“It’s not often on a victory tour that you can play a quality team like Brazil,” said United States goalkeeper Hope Solo. “Brazil is an attacking style team, we tend to have better results against Brazil than we do against Germany [for example] but nevertheless it’s kind of an onslaught of shots when you do play Brazil because they send those numbers forward.”
The U.S. held off CBF for the remainder of the match, having gained a lead and an upper hand.
Forward Lauren Holiday fired a shot on goal at the 54th that would be narrowly caught by Luciana. Holiday, on her final U.S. Soccer match as well, substituted in for Carli Lloyd two minutes later to a cheering crowd.
Alex Morgan returned to the front field on a fast break and successfully made a goal-scoring shot but soon is called offsides for a no-goal.
Minutes pass before Brazil’s aggressive streak makes another appearance, putting pressure on a strong American defense.
Stoppage time yielded results for the touring home team, where Stephanie McCaffrey found a third goal at 90+4’ for the United States, her career first, while becoming the 18th USWNT player to score on their debut. Thirty-two thousand fans would watch McCaffrey bring the final score to 3-1 shortly following her goal.
“The testament to these players: they understand the culture [and] they understand the expectation so when they come in here they understand the performance is important.” USWNT head coach Jill Ellis said on the match. “I was really pleased, the early games we sort of played everybody and now as we start to move through this, we’ve obviously have two great games against Brazil, it’s helpful in terms of starting to shift the focus to preparing for qualifiers in February.”
Four matches remain in the ‘Victory Tour’ with two going to both Trinidad & Tobago and China, respectively. The USWNT record improves to 17-1-4 for the year, conceding only to France before later earning the FIFA World Cup title.
Photo credit: Aileen Perilla
