Well the first games of the groups have come to an end. The U.S. Woman vs Thailand were the last teams to play. The competition for the USWNT was not there in the first game they dominated Thailand 13 to 0.
The question now is, Should they have laid off at the end? I believe they should have not laid off. Here is my reasoning to why they did the right thing. This was the first game for the World Cup for them and they needed to get nerves out of the way. It helped get them into playing the whole game strong. I have watched many USWNT games and know that sometimes they let up at the end or play down to the other team. I for one was happy that they played hard to the final whistle. My final thought on the score being run up actually might be needed at the end of group play if USWNT ties Sweden it comes down to score differential.
I was really impressed with the way the game went down as a whole. The team got some key players involved early and it really payed off at the end. I like how the subs where injected into the game as well. Carli Lloyd and Mallory Pugh both came off the bench and scored a goal. I believe having Lloyd coming off the bench will benefit the team in the long run in this World Cup.
One thing that was not tested in this game was the goalkeeping, which was or is a big question mark going into this World Cup. It is hard to replace Hope Solo by far the greatest goalkeeper of all time. So we still have plenty of questions going into the next few games, but we might have to wait until June 20 vs Sweden before we get answers.
Jason's Sports Blog 