PREVIEW: WNT Eyes 500th Win vs. Portugal in Lisbon | Thursday, Nov. 8 | 1 p.m. ET on ESPN2

The U.S. Women’s National Team will bring its 2018 schedule to a close with two matches in Europe, the first one coming against Portugal on Nov. 8 in Lisbon (1 p.m. ET on ESPN2) at Estadio António Coimbra da Mota, the 8,000-seat home to Second Division club G.D. Estoril Praia.

The USA is coming off a successful run at the 2018 Concacaf Women’s Championship in which it went 5-0-0, qualified for the 2019 Women’s World Cup by rolling past Jamaica 6-0 in the semifinal and then defeated Canada, 2-0, in the championship game to claim the regional title.

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U.S. WNT ROSTER BY POSITION: EUROPE 2018 (CAPS/GOALS)
GOALKEEPERS (3): 18- Adrianna Franch (Portland Thorns FC; 0/0), 24- Ashlyn Harris (Orlando Pride; 18/0), 1- Alyssa Naeher (Chicago Red Stars; 37/0)
DEFENDERS (7): 7- Abby Dahlkemper (NC Courage; 28/0), 19- Crystal Dunn (NC Courage; 73/24), 25- Emily Fox(UNC; 0/0), 12- Merritt Mathias (NC Courage; 1/0), 4- Becky Sauerbrunn (Utah Royals FC; 147/0), 14- Casey Short (Chicago Red Stars; 27/0), 2- Emily Sonnett (Portland Thorns FC; 24/0)
MIDFIELDERS (7): 22- Danielle Colaprico (Chicago Red Stars; 0/0), 8- Julie Ertz (Chicago Red Stars; 71/18); 9- Lindsey Horan (Portland Thorns FC; 61/7), 16- Rose Lavelle (Washington Spirit; 18/6), 20- Allie Long (Seattle Reign FC; 39/6), 3- Samantha Mewis (NC Courage; 40/8), 6- Andi Sullivan (Washington Spirit; 10/0)
FORWARDS (5): 10- Carli Lloyd (Sky Blue FC; 262/105), 21- Jessica McDonald (NC Courage; 1/0), 13- Alex Morgan (Orlando Pride; 151/97), 11- Mallory Pugh (Washington Spirit; 41/12), 15- Megan Rapinoe (Seattle Reign FC; 144/41)

STORYLINES

USA vs. Portugal: Despite having played in Portugal for the first time in 1994, the U.S. WNT has only faced Portugal on six occasions. The USA has won all of those matches with four of those six meetings taking place at the Algarve Cup. Four of those meetings took place in the 1990s and the teams have not met since 2001, a 2-0 U.S. victory in Silves, Portugal. The two other matches between the USA and Portugal were played in Florida in January of 1999, the latter of which featured Michelle Akers’ 100thcareer goal. Between 1994 and 2015, the USA played 79 matches at twenty Algarve Cup tournaments, all held on the southern coast of Portugal, but this will be the USA’s first game in the capital of Lisbon.

Concacaf Champs: Fifteen of the 22 players on this trip were on the roster for the USA’s victorious run at the 2018 Concacaf Women’s Championship. The three players from the World Cup qualifying squad who were not named to this roster are defender Hailie Mace, midfielder Morgan Brian and defender Kelley O’Hara, who recently underwent arthroscopic ankle surgery. Forwards Christen Press and Tobin Heath were named to the roster but had to withdraw due to a family commitment and a personal commitment, respectively. All 20 players on the World Cup qualifying roster played in the tournament and 10 different players scored the USA’s 26 goals in qualifying: Alex Morgan (7), Heath (4), Rose Lavelle (3), Carli Lloyd (3), Megan Rapinoe (3), Julie Ertz (2), Crystal Dunn, Lindsey Horan, Press and Samantha Mewis.

Historic 500th Win On the Horizon for U.S. WNT Program: The next victory for the U.S. Women’s National Team will mark an impressive milestone as it will be the 500th win in program history. Since its inception in 1985, the U.S. WNT has compiled a record of 499 wins, 65 losses and 74 ties. Over the history of the program, the USA has gone 282-28-20 (85% winning percentage) at home, 49-13-17 away (62%) and 168-33-28 (73%) on neutral ground. Of the USA’s 65 losses, 12 came at the Algarve Cup in Portugal.

Quality Results: The U.S. team has a 16-0-2 record in 2018 and has not lost since the 2017 Tournament of Nations, a 1-0 setback to Australia. It has gone 23-0-3 over the past 16 months and has averaged 3.5 goals per game, outscoring its opponents 91-17 over these 26 matches while scoring in all 26 games. The USA’s 2018 has so far featured wins over Denmark, Germany, England, Mexico (thrice), China PR (twice), Japan, Brazil, Chile (twice), Panama, Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica and Canada, along with ties vs. France (which is ranked fourth in the world) and Australia (ranked sixth). The WNT hasn’t conceded a goal in 704 minutes, with the last one coming against Brazil during the Tournament of Nations on Aug. 2. This is the longest streak without conceding for the WNT since 2016.

100 Goals Watch: After scoring against Canada on Oct. 17, Alex Morgan now has 97 goals and at age 29 sits in sole possession of seventh place on the USA’s all-time goal scoring list. She has scored 24 goals over her last 24 WNT matches through the end of 2017 and deep into 2018. With her hat trick against Japan on July 26, the fourth of her career, Morgan is now tied with Michelle Akers in third place all-time in multi-goal games (26) behind Abby Wambach (45) and Mia Hamm (38). She has 22 career two-goal games. Morgan has scored against 27 different countries and in 11 different countries, including 12 goals in Portugal – all at the Algarve Cup – and two in Scotland, both against France at Hampden Park in Glasgow during the 2012 Olympics.

Lloyd Keeps Adding Her Name to the Record Books: On Oct. 7 vs. Panama, Carli Lloyd scored her eighth career hat trick and upped her career total to 105 goals. She is now two goals away from tying Michelle Akers for fourth all-time on the U.S. goals list. With her hat trick, Lloyd tied Mia Hamm for most three-goals games all-time in U.S. WNT history. Hamm also scored two four-goal games in her career. Lloyd is tied with Kristine Lilly and Cindy Parlow for fifth-all time in multi-goal games with 17. Against Panama, Lloyd became the oldest player to score a hat trick for the U.S. WNT (36 years, 83 days). She broke Wambach’s record of 34 years, 186 days. Since turning 30, she has scored 69 goals in 128 games in six years. The 128 games after the age of 30 rank her fourth all-time in U.S. history in that category and is three caps away from tying Shannon Boxx in third place. Christie Rampone is far and away the leader with 175.

2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup Qualifiers: The 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup will be held from June 7-July 7 in nine cities in France. So far, 18 countries have qualified with a few teams still vying for remaining spots. The Final Draw for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup will be conducted in Paris on December 8. This will be the second World Cup with 24 nations, up from 16 that were in Germany in 2011. The qualified nations so far are: host, France; England, Germany, Italy, Norway, Scotland, Spain and Sweden from UEFA. Brazil and Chile from South America, and Australia, China PR, Japan, Korea Republic and Thailand from the AFC and the USA, Canada and Jamaica from Concacaf.

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