FRISCO — United States star forward Alex Morgan may be a California native but the Texas air seems to bring out the best in her game.
Morgan entered Wednesday’s 2023 SheBelieves Cup finale against Brazil having scored 14 goals in 17 previous appearances in the Lone Star State.
Add another to the tally.
The 33-year-old striker stunned the Toyota Stadium crowd with a beautiful left-footed curler from outside the box in the 45′+3 minute. Mallory Swanson doubled the lead later as the USWNT claimed a 2-1 victory and its sixth SheBelieves Cup title.
Morgan’s score came just before the halftime whistle. Swanson collected a through ball and tried to shimmy around some defenders in the box but her shot was blocked. The loose ball landed right at the feet of Morgan. She took a touch and then fired.
The goal came just minutes after Morgan found the back of the net but was called offside. After a turnover in midfield, Andi Sullivan played a ball right through the middle of the pitch to Morgan. She tapped the shot past a rushing Lorena but Morgan was deemed just offside when the pass was played to negate the score.
Abby Wambach is the lone player to have scored more goals in one singular state than Morgan’s 15 Texas scores. Wambach, the USWNT’s all-time leading scorer, scored 16 times in California during her career.
The Americans had a potent attack throughout the 90 minutes, and Rose Lavelle was a major reason why. The winner of the Bronze Ball at the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, Lavelle missed out on the first two matches of the tournament with a minor injury.
But she returned Wednesday to the midfield three in an advanced role ahead of Sullivan and Lindsey Horan. While she was still a little rusty, Lavelle’s creativity and movement in the middle and final third during her 71 minutes of action were crucial to the United States finishing with 19 shots.
She had arguably her best scoring chance just ahead of the 19′ mark when she was played a ball over the top while making a run towards goal. But Lavelle wasn’t able to get a boot on the ball and Brazil escaped unscathed.
Lavelle also jumpstarted the USWNT’s close encounter seven minutes later. After recapturing the ball outside the penalty arc, she passed out wide to Horan. Horan then played a simple near-post cross to Morgan, whose sliding shot just missed wide.
While the USWNT was in control for most of the half, Brazil took advantage of its time on the ball. They had the only shot on goal of the first 34 minutes and another shot from Kerolin that just dragged wide of the far post.
Brazil almost equalized when Adriana fired a rocket three minutes into the second half that beat Alyssa Naeher but rocketed off the crossbar back into play. The latter 45 minutes was a more open game as both teams got up and down the field. That led to a more dangerous Brazil attack but also left them open at the back.
It proved costly when Lavelle forced a turnover in the Brazil end, dribbled up the field and laid the ball off to Swanson right outside the box. Two dribbles and one kick later, Swanson had her fourth goal of the 2023 tournament and her event-record eighth career SheBelieves Cup score.
Ludmila netted in the 90′ to wipe away the clean sheet, and Brazil pushed in added time to try and tie the game. But the South American champions ran out of seconds.
In addition to giving the United States its sixth SheBelieves Cup, the win continued an overall successful trend for the USWNT in Texas.
Wednesday’s contest was the USWNT’s 31st ever match in Texas. They have won all 31 games.
Japan opens the day with 3-0 victory: Japan concluded its 2023 SheBelieves Cup campaign with a 3-0 win Wednesday afternoon in Frisco over Canada. It was the largest margin of victory during this year’s tournament, and Japan’s only win in three matches.
Kiko Seike opened the scoring in the 26th minute when she beat a charging Sabrina D’Angelo with a daft shot over the sliding keeper. Yui Hasegawa added a second goal on a 40th-minute side-footed penalty shot to her right that hit the inside netting.
Jun Endo added the third and final goal in the 77th minute with a left-footed strike to the near post.
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