Women’s Soccer, July 2022: A Series
This is the fourteenth post in a series devoted to the 117 games of international women’s football played in July 2022, covering the final and 3^rd place game in the CONCACAF W Championship. If you’d like to start from the beginning (or to pick and choose your competitions), you can do so from my opening post. Next up are the Euros quarterfinals.

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W Championship – Final and 3^rd Place (18^th)

The final of CONCACAF’s W Championship was the eighth game on Monday the 18^th, the second of two consecutive 8-game days. In fact, it completed a week, from Sunday the 11^th to Monday the 18^th, during which 50 of the month’s 117 games were played. With only one game from the OFC Women’s Nations Cup group stage played on the 19^th, that Tuesday was effectively a day of rest following the month’s most intense period.

Before that, however, Costa Rica faced Jamaica in a 3^rd place game, the sixth game on the 18^th, to determine who would face the loser of the finals in a home-and-away series in September 2023 to determine CONCACAF’s second participant in the 2024 Olympics. Costa Rica looked the more threatening side for the opening hour, but with the introduction of Tiernny Wiltshire at right back, Jamaica looked more threatening for the final 30’ of regulation.

In injury time, Raquel Rodríguez nearly won the game for Costa Rica with a shot that came off the inside of the left post. So the game went to extra time, and near the end of the first half, Lorne Donaldson brought on Kiki Van Zanten. Just 3’ after her introduction, Drew Spence played Van Zanten in behind to score the game’s only goal to earn Jamaica a 1-0 win.

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The W Championship final was a fitting end to the busiest period of the month, arguably the month’s biggest game, and unquestionably its most significant until the semifinals of the Euros. Canada used the same 4-3-1-2 line-up they had deployed in their last two games (likely in preparation for this final), with Christine Sinclair underneath Nichelle Prince and Janine Beckie up top.

The United States had experimented with various line-ups over the course of the tournament, but mostly stuck with the group that had faced Costa Rica. The exceptions were No. 1 goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher replacing Casey Murphy (who had played for the majority of the tournament), and Emily Fox in for Emily Sonnett at left back. That meant a 4-3-3, with Mallory Pugh and Sophia Smith flanking Alex Morgan up top and a fearsome midfield of Lindsey Horan, Rose Lavelle, and Andi Sullivan.

The US had a torrid start, with chance after chance in the opening 5′. About midway through the first half, with the US still looking the more threatening, Canada responded with a change in formation. Prince and Beckie moved out to the wings, while Jessie Fleming advanced out of the midfield trio to join Sinclair atop a 4-4-2. Even before the change, Quinn had been dropping back alongside Desiree Scott to form a holding pair in the midfield, but moving Prince and Beckie wider and deeper allowed them to contribute defensively on the flanks, where the United States had been consistently creating overloads. 

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Canada had started to threaten down the left even before the tactical switch, with Prince putting US fullback Sofia Huerta through the ringer. Those chances continued in the new formation, leading to an exciting, two-way contest. For their part, Pugh and Smith switched flanks midway through the half for about ten minutes, and more generally the front three were fluid in attack. Overall, the United States were probably the better side in an open the first half with chances at both ends.

The second half followed a similar pattern, but the United States looked increasingly more likely to break through. Canada brought Julia Grosso and Allysha Chapman on around the hour mark to provide fresher defensive legs, then Adriana Leon and Jordyn Huitema to rekindle the offense, but neither set of changes seemed to reverse the tide. On the other hand, the United States still seemed unable to turn their threat into an opening goal.

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With fifteen minutes remaining, Morgan fed Lavelle into the box on the right, and Chapman pushed her from behind–but more importantly clipped her ankle to give up a clear penalty. Morgan took the penalty, beating her San Diego Wave teammate, Kailen Sheridan, to give the United States a deserved lead.

Canada pushed hard for the remainder of regulation and seven minutes of injury time, throwing center back Vanessa Gilles up top for an additional aerial threat. The US held firm, though, regaining a small measure of revenge Canada’s semifinal victory in the 2020 Olympics, a game that was also won with a 75′ penalty (in that case, won by Deanne Rose off of Tierna Davidson and scored by Fleming).

Next up: Women’s Euros – Quarterfinals

NOTE: An earlier version of this account of the W Championship final was posted on July 29^th, 2022.