The U.S. Women’s National Team will bring its 2018 schedule to a close with a match vs. Scotland, Presented by Volpi Foods, on Nov. 13 (2 p.m. ET on FS1 & UDN) at The Simple Digital Arena, the 8,000-seat home of Scottish Premier League side St. Mirren FC. The stadium is in Paisley, just outside of Glasgow. The U.S. Women defeated Portugal, 1-0, on Nov. 8 in the first of its two matches in Europe to wrap up this year.
The USA is coming off a successful run at the 2018 Concacaf Women’s Championship in which it went 5-0-0, qualified for the 2019 Women’s World Cup by rolling past Jamaica 6-0 in the semifinal and then defeated Canada, 2-0, in the championship game to claim the regional title.
U.S. WNT ROSTER BY POSITION: EUROPE 2018 (CAPS/GOALS)
GOALKEEPERS (3):
18-
Adrianna Franch
(Portland Thorns FC; 0/0), 24- Ashlyn Harris
(Orlando Pride; 18/0), 1-
Alyssa Naeher
(Chicago Red Stars; 38/0)
DEFENDERS (7): 7- Abby Dahlkemper (NC Courage; 29/0), 19- Crystal Dunn (NC Courage; 74/24), 25- Emily Fox(UNC; 1/0), 12- Merritt Mathias (NC Courage; 1/0), 4- Becky Sauerbrunn (Utah Royals FC; 148/0), 14- Casey Short (Chicago Red Stars; 27/0), 2- Emily Sonnett (Portland Thorns FC; 25/0)
MIDFIELDERS (6): 22- Danielle Colaprico (Chicago Red Stars; 1/0), 8- Julie Ertz (Chicago Red Stars; 72/18); 16- Rose Lavelle (Washington Spirit; 19/6), 20- Allie Long (Seattle Reign FC; 39/6), 3- Samantha Mewis (NC Courage; 40/8), 6- Andi Sullivan (Washington Spirit; 11/0)
FORWARDS (5): 10- Carli Lloyd (Sky Blue FC; 264/105), 21- Jessica McDonald (NC Courage; 2/1), 13- Alex Morgan (Orlando Pride; 152/97), 11- Mallory Pugh (Washington Spirit; 42/12), 15- Megan Rapinoe (Seattle Reign FC; 145/41)
STORYLINES
USA vs. Scotland: The USA has played Scotland only three times and has won all three games but has never faced Scotland in Scotland. The most recent matches came in February of 2013 in the first games for then-head coach and Scotland native Tom Sermanni. The USA won 4-1 in Jacksonville, Fla., and 3-1 in Nashville, Tenn. Julie Ertz (then Johnston) earned her first cap against Scotland in Jacksonville, while Crystal Dunn and Christen Press earned their first caps against Scotland in Nashville. This will be the USA’s first friendly in the United Kingdom outside of England, but the USA did play two games at the famed Hampden Park in Glasgow during the 2012 Olympics. The USA’s two wins at Hampden Park during the 2012 Olympics were against France (4-2) and Colombia (3-0).
USA Closes in on Unbeaten Year: The U.S. team has a 17-0-2 record in 2018 and has not lost since the 2017 Tournament of Nations, a 1-0 setback to Australia. It has gone 24-0-3 over the past 16 months and has averaged 3.4 goals per game, outscoring its opponents 92-17 over these 27 matches while scoring in all 27 games. The USA’s 2018 has so far featured wins over Denmark, Germany, England, Mexico (thrice), China PR (twice), Japan, Brazil, Chile (twice), Panama, Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica, Canada and Portugal, along with ties vs. France (which is ranked fourth in the world) and Australia (ranked sixth). The WNT hasn’t conceded a goal in 794 minutes, with the last one coming against Brazil during the Tournament of Nations on Aug. 2, which was actually an own goal. This is the longest streak without conceding for the WNT since 2016.
100 Goals Watch: After scoring against Canada on Oct. 17, Alex Morgan now has 97 goals and at age 29 sits in sole possession of seventh place on the USA’s all-time goal scoring list. She has scored 24 goals over her last 25 WNT matches through the end of 2017 and deep into 2018. With her hat trick against Japan on July 26, the fourth of her career, Morgan is now tied with Michelle Akers in third place all-time in multi-goal games (26) behind Abby Wambach (45) and Mia Hamm (38). She has 22 career two-goal games. Morgan has scored against 27 different countries and in 11 different countries, including 12 goals in Portugal – all at the Algarve Cup – and two in Scotland, both against France at Hampden Park in Glasgow during the 2012 Olympics.
Lloyd Keeps Adding Her Name to the Record Books: On Oct. 7 vs. Panama, Carli Lloyd scored her eighth career hat trick and upped her career total to 105 goals. She is now two goals away from tying Michelle Akers for fourth all-time on the U.S. goals list. With her hat trick, Lloyd tied Mia Hamm for most three-goals games all-time in U.S. WNT history. Hamm also scored two four-goal games in her career. Lloyd is tied with Kristine Lilly and Cindy Parlow for fifth-all time in multi-goal games with 17. Against Panama, Lloyd became the oldest player to score a hat trick for the U.S. WNT (36 years, 83 days). She broke Wambach’s record of 34 years, 186 days. Since turning 30, she has scored 69 goals in 129 games in six years. The 129 games after the age of 30 rank her fourth all-time in U.S. history in that category and is three caps away from tying Shannon Boxx in third place. Christie Rampone is far and away the leader with 175.
21-Player Roster: Forwards Christen Press and Tobin Heath were named to the roster but had to withdraw due to a family commitment and a personal commitment, respectively. Midfielder Lindsey Horan, who played all 90 minutes in the U.S. 1-0 win vs. Portugal on Nov. 8 has returned stateside due to a personal commitment. The USA roster is now at 21 players ahead of Tuesday’s match in Glasgow and 18 players will suit up for the match.
2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup Qualifiers: The 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup will be held from June 7-July 7 in nine cities in France. So far, 18 countries have qualified. The qualified nations are: host France; England, Germany, Italy, Norway, Scotland, Spain and Sweden from UEFA, Brazil and Chile from CONMEBOL, Australia, China PR, Japan, Korea Republic and Thailand from the AFC, and the USA, Canada and Jamaica from Concacaf. Still left to determined are one (1) berth at the OFC Women’s Nations Cup in New Caledonia (Nov.18-Dec. 1), three (3) berths at the Africa Women’s Cup of Nations in Ghana (Nov. 17-Dec. 1), one (1) berth from the two-game playoff between Panama and Argentina (the South Americans took the first leg, 4-0, at home), and one (1) berth from the two-game European playoff between Netherlands and Switzerland. The Dutch took a commanding lead on Nov. 9, downing Switzerland 3-0 in the first leg. The return leg in Switzerland is on Nov. 13.
Follow all the #USWNT action on Twitter using #USWNT on twitter @ussoccer_wnt and @ussoccer_esp, and on Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat (ussoccer_wnt).