Analysis: USWNT keeps momentum going at CONCACAF W Championship but wasn’t easy against Mexico

The last game the U.S. women’s national team played against Mexico in Mexico was a World Cup qualifier in 2010.

The U.S. lost. Mexico went on to the World Cup directly, and the Americans were forced to win their way into the tournament via an inter-confederation playoff.

A lot has changed since then, with the U.S. winning consecutive Women’s World Cups while Mexico struggled to losing records under three coaches. So when the teams met in the group-play final of another World Cup qualifying tournament — the CONCACAF W Championship — on Monday night, the United States’ 1-0 win was expected.

But it wasn’t easy, with the only goal coming off Kristie Mewis’ thigh after a scramble in front of the net in the final minute of regulation. The goal underwent a lengthy video review before it was allowed to stand.

The victory was the Americans’ 29th straight in CONCACAF World Cup and Olympic qualifying dating to that 2010 loss in Cancun, In fact, the U.S. hasn’t even allowed a goal in qualifying since then.

Even before Monday’s game, won before 20,521 in a hot and breezy Estadio Universitario, the U.S. had a berth in next summer’s World Cup sewn up. However, this year’s CONCACAF W Championship also will determine the region’s representative in the 2024 Paris Olympics, and in that sense the victory was important because it will send the Americans into Thursday’s tournament semifinal with Costa Rica riding a wave of momentum, having gone 17 matches and 11 months since their last loss.

The U.S. needs to beat Costa Rica, then win next week’s final to guarantee a place in Paris.

For Mexico, Monday’s gutty effort was by far its best of a tournament it exited without a win or a goal. And it showed why the country entered the tournament with high hopes.

But it was undone in the 73rd minute when midfielder Jacqueline Ovalle was given a red card for a studs-up challenge on American Rose Lavelle. It took the U.S. 16 more minutes, playing against a short-handed team, to get the only goal it needed.

Mexico’s Cristina Ferral (15) and United States’ Lindsey Horan (10) fight for the ball during a CONCACAF Women’s Championship match in Monterrey, Mexico on Monday.

(Fernando Llano / Associated Press)

This was supposed to be a coronation for a Mexican program that had made great strides under Mónica Vergara, who played on the country’s only Olympic team in 2004, then worked her way up the national team ladder, coaching the U-15, U-17 and U-20 teams before taking over the senior squad 18 months ago.

The team entered the competition in Monterrey in the best run of form in a decade, undefeated in its last 10 games and averaging more than five goals a match. So when El Tri Femenil opened the tournament with a loss to Jamaica, Vergara called it “a stumble” and said it wouldn’t define her team. After losing to Haiti three days later, the coach, who was booed before Monday’s kickoff, already was talking about the 2027 World Cup.

The team’s effort Monday was the kind president Yon De Luisa and the rest of the Mexican soccer federation had hoped for last year when they began an overhaul of the women’s program by making Vergara, 39, the first woman to manage the senior team, handing her a young, talented roster, most of which played in the young, flourishing domestic Liga MX.

At the time, the federation also named Maribel Domínguez — Mexico’s all-time leader in international goals and caps — and Ana Galindo to manage the U-20 and U-17 teams, marking the first time all three of Mexico’s top national teams were run by women.

The reset continued two months ago when New York-based promoter Soccer United Marketing was enlisted to put together a series of friendlies in the U.S. to raise money for and the profile of the women’s team. The first game will be against Angel City FC in September in L.A.

“The support of the women’s program, it was a board decision,” De Luisa said. “No doubt that this is something that will grow in the future.”

That future was supposed to start this week, but Mexico underperformed on the field and played all three games before small crowds in a city where more than 30,000 have shown up to support Tigres Femenil, a women’s club team.

But it gave the best team in the world everything it could handle and more Monday. Perhaps De Luisa’s big investment will pay off sooner rather than later after all.