So, after 45 minutes, the first half of regulation time of the 2010 Under-17 CONCACAF Women’s World Cup Qualifying semifinal between USA and Canada came to an end on a 0-0 draw.
A quick recap of the previous post: Both teams began the match a little shaky: the USA playing uncharacteristically direct, not connecting through the midfield and flanks the way they had so successfully before, mostly due to Canada’s disruptive defense. Both teams had several good chances to pull ahead, but neither were able to capitalize.
The highlights of this game can be seen on YouTube. Unfortunately, the full match seems to be missing the archives at concacaf.com, least at the time of this posting.
Second Half – This Is More Like It
Neither side would make any substitutions for the start of the second half – all 22 starters would be back on the field to try again.
The second half began much better for the US. Whatever head coach Kazbek Tambi said, it got the team back on track; better passing and possession in the midfield, looking for players instead of hopefully playing into space.
One exception to this – or maybe, a reason for this – was Lindsey Horan, who started as a forward with Taylor Smith. Coming into this game, she was the top scorer not only for the US, but in the tournament as a whole, with 8 goals and 4 assists. Canada was no doubt aware of this, and marked her accordingly. By this point in the match, frustrated either by the pressure she was getting up top or from not getting the ball from midfield, she essentially withdrew to become another midfielder. The only time she could get a look at the ball was when she tracked back, a defender right behind her, not letting her turn on it.
Horan spending all her time facing her own goal was probably not part of the US strategy, but getting another link in the midfield did in fact get the US attack looking more like it’s former successful self. It’s possible, of course, that this was a tactical adjustment made by Tambi; Horan started 2009 with the U15s as a midfielder, and was listed as such in early 2010 U17 camps as well. Here, Canada had apparently managed to convert her back into a midfielder.
However, given that the US was playing with five midfielders already, this now put six US players in the middle against four Canadians. Predictably, the US soon began to see some success there, playing smartly to Doll and Torres on the wings, and finding Smith up top.
Still, even with the US now possessing the way it wasn’t able to in the first half, it was a few minutes before the ball even got within Canada’s own third. The first second-half highlight (1:10), shows the first good attack by either side. In the 51st minute, Torres cleared up the right side to Horan, who side-footed a pass to Smith, playing her into space. Smith took the ball toward the corner, then cut back behind the defender (very Mia Hamm-esque, appropriate for an American forward), and crossed to the top of the box to Doll, who arrived just a fraction of a second later than Canadian midfielder Diamond Simpson, who barely poked it out of Doll’s swing and across the end line, wide left. The US would earn a corner, but would be unable to do anything with it.
Canada would make it’s first substitutions a few minutes later: both forwards, Haillie Price and Haisha Cantave, would come out, replaced by Caroline Beaulne and Abigail Raymer. Whatever Canadian coach Rosenfeld hoped to see his starters do in the second half, he wasn’t seeing, apparently. Now the US back line would face fresh players.
Canada would get it’s first good opportunity almost immediately after (and this not on the highlights). By 55′, the ball was back in the US third, with the US unable to clear decisively due to Canada’s terrier-like tenacity; every ball was contested like this one would be the game winner. Abby Dahlkemper, the US center back, seemed to be getting particularly frustrated at the physical play and non-calls from the referee; after a muffed clearance as a Canadian attempted a late play, she raised her arms at the referee, but wouldn’t get the call. Moments later, she all but let a Canadian player get around her and get a cross off; it was grabbed by the keeper Heaberlin, fortunately, but it was not a good sign for the center back and team captain.
The game was taking it’s toll on others as well. Ally Courtnall, the Canadian right back, had an asthma attack around 62′, bad enough that the staff came out with an inhaler for her. This would not be the last bout with asthma she would have, but still she wouldn’t be subbed out for another 25 minutes.
