CARSON, CALIF – Playing a scrimmage here at the Home Depot Center as part of its week-long training camp, a squad from The United States U23 Women’s National Team was down a goal late in the second half when a favorable foul call went in its favor.

Former Stanford teammates Kelley O’Hara and Christen Press both stood over the ball but Press decided to walk away and toward the wall. As she approached casually, she took off and buried O’Hara’s quick pass into the back of the net.

It was a trick play that U.S. Head Coach Bill Irwin schemed up and helped preserve a 1-1 draw against the boys of Fullerton Rangers.

“We actually just practiced it today,” Press said. “Bill likes little trick plays and it was the first time we successfully pulled it off.”

It was the 2nd part of a two-scrimmage afternoon for the U23s attending training camp at the Home Depot Center.

Its first game, against area women’s team Ajax, ended in a 3-2 win. The team had fallen behind early when its backline was caught off guard with a well-executed through ball that split the defense.

However, Portland duo Elli Reed and Keelin Winters were more than up for the challenge of shutting down the attack from the corners after surrendering the lead.

While Reed was steadfast in the back, Winters navigated the right flank with breeze, creating several offensive opportunities. There were a handful of chances where she could have tried to have a crack at goal, but rather kept laying the ball off to some support on the outside.

“We were looking or the full backs to get forward to support and then they did that well,” Irwin said. They didn’t get farther up in the second game because we had to watch out for the pace of game.”

Florida State teammates Tori Huster and Amanda DaCosta were able to stretch the midfield, allowing the U.S. to find room and ultimately score the three goals by Casey Nogueria and Allie Long.

Kylie Wright was phenomenal as a central midfielder, getting aggressive in the attack, using her body to push defenders off the ball and her footwork to get through defenses.

That latter game was a much more even physical battle between a fast Fullerton boys’ squad, running at a defense that included North Carolina’s Amber Brooks and Notre Dame’s Lauren Fowlkes. A goal in the early stages of the game, after Kat Reynolds lost her mark, had the U.S. down by a goal.

Slowly the team started to hold possession and try to kill any momentum gained by Rangers. But it was difficult for the U.S. to do anything in the final third since the strategy needed to play this team was far different from that the U.S. is used to.

“I think that team is so much faster, all of our forwards are generally runners and dribblers,” Press explained. “But we are taking one or two touches and trying to break down the team as a whole as opposed to running at the wings.”

It was a slow process but the Americans did eventually start to break down Rangers, as both Press and O’Hara had decent looks at goal. The equalizer finally came in a dead ball situation, and the U.S. was able to hold on for the tie.

The U.S U23 will once again test its luck against Rangers and Ajax when the team closes camp in Saturday. For Irwin Friday will be a day to assess the best possibilities for the upcoming matches.

“We will see what the bodies are like tomorrow and we will put together two teams that will be able to compete against these two teams again,” he said.

For Press, who just finished the college season a little over a weak ago, mental exhaustion supersedes any physical tiredness she may have.

“I think at this point in camp everyone’s legs are tired,” she said. “Just coming off the end of my college season, I am more mentally exhausted that physically because I had a little bit of a break.”

We will have a report on the weekend scrimmages.

 

Starters vs Ajax

Kristin Arnold, Keelin Winters, Whitney Engen, Brittany Taylor, Elli Reed, Amanda DaCosta, Allie Long, Tori Huster, Kylie Wright, Katie Schoepfer, Casey Nogueira

Starters vs Fullerton Rangers

Kristin Arnold, Amber Brooks, Nikki Krzysik, Lauren Fowlkes, Kat Reynolds, Bianca D'Agostino, Sinead Farrelly, Christen Press, Kelley O'Hara, Melissa Henderson.