USWNT routs New Zealand, 5-0, at Nippert Stadium

A soccer match that was months in the making lived up to even the lofty standards of Greater Cincinnati’s booming soccer community.

The United States women’s national team’s first trip to Cincinnati since 2008 proved to be worth the hype, both on the field and in the Nippert Stadium grandstands as a crowd of 30,596 – a record for the women’s national team in the state of Ohio – observed a 5-0 thrashing of New Zealand Tuesday on the University of Cincinnati campus.

Rose Lavelle, the Cincinnati product, and rising American star started the match and was honored by supporters pre-match with a banner bearing her likeness.

Lavelle fired the first shot of the contest less than a minute into the game, which was her first competitive action since picking up a June hamstring injury.

Lavelle departed the match after 32 minutes, but there was still more for fans to cheer about. Following Lavelle's departure, four different players produced five goals over a 37-minute stretch that spanned the two halves.

By the time the final whistle blew on the nationally-televised match, the U.S. team and Cincinnati's soccer community both had plenty to feel good about.

"It was a good performance," U.S. head coach Jill Ellis said. "I think it was a consistent 90 minutes. Although we didn't get a lot of goals in the first half, I just thought we played very well and it was going to come. I talked about having an energized performance. I thought we had good numbers around the ball. I thought we had good range in our passing, you know. We played underneath. We played wide. We played over the top, so just a lot of good pictures today. And, you know, this is kind of the new beginning for us now in terms of now it's in this shape and as we move forward, I just think it was a really good start."

Lavelle's replacement, Lindsey Horan, opened the scoring in the 36th minute, just three minutes after entering the match.

Forward Mallory Pugh scored just before halftime to double the Americans' lead, and then the "USWNT" pulled away early in the second half.

Substitute and Woman of the Match Alex Morgan scored in the 46th and 69th minutes. The strikes also brought her tally of international goals to 77.

Sandwiched in between Morgan's goals was Lynn Williams' headed effort in the 55th minute.

U.S. goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher was hardly tested as she saw just five off-target shots in claiming an uneventful clean sheet.

The sum total of the Americans' play was a dominant victory.

The sum of the fans' turnout was another head-turning attendance figure for a city where such occurrences have become commonplace.

BIG-PICTURE USWNT TAKEAWAYS

Tuesday's match marked the conclusion of a two-game series between the U.S. and New Zealand national teams, with the Americans sweeping the matches.

The collection of 22 U.S. national team players that participated in the two games will now break camp and return to their respective club teams as the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) season commences its home stretch.

After disappointing showings in major competitions over the last two years, including the 2017 Tournament of Nations, the U.S. team sought to use the New Zealand matches to fortify its ranks ahead of busy and high-stakes 2018 schedule.

Coming out of the camp, which saw Ellis continue to engage in an evaluatory and experimental process with her player pool, players indicated a solid foundation was installed for the four remaining matches in 2017.

"I feel like (the New Zealand games) was a pretty good performance," Morgan said. "For the inconsistency of lineup, it went pretty well. Obviously, we're still trying out players in newer positions, newer roles on the team. I definitely feel like it's progressing. It's gotten better. There's still a lot to definitely learn from but I felt like, over the course of two games, we got better... I feel like there's a lot of really good energy in this camp. I felt like we definitely took strides from (the 2017 Tournament of Nations).

"I felt like everyone came in with this new tone ready to get after it. This new type of energy. Obviously, we have a lot of young players, so everyone is fighting for their spots. There's really no guaranteed spots at this point and Jill has said that she wants players to be fighting for their roles."

TAKEAWAYS FOR CINCINNATI

Some of the most prominent figures in American soccer walked away from Tuesday's match with high praise for Cincinnati, as well as the movement spurred by the Queen City's second-year United Soccer League club, Futbol Club Cincinnati.

Suffice it to say that praise should help FC Cincinnati as it continues its push for one of four Major League Soccer expansion spots.

The crowd that attended the match was the second of 30,000-plus since Saturday when FC Cincinnati hosted the New York Red Bulls II in USL play.

The chorus of praise for Cincinnati's soccer scene echoed throughout post-match interviews with Ellis and her players.

"The crowd was incredible," U.S. star Megan Rapinoe said. "We were talking in the locker room. Just thinking back to our domestic games over the year, this has to be one of the absolute best. Sometimes we go to cities and there will be 30,000 people and it's like they're watching a movie and I don't know what it is about certain cities, but this city and the fans - obviously the (American) Outlaws were huge - but they were just into it all night. That gives us a lot of energy."

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MATCH UPDATES

FULL-TIME: United States 5, New Zealand 0.

72' – United States substitution: Tobin Heath makes her return from injury as she comes on for Mal Pugh, who scored the second goal of the night for America.

69' – GOAL, United States, 5-0: Alex Morgan roofed a shot that caromed off the underside of the crossbar and into the net, marking her second tally of the night and 77th of her international career.

58' – New Zealand substitution: Olivia Chance for Kirsty Yallop.

57' – United States substitution: Samantha Mewis for Morgan Brian.

55' – GOAL, United States, 4-0: Lynn Williams' third-ever national team goal likely put the match out of reach. She headed home from about six yards out.

46' – GOAL, United States, 3-0: Alex Morgan's 76th career goal for America pushed the "USWNT's" advantage to 3-0.

45' – United States substitutions: Defender Taylor Smith is substituted on for Becky Sauerbraun, forward Lynn Williams is substituted on for Christen Press, and forward Alex Morgan is substituted on for Megan Rapinoe.

HALFTIME: United States 2, New Zealand 0.

44' – GOAL, United States, 2-0: Forward Mallory Pugh broke in alone on goal and finished tidily to double America's lead at 2-0. The goal in Pugh's sixth all-time for the U.S. women's national team.

36' – GOAL, United States, 1-0: Mere seconds after coming on for Cincinnati native Rose Lavelle, midfielder Lindsey Horan rocketed home for 1-0. The goal was Horan's fourth all-time for the U.S. women's national team.

33' – United States substitution: Lindsey Horan on for Rose Lavelle.

1' – Kickoff (8 p.m.)

PRE-MATCH: STARTING LINEUPS, BENCHES

USA: 1-Alyssa Naeher; 2-Mallory Pugh; 3-Samantha Mewis, 4-Becky Sauerbrunn (capt.), 5-Kelley O’hara, 7-Abby Dahlkemper, 8-Julie Ertz, 14-Casey Short, 15-Megan Rapinoe, 16-Rose Lavelle, 23-Christen Press

Substitutes: 24-Ashlyn Harris, 6-Morgan Brian, 9-Lindsey Horan, 12-Lynn Williams, 13-Alex Morgan, 17-Tobin Heath, 22-Taylor Smith

Head Coach: Jill Ellis

NZL: 1-Erin Nayler; 2-Ria Percival, 5-Meikayla Moore, 6-Rebekah Stott, 7-Ali Riley (capt.), 10-Annalie Longo, 11-Kirsty Yallop, 12-Betsy Hassett, 13-Rosie White, 14-Katie Bowen, 17-Hannah Wilkinson

Substitutes: 21-Anna Leat, 23-Victoria Esson, 3-Anna Green, 4-CJ Bott, 8-Daisy Cleverley, 15-Martine Puketapu, 16-Olivia Chance, 18-Aimee Phillips, 20-Malia Steinmetz, 22-Katie Rood, 25-Liz Anton, 26-Jane Barnett

Head Coach: Tony Readings

PRE-MATCH COVERAGE

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