Concacaf W Championship: USA vs. Canada

Concacaf W Championship – Final: USA vs. Canada

Date: 18 July 2022 Venue: Estadio BBVA; Monterrey, Mexico Broadcast: Paramount+, ViXBroadcast Time: 9:00 PM ET / 8:00 PM CTO Official Start Time: 10:00 PM ET / 9:00 PM CT

Starting XI vs Canada: 1-Alyssa Naeher; 3-Alanna Cook, 4-Becky Sauerbrunn (captain), 8-Sofia Huerta, 9-Mallory Pugh, 10-Lindsay Horan, 11-Sophia Smith, 13-Alex Morgan, 16-Rose Lavelle, 17-Andy Sullivan, 19 – Emily Fox

Available Subs: 2-Ashley Sanchez, 5-Kelly O’Hara, 6-Trinity Rodman, 12-Naomi Girma, 14-Emily Sonnett, 15-Megan Rapinoe, 18-Casey Murphy, 20-Taylor Cornick, 21-Aubrey Kingsbury, 22-Christy Mewis, 23-Midge Pearse, 24-Sam Coffey

GAME NOTES | FIVE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW – CANADA

• USWNT Starting XI Numbers (including this match): Sauerbrunn (207), Morgan (196), Horan (116), Nacher (83), Lavelle (78), Pugh (78), Sullivan (32), Smith (21). Huerta (19), Fox (17), Cook (13)

• The starting 11 to face Canada – which is the fifth unique starting lineup used by the USA at this Concacaf W Championship – includes two different players from the squad that started the semi-final against Costa Rica; Naecher for Murphy in goal and Fox for Sonnett in defense.
• Tonight’s starting lineup includes just five players who started against Canada in the Olympic semifinal that was the most recent meeting between the teams: Nacher, Sauerbrunn, Horan, Lavelle and Morgan.

• Horan and Smith will now start every game for the USA at the 2022 Concacaf W Championship, both making their fifth straight start.
• This starting lineup averages 28 years of age and 77 games per player, with three players—Sauerbrunn, Morgan, and Horan—over 100 games and three—Huerta, Fox, and Cook—under 20 games.

• Becky Sauerbrunn will captain the USA for the 36th time overall, but for the first time in a final, as she makes her 207th international cap for the USA. Sauerbrunn now breaks a tie with Tiffany Milbreth to take sole possession of ninth on the USA all-time list, the most games by any player in USWNT history who has played almost exclusively as a defender.

• Goalkeeper Alyssa Naecher will make her second start at the Concacaf W Championship, earning her 83rd career cap. Naecher, who recorded a clean sheet against Jamaica in the second game of the U.S. group stage on July 7, has 48 career shutouts, which ranks third in USWNT history. Two of Neher’s 48 career clean sheets have come against Canada. Naecher, who had an outstanding tournament in Tokyo, started the Olympic semifinal against Canada but was forced off in the 30th minute of the 0-0 tie with a knee injury that would sideline her for the rest of the year.

• Alana Cook will make her fourth Concacaf W Championship start, earning her 14th career cap for the USWNT. Cook, playing in her first competitive tournament with the USWNT, leads the USA in total minutes played this year with 746 minutes played. It will be Cook’s 12th start in the USA’s last 14 games, a stretch that dates back to the November 2021 games in Australia.

• Sofia Huerta will make her second straight and third start overall at the Concacaf W Championship, earning her 19th cap for the USA. Huerta, who will now have been on the pitch for all five Concacaf W Championship matches, has two assists in 2022 and has also helped set up two own goals. Seven of Huerta’s nine career starts have already come since her return to the national team in November 2021.

• Forward Mallory Pugh will start for the fourth time in the Concacaf W Championship, winning her 78th career cap. Pugh leads the USA with seven assists in 2022, two of them in this tournament, and scored his 24th international goal in a win over Costa Rica on July 14. It will be the second time Pugh has started in a final for the U.S. and her first since Olympic qualification in 2016, when she started in the U.S.’s 2-0 win over Canada in the championship game.

• Lindsay Horan will start her fifth straight match at the 2022 Concacaf W Championship, making her 116th 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 18 career games in Concacaf qualifiers and has two goals and two assists in seven games against Canada in the career.

• Sophia Smith will win her 21st cap as she makes her team-leading 11th start of 2022 and fifth consecutive start at the tournament. Smith, playing in her first competitive tournament with the USWNT, leads the USWNT in scoring with seven goals on the year and recorded a hat trick inside the first eight minutes of the USA’s 5-0 win over Jamaica on July 7.

• After scoring a hole-in-one in the USA’s opener against Haiti, Alex Morgan will start for the fourth time in the tournament, winning his 196th game and passing Shannon Box to take sole possession of 13th on the all-time hit list at USA. The game against Haiti marked Morgan’s 29th career multi-goal game, the third-best in US history. She now has 21 goals in 23 career qualifying appearances for the USWNT, which is third most in US history.

• Midfielder Rose Lavelle will make her fourth start and fifth appearance overall at this tournament as she earns her 78th cap for the USA. Lavelle scored the USA’s third goal in a 5–0 win over Jamaica on July 7 for his third goal of the year and tallied his sixth assist of 2022 in the USA’s win over Costa Rica on July 14. Lavelle, who has two goals in four career games against Canada, has been directly involved in nine goals in the USA’s last eight games, scoring three goals and adding six assists.

• Andi Sullivan will win her 32nd career cap as she makes her fourth Concacaf W Championship start in what will be her first start and first USWNT appearance in a final. Sullivan is third overall on the USWNT this year in total minutes played with 658 and will make her 10th start in 2022.

• Defender Emily Fox returns to the USA starting lineup after missing the last two games while in the COVID protocols. Fox started the USA’s games against Haiti and Jamaica and is on pace to win his 17th career game. She will now appear in 13 of the USA’s 16 matches from the October 2021 FIFA window and make her 12th start in that period.