Carli Lloyd netted a hat trick for the USWNT who eased to a comfortable 5-0 win over Haiti as their World Cup “Victory Tour” continues.
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Over 34,000 people were in attendance, making it the largest crowd to attend a soccer match in the history of Ford Field. Had it been on the field, Australia would have taken a shot at enhancing a reputation already burnished by a strong World Cup (and perhaps lived up to the words posted on the Australian federation’s official website after the two teams met in a group game in Winnipeg, when a writer described the Americans as “rudimentary and “bog-standard”, which presumably wasn’t a compliment)”.
In the game’s final seconds Dunn scored her first career worldwide goal.
The stakes may have been lower than in the World Cup Final.
US – Carli Lloyd (Crystal Dunn) 6th minute: Crystal Dunn picked up the ball on the right and beat her defender down the line Just before reaching the end line, Dunn whipped a cross into the box.
Dunn became the youngest player to win the Golden Boot award this year for the Washington Spirit of the National Women’s Soccer League with a league-high 15 goals.
Lloyd completed her treble midway through the second half, before Dunn finally got her reward during added time by scoring her maiden senior global goal.
“I was pretty excited to get the call that they wanted me in camp and at first I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m going to join the Victory Tour, ‘ she told Laura Vecsey of Fox Sports”.
Dunn added a second assist on a similar cross into the box in the 33rd minute, this time finding Christen Press for a short-range tip-in. Lloyd-who else?-was waiting, heading home the game’s first goal.
Carli Lloyd’s trio of scores pushed her career total to 74 and she is now just one goal away from tying Cindy Parlow for sixth on the all-time list.
Only a few fans started trickling out in the final minutes, even though the match had been decided even before halftime, when the United States led 3-0. She wasn’t playing as an outside backer.
Were it not for Lloyd’s hat trick, however, Dunn likely would have been the player of the match, as she put the cherry on top of the United States’ win with a headed goal in stoppage time after a flawless pass over the defense from Heather O’Reilly. The second game against Haiti will be September 20 in Birmingham, Alabama (11:30 a.m. PT on ESPN2).
Borkowski said Haiti was supposed to play a scrimmage against Australia in the Detroit area, and after that was canceled, the team agreed to come to the US anyway and play the Americans. The USA extended its home unbeaten streak to 99 games. Even when she came to England, she was a wide player and not in the back.
Oh, and the USWNT outshot Haiti 40-0. She works hard, great personality, plays with a lot of passion.
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But the Australian players chose a bigger challenge, and inarguably a more important one, by electing not to play in pursuit of a collective bargaining agreement at home that provides them with something closer to a living wage.
