Alex Morgan led the line for both the 2015 and 2019 World Cup champion USWNTs. Which was better? (Photo by Stuart Franklin - FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)

It’s almost April, which means Americans should have non-stop soccer to consume.

The U.S. men’s national team should be in the middle of trying to qualify for its first Olympics since 2008. The MLS season should be in full swing, with NWSL action soon to follow. And the U.S. women’s national team should be preparing to try to win the first gold medal right after a Women’s World Cup.

All of that is on hold due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, however, so soccer lovers have turned to re-watching and re-discussing classic matches. But there’s only so much intrigue from matches where you already know the outcome.

Instead of looking to the past, let’s step into alternate dimension: The 2015 USWNT that won the World Cup in Canada is facing off against the 2019 USWNT that won it all in France. It’s USWNT vs. USWNT and World Cup champion vs. World Cup champion – who will win?

It’s fun to think about how the networks and media would market this matchup. Does “clash of champions” undersell it? Would the angle be “2015 Carli Lloyd vs. 2019 Megan Rapinoe” for two the players who reached the height of their powers in the tournaments? Would it be offense (2019) vs. defense (2015)?

Even though both of these teams are the USWNT, they certainly look quite different, both on paper and in the way they play. Let’s see how this might go …

The tactical matchup

The two USWNTs play different formations and line up in different ways.

The 2015 USWNT started the World Cup in a 4-4-2 that was easily overrun in the midfield. The reason for this seems to stem in part from coach Jill Ellis’s insistence that the team play with “two No. 6s” in a two-woman central midfield.

In this system, the two central midfielders don’t have defined roles – they are expected to switch off between attacking and defending on the fly. When Carli Lloyd pushes up, Lauren Holiday is supposed to hang back, and vice versa. Lloyd was obviously frustrated by this in the group stage of the 2015 World Cup and suggested it was holding her back.

The 4-4-2 never clicked and by the end of the tournament, Ellis switched to a formation that looks much closer to the 4-3-3 the team later used in the 2019 World Cup. In that system, Lloyd is a pure attacking midfielder with free rein to wreak havoc – that’s what she did, becoming the Golden Boot winner of the 2015 World Cup.

The 2019 USWNT doesn’t have the same midfield problem. It’s got three players with relatively defined roles, although there’s still plenty rotation. Julie Ertz is the defensive No. 6, either Samantha Mewis or Lindsey Horan play a box-to-box No. 8 role, and Rose Lavelle is the creative No. 10.

But where the 2019 USWNT risks being overrun is on the flanks. The fullbacks, Crystal Dunn and Kelley O’Hara, are asked to bomb forward and become full participants in the attacking phases of the game. In that case, another player – often Ertz – has to try to cover open space and prevent a quick counterattack.

As games in the lead-up to the 2019 World Cup showed, if Ertz or whoever was left behind got beat, the USWNT was quite vulnerable in transition. If anyone could punish the 2019 USWNT in such a scenario, it’s probably the 2015 USWNT, which played ultra-direct, unapologetically route-one soccer.

View photos Crystal Dunn and fellow fullback Kelley O'Hara were asked to bomb forward down the flanks much more than the 2015 USWNT fullbacks were. (Photo by VI Images via Getty Images) More

Which attack is more lethal?

Both of these teams have Alex Morgan, which is a great start. She’s a clinical finisher, has the pace and power to punish back lines, and she’s a work horse. She’s the player the USWNT attack has been built around in both teams.

But for as good as Morgan was in 2015, she became better later.

When the USWNT played a direct style in 2015 and she mostly had to chase down balls, she could do that. But she later sought to evolve her game, working on her hold-up play and challenging herself to take on defenders face-up in front of goal to become a more well-rounded threat.