Concacaf W Championship: USA vs. Mexico

Concacaf W Championship – Group A: USA v Mexico

Date: July 11, 2022 Venue: Estadio Universitario; Monterrey, Mexico Broadcast: Paramount+, ViXBroadcast Time: 10:00 PM ET / 9:00 PM CTO Official Start Time: 10:00 PM ET / 9:00 PM CT

Starting line-up against Mexico: 18-Casey Murphy; 2-Ashley Sanchez, 4-Becky Sauerbrunn (captain), 5-Kelly O’Hara, 10-Lindsay Horan, 11-Sophia Smith, 12-Naomi Girma, 13-Alex Morgan, 14-Emily Sonnett, 17-Andy Sullivan, 23-Midge Perce

Subs available: 1-Alyssa Naeher, 3-Alana Cook, 6-Trinity Rodman, 8-Sofia Huerta, 9-Mallory Pugh, 15-Megan Rapinoe, 16-Rose Lavelle, 20-Taylor Kornieck, 21-Aubrey Kingsbury, 22- Christy Muis

Not available: Ashley Hatch, Emily Fox

GAME NOTES | FIVE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW – MEXICO

• USWNT Starting XI Numbers (including this match): Sauerbrunn (205), Morgan (194), O’Hara (156), Horan (114), Sonnett (68), Sullivan (30), Smith (19), Pearce (18 ), Cook (13), Sanchez (12), Girma (4)

• The starting lineup against Mexico includes seven different players from the XI that started the USA’s July 7 game against Jamaica: Murphy for Naher in goal, O’Hara, Sauerbrunn and Sonnett for Cook, Fox and Huerta in defense, Sullivan for Lavelle in midfield , and Morgan and Pearse in the attack in place of Hatch and Pugh.

• Horan and Smith will start their third consecutive game at the 2022 Concacaf W Championship, while Purce and Sonnett start for the first time in the tournament.

• This starting line-up averages 28 years of age and 74 caps per player, with four players – Sauerbrunn, Morgan, O’Hara and Horan – with over 100 caps and two – Murphy and Girma – in single figures.

• Five players in this starting lineup appeared in the USA’s last game against Mexico, a 4-0 USA win on July 5, 2021 in East Hartford, Connecticut. Horan scored the opening goal with a brilliant volley in the sixth minute, while O’Hara and Sauerbrunn also started the match. Sonnett and Morgan entered as reserves in what was the team’s final action before the start of the 2021 Olympics.

• Defender and team captain Becky Sauerbrunn will win her 205th cap as she captains the USA for the 34th time. This will be Sauerbrunn’s 20th career game for the USA in a World Cup and Olympic qualifier, having played in World Cup qualifiers in 2010, 2014 and 2018, Olympic qualifiers in 2012, 2016 and 2020 and now 2022 Concacaf W Championship.

• Goalkeeper Casey Murphy will start for the second time at the Concacaf W Championship, earning his sixth cap overall for the USA. Murphy has four shutouts in her previous five games, the first of which came in her debut against Australia on 27 November 2021, a 3-0 win over the Matildas in Sydney.

• Ashley Sanchez will make back-to-back starts as she makes her sixth career start in what will be her 12th game overall for the USA. Sanchez tallied his third career assist in the USA’s win over Jamaica and will make his 10th appearance of the year for the USA. She will now appear in every game for the USA after the November 2021 friendlies in Australia.

• Defender Kelly O’Hara returns to the starting line-up for the second time this tournament as she makes her 156th international appearance, passing Michelle Akers and Kristen Press to take sole possession of 22nd on the USWNT’s all-time caps list . O’Hara has been directly involved in a goal in each of his last two appearances for the USA, scoring his third international goal in a win over Colombia on June 28 as a second-half substitute and assisting Alex Morgan’s second goal against Haiti in the opening game of the Championship of Concacaf W.

• Lindsay Horan will make her third start at the CONCACAF W Championship, making her 114th international appearance. Horan, who led the U.S. in scoring with six goals at the 2020 Concacaf Olympic Qualifying Tournament, has eight goals and eight assists in 16 career appearances in Concacaf qualifiers.

• Sophia Smith will win her 19th cap as she makes her senior team to begin 2022. Smith also leads the USWNT in scoring with seven goals on the year and recorded a hat trick in the first eight minutes of the USA’s 5-0 win over Jamaica on July 7. Her goal in the fifth minute remains the fastest goal scored by a player at this tournament.

• Twenty-two-year-old Naomi Girma will make her second straight start for the USA, winning her fourth career race. Girma played the full 90 minutes in the USA’s win over Mexico and recorded her first international assist, setting up longtime friend and former Stanford teammate Sophia Smith’s goal in the fifth minute.

• After scoring in the USA’s opener against Haiti, Alex Morgan returns to the starting lineup for his 194th international cap. The game against Haiti marked Morgan’s 29th career multi-goal game, the third-best in US history. She has now scored 21 goals in 21 career qualifying appearances for the USWNT and enters the match against Mexico having scored in the last five consecutive Concacaf qualifiers she has played in, a streak that dates back to the 2018 World Cup qualifiers .

• Nine of Morgan’s 117 career international goals have come against Mexico. The only nation she has scored against more often is Japan (12 goals), while she also has nine career goals against Canada.

• Emily Sonnett will make her first start at the 2022 Concacaf W Championship, winning her 68th career cap. This is the fourth Concacaf qualifier for Sonnett, who came on at halftime in the USA’s win over Jamaica on July 7.

• Andy Sullivan returns to the USA starting lineup for his 30th career game, making his eighth start of the year and second of the tournament. Sullivan played the full 90 minutes in the USA’s tournament-opening win over Haiti and is fifth on the USWNT this year in total minutes played with 526.

• Forward Midge Pearce will make her third appearance and first start at the Concacaf W Championship, earning her 18th cap overall for the USWNT. It will be the second start of the year for Pierce, who scored his second goal of 2022 in the late stages of the USA’s win over Haiti on July 4.

• Twenty-one players are available for the U.S. for this game against Mexico, as forward Ashley Hatch is unavailable after suffering a leg muscle strain against Jamaica on July 7. Emily Fox is in protocols for COVID.