Alex Morgan Leads USWNT Over Canada and Into Paris Olympics

The victory was the second major goal achieved by the Americans in Mexico, in a tournament that served as a qualifier for both the 2023 World Cup and the 2024 Olympics. The United States had sealed its place in the former by merely advancing to the semifinals. But it still had a goal to go, and a point to prove, against Canada in the Concacaf W Championship final.

Morgan had started that Olympic semifinal last summer in Kashima, Japan, but had watched the end of it from the bench after being substituted. During the Games, she had been among the most vocal of the veteran players on that roster who had suggested — in no uncertain terms — that Coach Vlatko Andonovski was getting things wrong.

In the year since that defeat, Morgan, 33, had been among the veterans who had been asked to make way for younger attacking talents like Mallory Pugh, Sophia Smith and Trinity Rodman, to give Andonovski room to tinker and retool ahead of next year’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. But she also knew her chance would eventually come again, and on Monday, after two weeks of matches featuring young players and new lineups, Morgan got her chance to make things right, to prove she still has a role to play.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/19/sports/soccer/uswnt-canada-concacaf-w-championship.html