Rose Lavelle leads USWNT to 5-0 win at New Zealand to finish series sweep

The U.S. women’s soccer team finished its trip to New Zealand with a 5-0 win over the Football Ferns in Auckland, capping off a 9-0 combined sweep of the two-game set down under.

Taking the field at Eden Park, the nation’s most famous stadium, manager Vlatko Andonovski made six changes to his starting lineup from the first game: goalkeeper Casey Murphy, defenders Alana Cook and Sofia Huerta, midfielders Andi Sullivan and Ashley Sanchez, and forward Trinity Rodman.

Just before kickoff, he was forced into a seventh when Alex Morgan signaled she had leg tightness. Ashley Hatch started in her place.

In the first 20 minutes, the U.S. held 71% of the possession, took four shots, and was strong with its defensive high pressure. The reward came in the 22nd, delivered by a trio of Washington Spirit teammates. Sanchez sprung Rodman down the left wing, and she crossed for Hatch, who authored a composed finish on the run.

“‘Trin’ got out on the flank and we’ve been talking about getting the ball in early behind the back line, so I knew if I was in the right spot she’d put it there,” Sanchez told the HBO Max broadcast at halftime.

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Rose Lavelle, who wore the captain’s armband with Morgan out, doubled the lead in the 39th. Huerta lofted a long cross from right back, and, as two New Zealand defenders converged on Hatch, Lavelle was left alone to stick the ball home.

With the statement made, Andonovski started making substitutions at halftime. Emily Sonnett replaced Naomi Girma at centerback, and Emily Fox replaced Crystal Dunn at left back. But the scoring didn’t stop, as Mallory Swanson made it 3-0 in the 53rd minute. Cook lofted a ball to Sullivan on the left, she crossed it, and Hatch redirected it to Rodman, who laid it off for Swanson to thump. She raised an emphatic fist to celebrate her fourth goal in her last three national team games.

There was a rare quadruple-sub in the 62nd: Taylor Kornieck for Sullivan and Kristie Mewis for Sanchez in midfield, and Lynn Williams for Rodman and Midge Purce for Hatch up top. And there was another Lavelle goal in the 74th, with a run down the middle to receive Williams’ cross.

Kornieck delivered the fifth by using her 6-foot-1 frame to meet a Lavelle corner kick in the 80th. New Zealand’s defense again wasn’t great, and Kornieck barely had to jump. Still, it was validation for Andonovski and everyone else who knows Kornieck has not just the size, but the smarts to be a set-piece threat.

The Americans head home with a renewed spring in their step after losing three straight games in late 2022, a historic skid. It would have been four straight to end the year if not for a gritty comeback to deliver a 2-1 win over Germany in the finale.

“When we come out strong and we play like that, I think it’s going to be harder to keep up,” Lavelle said on the broadcast after the game. “When I think of what we did in 2019 [winning the World Cup], a lot of it was we had a strong start and we would score really early. I definitely think that will be an emphasis for us.”

New Zealand is ranked 24th in the world, so it is not a power. But traveling halfway around the world counts for something — especially when the destination is a co-host of this summer’s World Cup, and where the Americans will be based. They’ll play two of their group games at Eden Park and one at Wellington’s Sky Stadium, where this series started; and if they win their group, they’d play their quarterfinal at Sky Stadium and their semifinal at Eden Park.

“It was incredible for us to be out here, just to get acquainted with the country and just to be able to visualize us being here six months from now,” Dunn said. “We were welcomed with some incredible people, and it’s a great country, and just for us to be here, it was it was an absolutely amazing trip.”

So, mission accomplished for now.

Next up is the annual SheBelieves Cup tournament next month, where the U.S. will host Canada, Brazil, and Japan in a round-robin format in Orlando, Fla., Nashville, Tenn., and suburban Dallas.

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