USWNT vs. Brazil tonight; Ellis on Cox, NWSL

Brazil got their goal very early in the contest.

The U.S. Women’s National team’s World Cup victory tour made it’s way to the Emerald City Wednesday night and the match between two of the women’s games biggest rivals did not disappoint as the U.S. Women’s National team and the Brazilian National team played to an entertaining 1-1 draw. A draw was as good as it was going to get.

Lloyd, who was recently named Sportswomen of the Year alongside Serena Williams, now has 17 goals in 2015. Her previous best was 15 goals scored in 2012 and 2014. “She deserved to be on that roster, and it’s so fitting that she goes out as a world champion”. It wasn’t a gesture for her to make the World Cup squad. The U.S. played the first four games of their tour against Costa Rica and Haiti, winning all four quite handily.

For the 23,603 fans in Seattle’s gleaming downtown football stadium, the desperate effort by the U.S.to try and get on the board certainly made for a dramatic finale.

Players and fans have grown accustomed to seeing the US breeze through its post-World Cup games, especially with Australia dropping out of its pair of scheduled friendlies.

Hope Solo said she was looking forward to her Seattle homecoming, but the former University of Washington star was rudely reintroduced to the perils of the Brazilians.

The style worked for them early on, as Brazil went ahead in the 3rd minute off a corner kick. Brazil carried their 1-0 lead for much of the match. When the U.S. faces Brazil again on Sunday, teammates Lauren Holiday and Lori Chalupny will also play their final matches before retiring.

Shannon Boxx has called it quits after 13 years.

Led by star attacker Marta Shimmead, Brazil scored the opening goal less than 4 minutes in.

The Brazilian national team is in the middle of an 18-month residency camp that is meant to carry them through the World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, so it’s understandable that even though several of their players flew in from Europe for these friendlies, they might look more coherent than the U.S. national team, whose players have mostly been on vacation since the NWSL season ended.

“I thought we got better in the second half and created a lot more chances and got stronger”, USA coach Jill Ellis said. Later, she drew a chat with the referee for another fruitless attempt to draw attention to what she clearly felt were flagrant flops by Brazil.

20 matches had gone by without USA seeing defeat. Megan Rapinoe had a clear run but shot at the keeper in the second half. By the time she lined it up, however, Brazil goalkeeper Luciana was in the right spot and easily punched Rapinoe’s bid away.

The game was a send-off for veteran Boxx. Not Boxx. She just kept battling; “Perseverance and hard work-those things paid off for me”. She almost left the game in 2003, when she had been accepted into Pepperdine University for a master’s program in clinical psychology.

When Boxx was subbed off in the 41st minute, she joked about getting off the field; “You know at first I kind forgot and I got to get off the field fast”.

As readers may have figured, the USWNT plays the same opponent in their next two matches, and it figures to be the most competitive games of the tour as they face Brazil.