65′: Another great chance for the US. Left back Jaelene Hinkle received a backpass well into Canada’s half, and quickly sent a long serve into the box, where Morgan Brian had a step on her defender, as well as several inches on her, but her header from the PK spot went wide right. The keeper Sabrina D’Angelo was coming out hard, but stopped abruptly at the 6-yard line when she saw Brian would get to it first; a ball directed to either corner, or even just right up the middle with enough height, would have beaten her. But that wasn’t the way the ball bounced.
Or, Brian could have left it for Horan, who was following her in on her right. If Brian had dummied her header, it would have fallen right at Horan’s feet on the far post, with the keeper frozen in front of Brian.
But of course it’s easy to point all this out from the highlights. In the run of play, now 65 minutes into a do-or-die match to determine who goes to the World Cup, things are a little harder.
80′: Canada’s last chance in regulation time, and it was a good one, showing they could pass and work the ball as well as any opponent. It started with a Canadian throw-in, and a series of passes that resulted in Nour Ghoneim running toward the US penalty arc, defenders closing on her. She played a ball forward to Beaulne cutting across at the arc, who then slipped a great ball to Kinley McNicoll, coming in alone on the right side of the box. Fortunately for the US, Heaberlin saw it and came out hard to meet McNicoll’s low shot, which rebounded up the middle where Ghoneim took another shot, this time off a defender for a Canadian corner.
A great sequence for Canada, pulling the US defense apart, and a great chance for McNicoll, only stopped by Heaberlin’s quick and aggressive reaction.
But the corner kick that Canada earned out of that sequence led directly to another US chance, and a sequence fairly unique in this match. Kaili Torres, the right midfielder, stayed near the corner to guard against Canada playing it short, and was able to block the kick off her head and up the sideline. She chased it, pushing it all the way to the center line, where she played it to Taylor Smith. Smith was mobbed by three Canadians, but was able to play the ball further up the sideline, where Torres – still running! – pushed the ball all the way to the endline, chased the whole way by a defender, who was able to block Torres’ shot out for a US corner.
Torres was understandably exhausted after that. After 80 minutes of running up and down the field, she took a corner kick off her head, then went literally endline to endline in one run. Despite this, she even got a shot off the rebound from the corner kick, but she was blocked there as well, and finally collapsed in a heap with the Canadian defender.
And, no surprise, minute 85 brought the first US substitutions. Kaili Torres out, Cari Rocarro in at right midfield, as well as Lindsey Horan out, Havana Soloan in at forward.
The US would have two more chances before the referee would call the end of the second half.
88′: Right fullback Olivia Brannon received a ball back on the right sideline, well inside Canada’s half, and played a great ball into the box, where Taylor Smith was somehow able to get open enough to get her head it, despite her short stature amongst the tall Canadian center backs. Alas, she put it over the crossbar. The keeper D’Angelo looked well-positioned and ready for it, so it wasn’t an open look like Brian had at 65′, but still… another chance gone for nothing.
And then finally in the closing minutes, another header, and with the same result. Brannon – still working hard this late into the game – won another ball in Canada’s half and passed it to recent sub Cari Roccaro, who sent a long ball into the box, where left mid Alex Doll was coming from the other side. Her header, though, was again over the crossbar.
And that end the first 90 minutes of the match.
30 More Minutes…
Overtime would be two 15 minute periods, both to be played – no golden goal, no sudden death.
These 30 minutes would be the match reduced to it’s essence: Canada defending valiantly with all but one or two field players, waiting and always ready for a quick counterattack; the US trying, again and again, to break through up the middle, sometimes with crisp passes through the back line, sometimes with balls lofted in from the back. And, always, very physical. Not nasty, but everyone by this point knew what the game was, and was playing it without complaint.
93′: Taylor Smith (a starting forward and still on the field), had the first good chance at goal; a loose ball in the US end, cleared up the field by Morgan Brian to Havana Solaun, who played it back under pressure to Kaysie Clark. Her long boot back up fell at the feet of Smith, in front of the defense and once again running at goal. But keeper D’Angelo was well-positioned, and was able to get a glove on Smith’s low shot to the left corner.
