The United States Women’s National team (USWNT) will be playing in their fourth match on their “Victory Tour” on Sunday at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama. Once again, they will be taking on Haiti.
The now three time World Cup champions have been on a “Victory Tour” since August 16th. The purpose of these matches is to allow fans from all over the country to see and celebrate the USWNT wining the World Cup, and the people have not disappointed.
They began the tour against Costa Rica at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. More than 44,000 fans went to see the U.S. start the tour with a commanding 8-0 victory. Through the first three games 99,101 fans have purchased tickets and seen Team USA, which is not counting the people who just tailgated outside the venue.
The USWNT have repaid the fans for coming out and supporting them by going 3-0, defeating the Central Americans twice in August and now Haiti last Thursday. Additionally, they have been winning in style, outscoring their opponents 20-2. World Cup hero and captain Carli Lloyd leads the way with five goals on the tour while midfielder Heather O’Reilly and striker Christen Press are tied in second with four goals apiece.
After defeating Haiti 5-0 on Thursday at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan the USWNT will turn their attention back to the Caribbean Nation for their rematch on Sunday. The Stars and Stripes will be searching for another victory to extend their current 19 game unbeaten streak. The last time the U.S. lost a match was against France on February 2nd, in a World Cup tune up match.
Team USA will also be hoping to make their current winning streak extend to nine games. The finest run in USWNT history ran from December 8th, 2004 to September 22nd, 2007 when they went 51 games unbeaten. Additionally, their longest winning streak ever was 18 matches, which began on July 25, 1990 and ended on May 25th, 1991.
The United States will not be entering this game with a playful mindset. In fac,t one can imagine that the U.S. manager Jill Ellis will not change the strategy for the rematch against the Caribbean Nation. Regardless, if she makes dramatic changes to the starting lineup for Sunday’s game at Legion Field, the main plan will still be to control the ball and never stop attacking the Haitians.
The only guarantee in this next match is that Press will not be available, since she has traveled to her sister's wedding.
That being said it safe to say that Ellis is not sweating over Press’s absences. Since she still has forwards like Sydney Leroux, Alex Morgan, Amy Rodriguez and veteran Abby Wambach available for the match, the USWNT should be fine. Between the four strikers they have a combined 301 goals, so the USWNT will not skip a beat without Press on Sunday.