July 06, (THEWILL) – World Cup Champions, the United States Women’s National Team, finished off what they started three days ago with another 4-0 thrashing of their neighbours, Mexico, with all the goals coming in a flurry of first half strikes that effectively ended the contest before the interval and showed them ready for Japan.
Also continuing from where she stopped, Tobin Heath scored her second goal in as many games to see the USWNT wrap up their pre-Olympics preparation in top form and conclude the formation, tactics and squad arrangements for team coach Vlatko Andonovski.
The second 4-nil scoreline against Mexico was the 44th straight unbeaten match in the streak that the current squad is building up. It constitutes the American women’s team’s second-longest unbeaten streak in US football history.
Furthermore, by beating Mexico, they stretch their consecutive victories over their neighbours to 15 games and improved to 39 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss in the overall head-to-head. That single loss was in a 2010 World Cup qualifier, which the USWNT have more than made up for since then.
Andonovski’s task of fine-tuning his lineups in advance of the Olympics later this month was given a final go with this game. As a four-time gold medal winner in the female category of the football event, the USWNT is the most favourite to clinch the gold in Tokyo based on form and precedence.
Winning gold at the Games will be a historic achievement as not only will it cement the place of the current class of players in the squad in the annals of history forever because of how dominant they have been but it will also make them the first team ever to follow a World Cup title with an Olympic gold medal consecutively.
Andonovski will be happy with Heath’s two goals in two matches as she returns to a good run after recovering from the injury that kept her on the sidelines for some six months. He has the service of Carli Lloyd if Alex Morgan is not available, and midfielder Rose Lavelle should he need to replace Kristie Mewis or Megan Rapinoe at any moment.
THEWILL believes the squad has such depth of quality and numbers in experienced and young players that few other female teams can only wish for and the cohesion of the players based on an understanding that has grown with every win they have managed so far is only going to see them continue to stretch their unbeaten streak into the future.
The next team to try their luck against the formidable USWNT will be Sweden at the Olympics Games. Coincidentally, at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, the Swedes knocked the US out at the quarterfinals and Andonovski’s ladies will be out for vengeance on July 21 when the tournament’s football Games commence in Japan.
Just like Nigeria’s senior women’s national team, the Super Falcons, Mexico’s female team did not make the field of 12 teams for the Tokyo Games and will not be competing for honours in Japan.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