Clark was in the middle of the next US attack as well, in 95′. This one started with Dahlkemper in the back, playing to Brian in the middle, a Canadian player challenging for the ball. With a nice move, Brian was able to get around her marker and get a long pass up the middle, with Clark running on to it. But the ball checked up on her, and a defender got between her and the goal, so she touched it back and then to the side where Solaun was coming up. Solaun took a one-touch shot from 18 yards out, but it went high.
In the closing minute of the first OT period, the “match style” – the physical nature of it – would have it’s final stamp. After a careless US giveaway in the Canadian end, Canada was able to mount an attack into the US’s own third after a few long balls and well-placed passes, where Dahlkemper and Hinkle double-teamed Caroline Beaulne as she charged toward the 18-yard box. Blocked there at the edge of the box, she tried to cut back in toward the middle, but Hinkle rode her off and came away with the ball, Beaulne going down. The Canadian fans were very vocal in their view that this should have been a foul, but no such call was made before this. In fact, defense like that was what kept Canada in the game – why complain about it now? Credit to the referee for at least being consistent.
The teams would switch ends at 105′, and then the final 15 minutes of the match would be played out. These minutes would see a few more chances for the US. Having yo-yo’d back and forth between trying to carefully crack the Canadian defense and desperately launching balls into whatever space they could find, they had now settled into a compromise: quick plays up the middle, and chips over the back line.
Canada, on the other hand, and almost stopped trying to win the ball at all. The keeper D’Angelo would still punt up to the center line, but the US would win it each time, mostly uncontested. And then it would come right back in again.
109′: Morgan Brian would have one of the last good looks at goal for the US. Kaysie Clark won a ball in the middle and played it back to Wedemeyer, who passed to Brian out wide. Brian played Roccaro into the Canadian corner, where she was double-teamed but still managed to get free to the endline to get her cross off. Clark couldn’t get to it in the box, though, and it fell back to Brian at the penalty arc. But Brian’s shot from there was directly at D’Angelo for an easy save.
111′: Taylor Smith – the fast forward expected to outrun the defense at every opportunity – was finally subbed out, for Ashley Spivey. This would be Spivey’s second appearance in a match in the tournament, having playing the second half against the Cayman Islands. She would take the right midfield spot, while Cari Roccaro and Kaysie Clark would move up top. The US would end with no “true” forwards on the field, and a stacked midfield.
At 115′, play was stopped for several minutes after Alex Doll collided with Sabrina D’Angelo while going for a high ball in the box. She was able to walk it off, though, and play resumed.
By this point in the match, Dahlkemper in back was rarely challenged for the ball, even when she would venture up to the center circle. Canada marked the wide players ruthlessly, shutting down any tight play up the sides, while Brian, Clark, and the others further up the field couldn’t touch the ball without at least a shoulder challenge. But the more Dahlkemper pushed up, looking for an open player or a narrow slot to slip the ball through, the more space opened up behind her.
And in the final minute, the seconds ticking down, Canada would have one final chance given to them. With the US back line pushed up, Brannon played a long pass toward Clark in the middle – in truth, a bad pass, and it was easily picked off by Ghoneim. She pushed up toward the US goal as Brannon and Dahlkemper collapsed on her, and she slipped a ball through to McNicoll making a run up the US right side. Spivey had tracked back with her, however, and was able to get in front of her and clear it out to the side. For whatever reason, the broadcast crew focused a camera on Brannon as they waited for the throw-in; bent over with hands on her knees, breathing heavily, and a rather haunted look in her eyes. After all that time and all those runs, one little slip is all it would take.
But that’s not the way this match would end.
…And Then It’s Penalty Kicks
The final whistle was blown, and then the two teams prepared themselves for a penalty kick shootout: five players each, alternating with Canada going first.
Canadian defender Alison Clarke up first: Bryane Heaberlin guessed left and dove, but Clarke went right. 1-0.
