USWNT squeezes everything it can out of W Gold Cup — now a trophy is on the line

This Concacaf W Gold Cup means several things for the sides that have survived until the finish. Winning the championship doesn’t top that list.

It’s nonetheless a shiny bauble to go along with the real accomplishments these past three weeks, which are to do with transitions toward new things in this altered global landscape following last year’s World Cup disappointments. It might not matter most, but it matters.

The coming Paris Olympics provide the real impetus here, governing all that the finalists — United States and Brazil — have been working on since last summer. Think of the Sunday evening’s title game at San Diego State’s Snapdragon Stadium as something of a reward, with a trophy to be paraded.

“This is why we do it. These are the moments that we work so hard for, that we train for,” said Sam Coffey, the midfield anchor as the Americans bounced back from the Mexico debacle for intense, impressive triumphs over Colombia and Canada. “We play to win championships. It’s as simple as that, at the end of the day.”

Another trophy is always welcome, and this would be the 10th Concacaf title for the Americans, who have endured a tough series of games — none more than the waterlogged PK semifinal victory — to reach the final. This new iteration of the confederation’s women’s championship, which dates to 1991, has produced invaluable data as they embrace a tactical philosophy ahead of Emma Hayes’ arrival, one requiring multiple systems and an emphasis on efficient finishing, while integrating younger talent into the group. Everything is a plus, the good and the poor.

“I think this tournament has asked a lot of questions of this team,” said goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher, who made three saves and converted her shot in the penalty shootout against Canada. “This is obviously a time of transition and a time of new coaches, new players, and I think there’s this balance on the group right now [with] a number of great veteran players, and we have a number of young players coming in as well. I think there’s a lot of questions coming in, and I think it’s our job as players to make it hard for coaches to make [personnel] decisions.

“This is an Olympic year, and we have an opportunity with this Gold Cup to replicate what an Olympic-tournament style is, but it’s that balance, too, that we want to win. It’s not just experimentation, it’s not just trying things. We can do those things while also trying to win the tournament. That’s the challenge of the coaches, to kind of manage that and do that. … I think this has been a great tournament to experience so many different emotions, both positive and negative.”

Kilgore said the U.S. has evolved during the monthlong Gold Cup camp into “a very experienced group.”

“In a short time, I feel like we’ve squeezed everything that we’ve needed to get out of these games,” she said. “We’ve played multiple systems against different types of opponents [while using] different players and different partnerships. We’ve been in some epic battles. We’ve been in some unfortunate circumstances, with the rain, and battled through that, and showed a lot of grit.”

‘Can make magic happen’

That’s how it is, too, for Brazil head coach Arthur Elias, also implementing a new approach, in which the immense individual talents work within a collective whole. His group, with a lot of newcomers replacing some legends, has been defensively stout — just one goal conceded, long after the quarterfinal win over Argentina was secured — and the most delightful to watch in attack, hardly a surprise.

Captain Rafaelle, who plays for the NWSL’s Orlando Spirit, has led a strong backline, and a multifaceted attack starring at various points Debinha and Bia Zaneratto, both with the Kansas City Current, Orlando’s Adriana, and Yasmim, who played for Elias with South American powerhouse Corinthians. The Brazilians have tallied 13 times — with 10 different goalscorers — in their last three outings.

“We’ve been able to consolidate our game,” said Elias, who took over for Pia Sundhage after Brazil failed to escape group play at the World Cup. “[We] have more speed, efficiency, dynamics. Goals have been very important in these playoffs. We’ve encouraged that kind of game, despite certain risks that we’ve taken. We see this kind of playing paying off for us.”

The objective, he said Saturday, is to quickly produce a “better team,” one that “plays in a more relaxed way, to be more effective, very well organized. We want the players [to be better] connected. Game after game, we have changed all the players, we have changed the playing systems, the different strategies.”

The “main objective,” Elias said, is just ahead.

“The biggest one is the preparation for the Olympics. I said so at the beginning, and now I repeat that,” he said. “But the possibility [of a championship], especially with the hard work we did to malke it to the final, [means that] you have two things at the same time. … We are trying to win, to play to win, and that’s our mindset.

“This is a very specific preparation, a very important one, for [the U.S. is] a team we might play during the Olympics. I’m happy to make it to the final and to have the opportunity to play the United States team in the United States, in a stadium full of fans. This is what we want.”

The U.S. holds a 31-3-5 record in the series, has won the past six meetings, and has captured all three previous title-game faceoffs, in the 2000 Women’s Gold Cup and the 2004 and 2008 Olympic gold-medal games.

“[The U.S.] is very strong, very competitive … a bit more advanced vis-à-vis Brazil, and the U.S. coach is excellent,” Elias said. “I’ve seen the U.S. throughout this competition, and they’ve grown, made much progress. Their game is very imposing, they have excellent players, experienced players. … We know the U.S. is a powerhouse, and it’s not a team that we’ve just begun to study. The next match will be difficult. Still we hope to execute our attack plan and come out champions of this Gold Cup.

The Americans, too, know the kind of challenge they face.

“They have so many great individual players,” forward Alex Morgan said. “They can just really make magic happen when they work together.”

Coffey praised As Canarinhas’ “flair, with a lot of creative ability, with a lot of technical ability.”

“I think they play with a lot of passion, with a lot of fire, and I think that that’s something that’s exciting to play against,” she said. “It’s something that we also have. … They have so much incredible quality, but we do as well, and I think that those two things are just gonna make an amazing matchup.”

The Americans’ strengths are similar, captain Lindsey Horan said, and they “focus on us and what makes us great.”

“I think we have a lot of different threats, attack-wise,” she said. “Obviously, we’ll respect Brazil and what they bring defensively, but I think we can bring something different that maybe they haven’t faced in this tournament yet. … We’ve got out there and seen what the game gives us, but we have a lot of different ways to score, and you’ve seen individuals thriving, but as a team, we can break down teams and we can score beautiful goals.”

Teen phenom Jaedyn Shaw, who has netted a team-best four goals, had a couple of sweet strikes against Argentina, and she and Jenna Nighswonger finished terrifically in the quarterfinal against Colombia. It’s all a product of the work, which will go on.

“We will feel, regardless of the result — which we all know which way we want that to go — that we still want even more time,” Kilgore said. “This is a group that’s still on the rise, this is a group that we simply cannot get enough time with each other, and were looking to squeeze everything we can out of this last game, in terms of bravery on the ball, being on the front foot defensively, and also showing our flexibility and our tactics and the direction that we’ve been going, the way we have been working on that pretty relentlessly since returning from the World Cup.”