This looked like a walkover. Team USA would stroll past regional competition it long has dominated on the way to qualifying for the 2015 Women’s World Cup in Canada, an exercise made even less strenuous when the region gained an additional spot for this World Cup.
It still figures to turn out that way, given that the U.S. has a 54-1-1 record against the seven other teams playing in the CONCACAF championship for one of three guaranteed places in the 24-team World Cup field.
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But the U.S. women come to Toyota Park on Friday night to play Guatemala in their second match of group play after an opener that was hardly a walk at Kansas City’s Sporting Park.
They wound up 1-0 winners over Trinidad & Tobago on Abby Wambach’s 54th-minute header goal off a cross from Alex Morgan, which was the only thing that did figure about their eighth victory in eight matches against T&T.
After all, Wambach is the leading international women’s scorer in history, with 171 goals in her 225 matches. And she has used her 5-foot-11 body and experience acquired from playing basketball through high school to score 71 of them with her head, both literally and figuratively.
“Any basketball player has an added edge in soccer, whether you’re a goalkeeper or defender or forward like me,” Wambach said.
“If you spend years reading the trajectory of a ball bouncing off a hoop, going for a rebound, timing your jump, using your body to block out and not being afraid of taking a hit while you’re in the air, all those factors play into soccer. So many things correlate from basketball to soccer, especially when it comes to heading.”
In their most significant match under Jill Ellis, who took over as head coach in April, the U.S. women pounded away at Trinidad’s packed defense but were thwarted by spectacular goaltending and their own inefficient finishing.
“The finishing component is often the last thing (for) a team building toward World Cup qualification,” Wambach said.
Guatemala likely will try similar tactics, for what that will be worth. Team USA won 13-0 the last time the teams met, in qualifying for the 2012 Olympics.
The U.S. finishes group play against Haiti on Monday in Washington. The Haitians, who won their opener 1-0 over Guatemala, begin Friday’s Toyota Park doubleheader against Trinidad.
The top two in each of the two groups advance to the semifinals. Both finalists and the winner of the third-place match immediately qualify for the World Cup, while the fourth finisher moves into a playoff with Ecuador for another spot.
For Wambach, 34, a World Cup title is the only thing missing from a 14-year national team career in which she has won two Olympic gold medals. She also has been the star bridging two eras of U.S. women’s soccer, linking a past symbolized by Mia Hamm (whose scoring record, 158 goals, Wambach broke last year) to a future already embodied by the 25-year-old Morgan (49 in 76 matches).
“For my career to be whole and complete, winning a World Cup would hopefully be the thing that does it,” Wambach said.
Twitter@olyphil
2015 World Cup
(24 teams)
Already qualified:
Host (1) — Canada; South America (2) — Brazil, Colombia; Europe (7) — Germany, England, France, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland; Asia (5) — Australia, China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand.
Yet to qualify:
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Europe (1) — Italy, Ukraine, Netherlands, Scotland; Concacaf/South America (4) — Top three teams of USA, Guatemala, Haiti, Trinidad, Mexico, Costa Rica, Jamaica and Martinique with fourth-place team having home-and-home playoff with Ecuador; Africa (3) — Zambia, Algeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, South Africa, Ivory Coast, Namibia; Oceania (1) — Papua New Guinea, Cook Islands, New Zealand, Tonga.