Honours even as England draw 0-0 with the US at Wembley Stadium
By Paul Lagan at Wembley Stadium
England 0 v USA 0
78,346
Honours even but it will be the US who can rightly claim they were unlucky not to have secured victory.
For the Lionesses, who are also in transition, there remains more questions than answers and these matches are not really showing major improvements. Certainly not enough for them to retain their Euro title.
Each side had a passage or two of dominance, but it was Emma Hayes' side who actually had the ball in the back of the net and a penalty.
But a justified offside and a VAR intervention, soon wiped out any addition to the score while the home side sort of came close, but had no final ball to see if there was a finish in them.
England's defence had its issues but managed to be resolute while Mary Earps, in goal, was full of confidence and snaffled a couple of goal-bound shots.
One senses that if this was a competion match, the outcome might have favoured the side from across the Atlantic Ocean.
Alyssa Thompson should have scored for the US on six minutes,when a quick breakaway by the visitors cut England open. The winger cut in from the left and let fly with a powerful shot. But Mary Earps was equal to the task and parried the ball away for a corner.
Sam Coffey was the first player in the ref's book, on 16 minutes when she pulled back Alessia Russo.
England's Jess Park had a chance on 17 minutes following an excellent counter. But her curling right-footer, from the edge of the penalty area was well wide of Alyssa Naeher's goal.
Earps was at it again, denying Casey Krueger's daisy-cutter as the England defence looked increasingly wobbly to sustained pressure.
The US thought they had scored on 49 minutes when skipper Lindsey Horan tucked home from close range. But rightly she was offside when the ball was passed to her.
She should have done better with her shot on 53 minutes, but she cut the ball wide.
The US totally dominated play in the opening phase of the second half were a goal look inevitable.
It took England 10 minutes to register an attack on the US defence, the effort resulted in a corner.
From the resultant Beth Mead cross, Leah Williamson found the ball with her head. She directed it towards goal, but it was not powerful enough to trouble Naeher.
This gave the Lionesses a bit of confidence to push the US back and they had a passage of sustained possession.
The US were awarded a penalty on 64 minutes when the referee adjudged Leah Williamson handled Yazmeen Ryan's shot.
Replays suggested the ball hit her stomach before hitting her right arm. VAR intervened and rightly called the ref to check with the pitch side monitor for a replay and the decision was rightly overturned.
Sarina Wiegman made her first substitutions – binging on Choe Kelly and Kirby for Jess Naz and Jess Park – both on 75 minutes.
As the minutes ticked by the US regained control and England were doing their best to contain them.
The game eneded with the US on top, but there were just not enough minutes left for them.
Teams: England: Warps, Bronze, Carter, Walsh, Williamson, Greenwood, Naz, Stanway, Russo, Park, Mead
Subs: Hampton, Moorhouse, Morgan, Kirby, Bright, Turner, Kelly, Clinton, Beever-Jones, George, Mace, Blindkilde-Brown
USA: Naeher, Girma, Williams, Thompson, Horan, Sears, Sonnett, Lavelle, Coffey, Krueger, Fox
Subs: Haught, Sams, Albert, Nighswonger, Shaw, Sentnor, Yohannes, Davidson, Manson, Hershel, Gaetino, Ryan
Referee: Lina Lehtovaara
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