Megan Rapinoe and Rose Lavelle spark U.S. women’s soccer team to 2-1 win over Nigeria

WASHINGTON — The U.S. women’s soccer team has a long history of playing two-game home series against opponents and being tested more in the second game than the first. That was the case again Tuesday, as the Americans had to fight for a 2-1 win over Nigeria at Audi Field after beating the Super Falcons, 4-0, in Saturday’s opener.

The starting lineup largely was unchanged from the first contest, in the particular the front line of Mallory Pugh, Alex Morgan, and Sophia Smith. Manager Vlatko Andonovski has made it clear that trio is his top group for as long as Catarina Macario is out with a torn ACL, so they are getting as many minutes as makes sense.

But there were three changes farther back. In the midfield, Sam Coffey made her national team debut, starting at the holding spot for Andi Sullivan and becoming the 250th U.S. women’s player to take the field in program history. On the back line, Naomi Girma came in for Becky Sauerbrunn, and in goal Casey Murphy started instead of Alyssa Naeher.

» READ MORE: Sophia Smith’s killer scoring instincts makes her must-see TV with the USWNT

The first goal came midway through the first half, after a spell of spirited Nigerian defending. But Pugh and Lindsey Horan combined to break it, with Pugh’s cross toward Horan’s run forcing Blessing Demehin into an own goal.

Nigeria’s Uchenna Kanu, a halftime substitute, made a quick impact with a 50th-minute equalizer. She cut in from the left wing and smashed a shot into the top corner at Murphy’s far post, ending an 880-minute U.S. shutout streak.

The Americans responded with a big play from their own first substitute, Megan Rapinoe, who replaced Smith in the 65th minute to a thunderous ovation.

Just 70 seconds after taking the field, Horan sprung Pugh with a ball over the top, and she fed a racing Rapinoe on the left. Rapinoe corralled the ball, crossed for Rose Lavelle, and the 5-foot-4 playmaker leapt to score a rare-for-her header that rolled across the line.

The 18,869 fans in the house approved the motion in a landslide.

» READ MORE: Megan Rapinoe answers the call to be a player-coach with the U.S. women’s soccer team’s young stars

“If I’m only going to play around 30 minutes, I want to be impactful,” Rapinoe said. “That’s the special thing about this team. You stop ‘em for a few minutes, and then you’ve got people coming off the bench that can change the game.”

A moment later, Lavelle walked up to the cameras and stood next to her OL Reign teammate.

“I had to do a little bit of twisting,” she said. “I saw Pinoe, she’s always going to whip in great crosses, so it’s just a matter of people being on the end of it. And, thankfully, I was on the end of it, and it trickled in.”

Andonovski quipped: “I still don’t know how Rose managed to get a head on that ball.”

But he also had a serious message about his team’s performance.

“I’m very proud of the team and how they handled it because I do know that there will be a moment like this when it matters,” he said. “The fact that they figured out a way to get a goal and win the game is very good for us. But we did learn a big lesson that when we create opportunities early, we need to put them away, because otherwise we can go through the moments like we did in the second half.”

» READ MORE: New mom Crystal Dunn is ‘pretty close’ to returning to action with the USWNT

Andonovski waited until the 81st minute to make his second and third substitutions, the only other ones of the night Left back prospect Hailie Mace replaced starter Emily Fox, and striker Ashley Hatch — popular with the local fans from playing for the Washington Spirit — replaced Morgan. They helped close the game with little trouble.

After the final whistle, U.S. Soccer held a signing ceremony for the new equal pay collective bargaining agreements with its men’s and women’s players’ unions. The ceremony was attended by current and former women’s teams players and executives from both unions. (Women’s soccer is in a FIFA national team window right now, but the men’s game isn’t, so all those players are busy with their clubs.)

Special guests included members of Congress, U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh, AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler, and the chiefs of four other sports labor unions: the NFL Players Association’s DeMaurice Smith, the MLB Players Association’s Tony Clark, the MLS Players Association’s Bob Foose, and the NWSL Players Association’s Meghann Burke.

» READ MORE: U.S. Soccer throws a long-awaited party for its equal-pay collective bargaining deals