Pride’s Morgan scores fast in easy U.S. victory
Orlando Pride forward Alex Morgan scored what is thought to be the fastest goal in U.S. women’s national team history on Wednesday night.
Morgan needed just 12 seconds to find the back of the net against Costa Rica in an Olympic qualifier at Frisco, Texas. The play started off the kickoff when Lindsey Horan took a short pass and launched a long ball forward to Carli Lloyd, who flicked a header into the path of Morgan at the top of the box.
The Pride’s star forward let the ball settle in front of her and, with her first touch of the game, rifled a volley past the Costa Rican goalkeeper for an early 1-0 lead. The U.S. Soccer Federation said on social media it believed the goal to be the fastest in U.S. women’s nationalteam history.
It came on a designed play that the team uses off most opening kickoffs.
“We always see it coming,” Morgan said. “It always starts off right, then something goes wrong. This time nothing went wrong.”
Morgan scored again in the second half as the U.S. went on to beat Costa Rica 5-0 in its first qualifier.
The match was the Americans’ first competitive game since winning the World Cup. They have won three straight Olympic titles and four of the five in women’s soccer.
The U.S. roster features only13 of the 20 players who were on the World Cup team. Christie Rampone and Megan Rapinoe are injured, and Amy Rodriguez and Sydney Leroux are pregnant and will miss the Olympics.
“For me, it’s almost a perfect start,” U.S. coach Jill Ellis said. “We were able to check off a lot of boxes.”
Costa Rica coach Amelia Valverde said through an interpreter that her team was prepared for a U.S. attack right off the opening kick yet couldn’t prevent the early goal. That disrupted not only the defense, Valverde said, but the whole team.
Morgan’s second-half goal, her 59th career score, was a header just inside the 6-yard box off a chipped cross from Lloyd in the 62nd minute.
Lloyd noted her on-field teaming with Morgan is different from what Morgan shared with recently retired star Abby Wambach. But this pairing is getting better with familiarity, she said.
“What she does great is get in behind the back line,” Lloyd said of Morgan. “Tonight was great. We had a good connection.”
The U.S. next plays Mexico on Saturday in Frisco. Kickoff is set for 4 p.m. and the game will air on NBC Universo and on tape delay on NBC Sports Network at 9 p.m. Mexico downed Puerto Rico, 6-0, in its opener on Wednesday.