The USA rolled over Colombia, playing its first game since last summer, with a 7-0 win on Wednesday night before a record Connecticut women’s crowd of 21,792 at East Hartford’s Pratt & WhitneyStadium. With her first two goals, Allie Longput herself in contention for one of the 18 spots on the U.S. Olympic team.
Here are three takeaways from the lopsided win …
1. Long heats up competition in central midfield.
Long, who played college soccer at Penn State and North Carolina, is a veteran of seven pro seasons in WPS and the NWSL andFrance’s Ligue Feminine with Paris St. Germain. She was first called into the national team in 2010 but a knee injury suffered in camp set her back. She earned the last of four caps in 2014 and wascalled into the national team for the first camp of 2015 but didn’t get called again before the Women’s World Cup.
An NWSL Second XI pick in 2014 and a Best XI pick in 2015 with thePortland Thorns, Long is at 28 the seventh oldest team in the current women’s camp, and the Rio Games would likely be her first and last Olympics.
The starting central midfield looks setwith Morgan Brian, Carli Lloyd and Lindsey Horan, who followed Long at PSG. Until now, second-year pro Sam Mewis was the likely backup, but Long, whose two goals both cameon headers, could overtake her.
2. U.S. attack is firing on all cylinders.
The USA blitzed Colombiawith four goals in 12 minutes in the middle of the first half and three in 12 minutes at the same point of the second half. Besides Long’s two goals, Crystal Dunn and Lloyd each had one goaland two assists and Mallory Pugh had one goal and one assist, tying Lloyd for the season with five assists. Tobin Heath and Christen Press (with the best of the bunch) had theother goals.
3. Layoff evident in over-matched Cafeteras.
Colombia lost the USA, 2-0, in the second round of the 2015 Women’s World Cup, but that was the lastinternational action for the Cafeteras except the Pan-American Games. They had one good chance when Liecy Santos was stopped by Hope Solo in the 57th minute.
April 6 in East Hartford, Conn.
USA 7 Colombia 0. Goals: Dunn 27, Long32, 65, Pugh 33, Lloyd 39, Heath 62, Press 74.
USA — Solo; O’Hara (O’Reilly, 69), Sauerbrunn (Sonnett, 67), Johnston (Engen, 67), Klingenberg (Krieger, 70); Long, Horan (Mewis,46), Lloyd, Pugh (Press, 46), Dunn, Heath.
Colombia — Perez; Gaitan, Arias, Asprilla (Arbelaez, 78), Velasquez; Echeverri (Jaramillo, 90), Salazar (Pineda, 68), Rincon (Cuesta,65), Ospina (Ariza, 84), Santos, Usme (Regnier, 87).
Att.: 21,792.
Fitness and speed when applied with high pressure defense and offense is a winning combination. When I looked at the Columbian players I knew that they could not keep up the pace for very long. They lasted about 30 mins. The team is deep with talent. Very good players will not make the Olympic trip.