Sophia Smith scored her first hat trick when the U.S.
women’s national team defeated Uzbekistan 9-1 at Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday to extend its home unbeaten streak to 66 games.
Despite the rout, the U.S. allowed a home goal for the first time in more than two years when Aziza Norboeva made it 7-1 to end the 17-match home shutout streak.
The Americans last conceded a home goal on March 11, 2020, in a 3-1 win over Japan.
The world’s top-ranked team started slowly but goals less than a minute apart by Andi Sullivan (26th) and Mallory Pugh (27th) opened the floodgates for a 4-0 halftime lead.
Smith made it 3-0 in the 33rd minute and she added another two minutes later as the U.S.
outshot the 48th-ranked team 13-0 in the first half. She got her third goal in the 56th minute. Smith has four goals in 14 international games.
The U.S. has 59 wins and cooking (http://gm.ru/bitrix/redirect.php?goto=https://trendcooks.weebly.com) seven ties during its home unbeaten streak.
Sullivan opened the scoring with her third goal in 26 matches off a header by Alana Cook.
Directly off the kickoff, the U.S. pressured and Rose Lavelle started a counter with three other attackers, while Pugh finished her 22nd goal from the center of the box for the two-goal lead.
Pugh set up Smith for the third tally and on the fourth goal, Smith scored with a left-footed finish.
There was no letup to start the second half when Catarina Macario padded the advantage to 5-0 with strong shot from the right side in the 46th minute.
She has seven goals in 16 games.
After Smith made it 6-0 from Pugh, Jaelin Howell scored her first goal before Uzbekistan got on the board. Ashley Hatch made it 8-1 in the 87th minute and Ashley Sanchez got her first career goal in the 90th minute.
The teams play again Tuesday at Chester, Pa.
— Field Level Media
