The U-20s beat China PR 3-0 in a friendly on Wednesday, February 26, in Lakewood Ranch, Florida. Lindsey Horan had two goals, and Margaret Purce one. Rachel Hill assisted Horan’s first goal, Mallory Pugh assisted Purce’s goal, and Stephanie Amack helped Horan with the last goal. It appeared to be a rather subdued match; the two teams combined for just 9 shots (China with 2 of them), and 6 shots on goal (none for China).
The players were very much the same as from World Cup Qualifying: Lindsey Horan, Mallory Pugh and Brittany Basinger are the only three who did not play in the last U-20 match, against Mexico at the end of January, to win the CONCACAF championship. 10 of the 11 starters also started in that match (Meehan started instead of Basinger then). Basinger played the first three matches in qualifying but sat out the final two; Horan played in just the first two matches before being recalled to her professional team in France. The one new player is Mallory Pugh, who has never played with the U-20s before, but did play every game of U-17 World Cup Qualifying back in November. She is the top goal scorer for the U-17s, and managed to increase her assist record in the 45 minutes she played with the U-20s.
Cari Roccaro continues her streak of playing the full 90 in every U-20 game in this cycle; she’s now at 13 games and counting since early 2013, for a total of 1,170 minutes.
The two teams will play again on Saturday, March 1 at 1 p.m. ET.
Note: Per the Florida Gators women’s soccer twitter account, the US scrimmage against the NCAA team was canceled as “injuries [and] other commitments” had left the Gators unable to field a full side.