CHESTER — The U.S. women’s national team honored Alex Morgan before Thursday night’s game at Subaru Park. Its fans then watched in vain for 90 minutes waiting for an offensive player to emerge and seize the moment like she did 15 years ago.
The U.S. lost on home soil for the third time this year, a 2-1 decision to a Portugal team that had been winless in its last eight. That despite Rose Lavelle scoring in the first minute and the emotional boost of the Morgan ceremony pregame.
It wasn’t enough to counterbalance goals off corner kicks on either side of halftime by Diana Gomes and Fatima Pinto to lead Portugal to the win in the first of two meetings between the teams this week.
Morgan was one of the most prolific strikers in American soccer history. She was part of the teams that won the 2015 and 2019 World Cups and finished second in 2011. She added Olympic gold in 2012 plus bronze in Tokyo in 2021.
She scored 123 goals for the United States. The first came in this building when it was known at PPL Park in the year it opened in 2010, when Morgan was a senior at the University of California nicknamed “Baby Horse” for her youthful gallop. The attendance that night was 2,505, far from the 17,297 that turned out Thursday.
She’s fifth in U.S. history in goals and ninth in appearances with 224, the number stamped onto a commemorative framed jersey presented to her before friends and family. Morgan retired from soccer after the 2024 season.
“There was nothing she didn’t achieve,” U.S. coach Emma Hayes said a day earlier in a press conference. “She was a player that epitomized everything this program is about. She’s an unbelievable credit to her family because her drive, her desire, her determination to prove herself at the highest level is second to none. You can’t go anywhere in this country without them talking about Alex Morgan, and I think the sport should show a lot of gratitude to that, because it’s important for our players to be recognizable.”
Among the U.S. vets past and present in town to fete her achievements were Kelley O’Hara, Tierna Davidson, Abby Wambach and Trinity Rodman, the latter originally named to this squad but having to withdraw due to a knee ligament sprain. Wambach set up that first goal 15 years ago.
Subaru Park was decked out in posters commemorating Morgan’s career, and a stand as part of U.S. Soccer’s activation offered fans a chance to get their hair done in pre-warp in the style that was Morgan’s signature.
The U.S. took the lead before Morgan and her family found their seats. Within the game’s first 33 seconds, Catarina Macario got loose, opted not to play the quick ball to the wing run by Michelle Cooper and instead threaded a pass to Lavelle that the veteran midfielder bashed into the corner for her 26th international goal.
Lavelle nearly made it two in the ninth minute, riding the offside line and firing a shot that goalie Ines Pereira managed to paw off the post. But those were the only two shot attempts all half by the U.S.
Hayes went with about the most veteran squad she could on the night. All three of the players with 100 caps — Lavelle, Emily Sonnett and captain Lindsey Heaps — started, as did Emily Fox for a 68th appearance and Sam Coffey for her 38th, fourth- and fifth-most on the team.
Macario, the most experienced of a young forward contingent, led the line with 20-year-old Alyssa Thomson on one wing and 22-year-old Cooper on the other.
In goal, 29-year-old Phallon Tullis-Joyce got her fourth cap. The three goalies in camp had a combined nine caps, as the program looks for a successor to Alyssa Naeher, whose retirement will be celebrated Sunday when these teams square off in the legendary goalie’s native Connecticut.
Portugal entered ranked 23rd in the world by FIFA, Thursday its first game since a disastrous Euros campaign saw it exit in the group stage. It also lost its last four games in the UEFA Nation’s League, leaving them 0-6-2 in their last eight.
Coach Francisco Neto left three veterans with more than 100 caps — normal captain Dolores Silva, plus forward Jessica Silva and defender Carole Costa — on the bench.
It paid off, Portugal having the better of play and 58 percent possession in the first half. They twice hit the top of the net with dangerous service before Tatianna Pinto, wearing the captain’s armband, latched onto a ball over the top by Barcelona midfielder Francisca Nazareth in the 40th minute. Tullis-Joyce charged off her line to get a hand to it and push it around the post.
But Portugal scored on the ensuing corner, Nazareth’s service headed home by center back Diana Gomez in too easy of a concession for Hayes’ liking.
The U.S. was livelier out of the break. The closest they came to scoring early was a near-own goal forced by a dangerous Thompson cross.
Despite a line change of four subs on the hour mark, Portugal struck next. It was another corner, Nazareth again delivering. The ball fell near the center of the six-yard box to Fatima Pinto, who nudged a shot through traffic and perhaps off a deflection past Tullis-Joyce for her fifth goal in 96 caps.
Many of the most dangerous U.S. chances came from left back Avery Patterson.
In her seventh cap, she had a shot deflected out for a corner in the 60th, fired wide on service from sub Lily Yohannes in the 75th and had a dipping drive from 22 yards bodied away awkwardly by Pereira in the 80th, Yohannes’ follow-up easily gloved.
Source: Berkshire mont