U.S. Women's National Team vs Mexico: 3 thoughts from the U.S. win

Lauren Holiday was unleashed

Midfielder Morgan Brian #25 of USA celebrates with teammate Lauren Holiday #12

It became pretty obvious watching the NWSL this year (as if it wasn’t already obvious) that both Carli Lloyd and Lauren Holiday are pretty special attacking center midfielders.

Lloyd, playing underneath Abby Wambach with the Western New York Flash, was outstanding and her performance in the NWSL semifinals was yet another demonstration of her fantastic goal-scoring ability.

Holiday, playing as the attacking midfielder underneath FC Kansas City’s three-front, led the league in goals and assists and won the league’s MVP award.

With the national team, Lloyd’s attacking prowess has been obvious, especially in the last two Olympic finals, when she had the game-winning goals. Holiday (then Lauren Cheney) made her name with the USWNT originally as a striker, partnering Abby Wambach up top in the 2011 World Cup.

However, in the 2012 Olympics, with Shannon Boxx out with an injury, the two struggled to find a good rhythm together when paired together in the midfield. By then, Morgan had won the job up top, and Cheney was moved back to her more natural midfield position.

Cheney seemed off for much of 2012, unable to replicate the form which had made her so vital to the team in 2011 and Lloyd couldn’t seem to get forward without the presence of a dedicated holding midfielder like Boxx behind her.

In fact, when Lloyd did score her double in the Olympic final, it was because Boxx returned from injury and Cheney went to the bench.

On Tuesday night against Mexico, with Lloyd holding much of the match, Holiday was able to be the lynchpin of the U.S. attack. Besides setting up the U.S.’s second and third goals and assisting on the fifth, Holiday’s passing in the middle was key all night long.

She was involved in almost all of the U.S.’s most dangerous attacks with great reverse passes, through balls and constantly switching the point of attack.

Like the forward dilemma, there are no easy answers for Sermanni in the midfield. Perhaps Lloyd and Holiday will be able to develop a cohesive partnership, but it’s likely that the partnership will result in one of the two having to give up a fair amount of their runs going forward.

Boxx has been injured for most of 2013 and is by no means a guaranteed inclusion on the 2015 World Cup roster. And with Yael Averbuch being the only true dedicated holding midfielder currently in the player pool, Holiday and Lloyd will likely be the midfield combination going forward if the U.S. stays in its 4-1-3-2 formation.