After midfielder Andresshina scored her seventh career international goal in the 78th minute on Sunday in San Diego to give Brazil’s national women’s soccer team a 3-1 lead over the Americans in both teams’ second match of the first ever Tournament of Nations, there was reason to wonder whether the United States’ dominance in women’s soccer was waning.
The Americans, who are no. 1 in FIFA’s international rankings, dropped their Tournament of Nations opener 1-0 to Australia (it was the first time the Aussies had bested the US in 28 previous matches) in Seattle on Thursday, and lost to England and France in the She Believes Cup in March in D.C. and New Jersey, respectively. (To be fair, between March and July, the US women did win four consecutive matches). It is the wrong kind of hat trick. The US national team has never lost four matches on home soil in a single season, the Associated Press reports via ESPN.
So, the US women concocted a different kind of hat trick in the twelve minutes following Andresshina’s goal, scoring three goals in just under nine minutes to beat Brazil 4-3.
Roughly two minutes after Andresshina scored, Megan Rapinoe sent a pass to Christen Press in the left side of the penalty box. Press scored in the top left corner to pull the Americans within one.
About five minutes later, Press returned the favor, delivering a lofted cross into the left side of the box for Rapinoe, who scorched it into the near post.
Not to say that Megan Rapinoe doesn’t know what it’s like to score—that was her 32nd international goal in 122 caps (she ranks 18th on the all-time international list), and she has found the back of the net a league-leading twelve times this season for her club team, the Seattle Reign—but Sunday’s goal was special. Not just because it was the team’s second in five minutes, and not just because it pulled the Americans even with Brazil.
Also because it was her first international goal since the 2015 World Cup. She tore her left ACL while training with the national team in Honolulu, HI in December 2015, and did not play in the 2016 Olympic Games.
So, the jubilation was augmented when Rapinoe scored. Still, there was time left on the clock. Time enough, in fact, for a cross from Rapinoe to careen off of a sliding Carli Lloyd and onto the feet of Julie Ertz, who scored from six yards out for her ninth career international goal, giving the US their first lead of the match with just over a minute left in regulation.
Approximately five minutes later, the Americans were celebrating their first victory in this inaugural Tournament of Nations, which consists of a single-round robin stage in which each of the four teams (USA, Brazil, Australia, and Japan) plays its each of its three competitors once. As of July 31, each team has completed two of its three matches.
Australia is at the top of the heap, having beaten the US in the aforementioned contest last Thursday and Japan by a score of 4-2 Sunday. The Americans are 1-1, with three points. Both Japan and Brazil are winless, but the two teams tied Thursday, giving them each a point
The tournament will conclude this Thursday, August 3rd in Carson, CA, where
Australia will face Brazil at 4:15 pm Pacific (coverage on ESPN3), and then yield the pitch to the USA and Japan, who will square off at approximately 7 o’clock Pacific (coverage on ESPN2).
Australia has all but won the tournament. An American tournament victory would require an Australian loss and an American win Thursday, and the US would need to make up ground in a host of tie-breaking categories in the process.
But with Rapinoe back in rare form and the American women back to their old ways of dramatic wins, there may be good things to come for US Women’s Soccer.