Morgan Brian, the playmaker and for-all-matches-but-this-one team captain, would take the first US shot. She went hard left, D’Angelo went right. 1-1.
Midfielder Diamond Simpson was next for Canada. She went left, and while Heaberlin anticipated correctly, she wasn’t able to get to it. 2-1.
Then US central defender and captain for this match, Abby Dahlkemper: low right. D’Angelo made a good try for it but couldn’t reach it. 2-2.
The third round would be where the shoot-out – and the match, and the tournament, and a trip to the World Cup – would be decided. Two shots, one for each side, either of which could have gone the other way. But the way they did go was this…
Defender Yazmin Ongtengco-Hintzen was up for Canada. Maybe it was a deliberate choice, maybe not, but her shot was low and almost right up the middle, just slightly to the left. Heaberlin dove hard left, and the ball hit her splayed legs, spun up and over her leg, and rolled across the line before she could grab it. Ongtengco-Hintzen had turned and was walking away almost as soon as it hit Heaberlin, and might not have known it was good until the referee signaled it. The reactions on the Canadian sideline was of excitement and relief – I could see one player can turning to another and asking “that counts, right?”
Yes, it counted. 3-2.
Defensive midfielder Clarissa Wedemeyer would take the US’s third kick. She had played every minute of every match up until this point, and had been with the team for nearly the full cycle, first coming to a U-17 camp in April of 2009. She took nearly every free kick in the opponent’s end; anything not too far away to build a set piece on, or close enough to make a direct play for goal, she would take, and did so consistently well.
This one kick, however, she leaned back on. It was never going in, and instead it sailed just over the crossbar, right up the middle.
Three rounds completed: 3-2 Canada.
Canadian captain Nicole Setterlund would be next. She and Heaberlin would both go high right, but Setterlund put the ball higher than Heaberlin could get to. 4-2.
Havana Solaun, having played just the last 8 minutes of regulation time before the overtime periods, was the only sub to take a PK. She took her shot hard right, well out of D’Angelo’s reach. 4-3.
And then the fifth and final round. Chantale Campbell would take this one. Heaberlin jumped left early, and Campbell just had to place it to the right into an empty net.
The US couldn’t win at this point, so their final kick was never taken. Canada would win on penalties, official tally: 5-3.
I watched the broadcast through to the end – the Canadian elation and the US dismay – feeling vaguely sick the whole time, and I can’t really explain why. Can you call yourself a fan if you turn away after the most wrenching loss? As much as this hurts, that’s how good winning feels. You can’t have one without the other. After falling in and out with women’s soccer over the years – the highs of 1996 and 1999, the low of 2007 – I think this one game is where I realized I was truly back in again. This was not a bad loss, not a true failure. Luck aside, Canada did everything they needed to do to hold the US off. It wasn’t anything anyone should be ashamed of.
Also – and I realize this sounds unsympathetic – I wanted to see how the players would take it. The players were still new to me at that point; I had only ‘met’ them just a week before. Maybe losing reveals one’s character more fully, more honestly, than does winning. Or maybe I had already seen them win, seen their determination, seen them frustrated, seen their love of the game, and this was the last part of the game I hadn’t seen from them.
Nearly everyone cried. This, more than anything else, reminds you that you’re watching teenagers. They might be playing on the world stage, representing a nation, but when they take a blow like this, they’re just like any other kid in the world. Really, at any age, there’s no question of you crying after a loss like this, it’s just a matter of when and where.
At the end of the day (really, the end of the tournament) one penalty kick – just one US kick made or one Canadian kick saved – was the difference between going to the World Cup, and being the first US team to ever not even qualify. To make it worse: if the World Cup had been held anywhere else in the world but in the CONCACAF region, the third place team – the US – would have gone as well.
The 2010 United States Under-17 Women’s National Team would never give up a single goal in the tournament, and still would not go to the World Cup.
Next: small consolation – another meeting with Costa Rica to determine the 3rd place finisher.
