On the Pitch

Late Megan Rapinoe Penalty Kick Secures 1-1 Comeback Draw With Sweden

LINEUP NOTES

game notes: USWNT vs. Sweden

International Friendly
Date: April 10, 2021
Venue: Friends Arena; Stockholm, Sweden
Broadcast: FOX
Broadcast Time: 1 p.m. ET


Starting XI vs. Sweden: 1-Alyssa Naeher; 5-Kelley O’Hara, 4-Becky Sauerbrunn, 12-Tierna Davidson, 19-Crystal Dunn; 8-Julie Ertz, 16-Rose Lavelle, 9-Lindsey Horan; 6-Lynn Williams, 10-Carli Lloyd (Capt.), 23-Christen Press


Available Subs: 3-Samantha Mewis, 13-Alex Morgan, 14-Emily Sonnett, 15-Megan Rapinoe, 18-Jane Campbell, 22-Kristie Mewis, 25-Alana Cook


Not Dressing: Abby Dahlkemper, Casey Murphy, Margaret Purce, Sophia Smith, Andi Sullivan



GAME NOTES | FIVE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT SWEDEN

  • U.S. WNT Starting XI Cap Numbers (including this match): Lloyd (300), Sauerbrunn (183), Press (143), O’Hara (135), Dunn (110), Ertz (109), Horan (92), Naeher (68), Lavelle (52), Williams (34), Davidson (29)

  • The starting lineup averages 114 caps per player, with six of the USA’s 11 starters having 100+ caps. Only two players in the starting XI – Williams and Davidson – have fewer than 50 caps.

  • Saturday’s lineup has seven starters who also started the most recent meeting against Sweden on Nov. 7, 2019 - Naeher, Sauerbrunn, Ertz, Lavelle, Horan, Lloyd and Press.

  • Ten players on today’s match day roster saw action in the group stage match against Sweden at the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Naeher, O’Hara, Sauerbrunn, Dunn, Horan, Lavelle, Morgan and Rapinoe all started the match while Press and Lloyd came in off the bench.

  • Forward Carli Lloyd will captain the side in her historic 300th cap, becoming just the third player – female or male – in the history of international soccer to earn 300 caps. Lloyd joins fellow USWNT greats Kristine Lilly (354) and Christie Pearce Rampone (311) in the 300 Cap Club. With 124 career goals, Lloyd is just six goals behind Lilly for third all-time in goals in U.S. history.

  • Lloyd will be making her sixth appearance and fourth start in 2021, and currently has 20,738 minutes played for the USA, which is fifth on the all-time list. She’s just 32 minutes behind Mia Hamm to move into fourth all-time. Only five other USWNT players – Lilly, Rampone, Julie Foudy, Hamm and Joy Fawcett have played 20,000+ minutes in a U.S. uniform.

  • Lloyd’s next goal would make her the oldest player in USWNT history to score. Kristine Lilly is currently the oldest player to score a goal for the USA at 38 years, 264 days. Lloyd is 38 years, 268 days old today as the USA squares off against Sweden.

  • Goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher is set to earn her 68th cap and has 40 clean sheets through her first 67 international appearances. Naeher has recorded in each of her last 10 appearances for the USA, extending the all-time U.S. record, and has not allowed a goal since the 79th minute of the USA’s 3-2 win over Sweden on Nov. 8, 2019, giving her a shutout streak of 911 minutes.

  • Kelley O’Hara is set to make her third start of 2021 and earn her 135th cap overall, moving her into sole possession of 25th on the all-time USWNT caps list, breaking a tie with Tisha Venturini and Cat Whitehill.

  • The only player to play the full 270 minutes at the 2012 SheBelieves Cup, Becky Sauerbrunn is slated to earn her 183rd cap. Sauerbrunn ranks 12th in caps in USWNT history and is second among all active players, trailing only Carli Lloyd.

  • Twenty-two year-old Tierna Davidson will make her second consecutive start and earn her 29th international appearance for the USA. Davidson is set to make her third appearance of the year, playing the full 90 minutes against Colombia on Jan. 22 and going the distance again against Argentina in the finale of the SheBelieves Cup on Feb. 24.

  • This will be the second game in a row that Davidson and Sauerbrunn have started together at center back and their eighth such game overall. This will be Davidson’s first career match against Sweden.

  • Crystal Dunn will earn her 110th cap while making her fifth appearance -- and fourth start – of 2021. Dunn assisted the game-winning goal in the USA’s most recent match in Sweden, setting up Rose Lavelle’s 56th score in the USWNT’s 1-0 victory on June 8, 2017 in Gothenburg. 

  • A stalwart in the midfield, Julie Ertz will earn her 109th cap and make her sixth start of 2021, the only player to start every game for the USA this year. Ertz leads the team with 422 minutes played in 2021, and until she came out of the Argentina match on Feb. 24 in the 62nd minute, she had played every minute in each of the USA’s last 10 games, playing 962 consecutive minutes, the longest such streak of her USWNT career.

  • Rose Lavelle will make her third consecutive start and earn her 52nd overall cap today. Lavelle has accounted for two of the USA’s six game-winning goals since the resumption of play in November 2020 - including the game-winner in the USA’s SheBelieves Cup opener vs. Canada on Feb. 18 - and has four goals in her last 12 outings for the USWNT. Lavelle has one goal in three previous matches against Sweden, scoring the game-winner in Gothenberg in June 2017 in what was just her fifth career cap.

  • Lindsey Horan will make her 60th career start and earn her 92nd cap overall today. Horan is one of seven players to appear in every match for the USWNT in 2021 and is tied for the team lead in assists in 2021, all of which came during the 2021 SheBelieves Cup. Horan’s four assists have already surpassed her total from 2020.

  • Lynn Williams is slated to make her fifth start of the year and earn her 34th cap overall in today’s match against Sweden. Williams, who led the U.S. team with six assists in 2020, is second on the team in minutes played this year with 313, already the second-most minutes she’s played in any calendar year for the USA.

  • Christen Press will earn her 143rd cap and make her fourth appearance for the U.S. in 2021. Press has scored in each of her last two outings for the USWNT and with her goal against Argentina on Feb. 24, moved into a tie with Shannon MacMillan for ninth on the all-time goalscoring list with 60. Cindy Parlow Cone is in eighth with 75 goals. Press has one goal and one assist in seven previous appearances against Sweden, both of which came in the most recent meeting between the teams on Nov. 7, 2019.

  • Press is in the middle of one of the finest stretches of her career – and of anyone’s career for the USWNT – as she has been directly involved in 29 goals in her last 30 games for the USWNT, scoring 13 goals with 16 assists. She also served in the free kick that led to Rose Lavelle’s game-winner vs. Canada on Feb. 18. She has 11 goals in her last 14 games for the USA while making 10 starts during that stretch.

Go Deeper

WNTWNT vs. Sweden - 4/10/2021