The 2017 She Believes Cup wrapped up in rainy Washington, D.C. at RFK Stadium on Tuesday night. The United States entered the game in a must win situation after a surprising 1-0 loss to England on Saturday.

Before the U.S./France game, England had a match up with a German team who was yet to even score a goal in the tournament. With a win, England would improve their chances of winning the tournament with 6 points. However, it was Germany, playing only for pride that would take a 1-0 victory on a 44’ goal from Anja Mittag. With this result the winner would be determined in the final game of the tournament.

At 7:00 EST, the U.S. took the kick off to start the first half of play. Almost immediately France took possession and found an unorganized United States defense. After a scramble, the U.S. cleared the ball and regained possession in their offensive half.

In just the 4th minute of play the U.S. earned the first corner kick of the game. Tobin Heath’s kick ended up at the feet of Christen Press who passed back to Heath to find Rose Lavelle, earning only her second cap, her shot ended up wide of the net. A minute later Carli Lloyd found Lynn Williams who was able to get a strong shot off but it was directed at Meline Gerard, France’s goalkeeper.

The first goal came off of a penalty kick given up, uncharacteristically, by U.S. goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher in the 7’ when Eugenie Le Sommer beat the U.S. defense and Naeher found herself in a 1-on-1 situation. Naeher laid out to stop Le Sommer and was issued a yellow card. Camille Abily converted the penalty kick to put France up 1-0.
Just three minutes later Le Sommer caused more trouble for the U.S. by again beating Allie Long in the run of play. Becky Sauerbrunn was unable to slide into a more central position to pick up the forward and Le Sommer beat Naeher making the score 2-0 France.

In the 24’ the U.S. earned a free kick, Heath found Williams. Williams shot beat the goalkeeper but the France defense made an incredible goal line save to keep the U.S. off the board. This would be one of the best scoring opportunities all night for a struggling U.S. team.

As the first half was winding down, Le Sommer connected with Amel Majri in the 40’. Majri found herself open in the box but slipped while shooting and was unable to get anything behind her shot which was picked up by Naeher eliminated further threat.

After the first half it was apparent that the new formation was still in need of serious tweaking. There was no chemistry on the field, the players were unable to make connections and struggled maintaining possession. The midfield was lost, almost absent, and the defense was unorganized.

To start the second half Ellis made two substitutions, Crystal Dunn for Christen Press and Mallory Pugh for Rose Lavelle. The impact Dunn has on the offense was visible immediately when Lloyd found Dunn in the middle of box who took a quick one-touch shot, it was directed right at the keeper with some unlucky placement.

Things continued to get worse for the American side as Perisset found an unmarked Abily at the 6 yd box, Abily tapped the ball in for an easy goal making it 3-0 France. This third goal silenced the American Outlaws and the rest of the 21,638 in attendance, leaving everyone stunned by what they were witnessing.

Another small spark happened for the U.S. side when Kelley O’Hara entered for Carli Lloyd. O’Hara battled a small injury for the majority of the tournament and only saw 12 minutes of action in three games. During her short time in the game she created multiple scoring opportunities including drawing a couple of free kicks outside of the box.

In the 83’ the U.S. finally found the back of the net in what would have been only the second goal of the tournament; however, the sideline official brought the goal back on an offside call.

The 3-0 victory over the U.S. side clinched the She Believes Cup for France, giving them serious momentum heading into the Euros this summer. For the United States, however, the tournament certainly created more questions than it answered. Is it possible for this new system to work? Can Allie Long be converted into an effective center back? Why was Carli Lloyd so absent for three straight games? Where is the offense? Unfortunately, the next couple of games against Russia will not be able to provide many answers as they are highly overmatched by even a hurting U.S. team.

The USSF and the players association still have not been able to reach a deal on the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), which means the team was only paid for their first game of the tournament. The second year of the She Believes Cup averaged around 21,000 per game, which is one of the only bright sides of the tournament for U.S. Soccer. It will be interesting to see how the team progressing moving forward, but if this is what is to be expected, it will be a long two years before the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France.

-U.S. Women’s National Team Match Report-
Match: U.S. Women’s National Team vs. France
Date: March 7, 2017
Competition: 2017 SheBelieves Cup
Venue: RFK Stadium; Washington, D.C.
Kickoff: 7 p.m. ET
Attendance: 21,638
Weather: 64 degrees; rain showers
Scoring Summary: 1 2 F
USA 0 0 0
FRA 2 1 3
FRA – Camille Abily (penalty kick) 8th minute
FRA – Eugenie Le Sommer (Wendie Renard) 9
FRA – Camille Abily (Eve Perriset) 63

Lineups:

USA: 1-Alyssa Naeher; 4-Becky Sauerbrunn, 20-Allie Long, 7-Casey Short; 16-Rose Lavelle (2-Mallory Pugh, 45), 3-Samantha Mewis (9-Lindsey Horan, 70), 6-Morgan Brian (8-Julie Johnston, 70), 17-Tobin Heath, 10-Carli Lloyd (capt.) (5-Kelley O’Hara, 78); 12-Lynn Williams (13-Alex Morgan, 70), 23-Christen Press (19-Crystal Dunn, 45)
Subs not used: 11-Ali Krieger, 14-Jessica McDonald, 15-Emily Sonnett, 18-Jane Campbell, 22-Brianna Pinto, 24-Ashlyn Harris
Head coach: Jill Ellis

FRA: 21-Meline Gerard; 2-Eve Perisset (5-Assatou Tounkara, 68), 3-Wendie Renard (capt.), 4-Laura Georges, 6-Amandine Henry, 7-Sandie Toletti (15-Elise Bussaglia, 53), 9-Eugenie Le Sommer (18-Marie Laure Delie, 65), 10-Camille Abily (17-Gaetane Thiney, 81), 12-Elodie Thomis (11-Clarie Lavogez, 70), 22-Amel Majri (14-Camille Catala, 81), 23-Sakina Karchaoui
Subs not used: 1-Laetitia Philippe, 16-Sarah Bouhaddi, 13-Kadidiatou Diani, 20-Grace Geyoro
Head coach: Olivier Echouafni

Stats Summary: USA / FRA
Shots: 13 / 12
Shots on Goal: 5 / 6
Saves: 3 / 4
Corner Kicks: 9 / 7
Fouls: 9 / 15
Offside: 5 / 0
Misconduct Summary:
USA – Alyssa Naeher (caution) 7th minute
FRA – Sandi Toletti (caution) 18
FRA – Laura Georges (caution) 74
Officials:
Referee: Marie-Soleil Beaudoin (CAN)
Assistant Referee 1: Chantel Boudreau (CAN)
Assistant Referee 2: Marie-Han Gagnon-Chretien (CAN)
4th Official: Gillian Martindale (BRB)
Budweiser Woman of the Match: Casey Short
2017 SheBelieves Cup Standings
Team GP W L T GF GA GD Pts.
France 3 2 0 1 5 1 +4 7
Germany 3 1 1 1 1 1 0 4
England 3 1 2 0 2 3 -1 3
United States 3 1 2 0 1 4 -3 3