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2021 Women's International Friendly
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ESPN 3y

United States beat Mexico again in final tune-up for Tokyo Olympics

The United States women beat Mexico 4-0 again in East Hartford, Connecticut, on Monday in its final warmup match for the Tokyo Olympics.

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This was the second of two pre-Olympic friendlies for the U.S. against Mexico, with the Americans easing to victory by a 4-0 final scoreline on Thursday.

The U.S. picked right up where it left off last week with Lindsay Horan opening the scoring from a stellar volley after Carli Lloyd had played her in with a flicked-on header.

"You guys don't know how often I work on volleys, they're my favorite shot to hit," Horan said. "So yeah, I was a little excited when that opportunity came. Thank goodness I didn't miss it."

Lloyd then had the U.S. up two just after the 10-minute mark, diving to head Crystal Dunn's cross past Mexico keeper Itzel González.

Goals from Tobin Heath, in the starting lineup for the first time after being out injured, and and an own goal from Mexico's Reyna Reyes saw the Americans take a four-goal advantage into the half-time break.

The U.S. applied plenty of pressure to Mexico's defense in the second half, but Vlatko Andonovski's side could not add to the goals tally and settled for the same scoreline as it did in the teams' previous match.

"I feel good," Andonovski said. "Very excited about the trip. Obviously I feel like we're prepared. I feel like we are moving in the right direction and slowly but surely fulfilling all the tasks necessary to be fully prepared for the Olympics."

The U.S. women face Sweden on July 21, New Zealand on July 24 and Australia on July 27 in group play in Tokyo in its quest to win Olympic gold for the fifth -- and third-consecutive -- time.

The Sweden match could conjure memories of when the Swedes eliminated the USWNT on penalty kicks in the quarterfinals of the 2016 Olympics in Brazil, the only time the Americans weren't gold or silver medalists since the first tournament in 1996.

"The energy is really high, the environment feels really great," defender Becky Sauerbrunn said. "The form on the field, I think there are still things that we're just narrowing down, and to me it's always going to be about precision. But I think we've made a lot of strides, especially in the final third, with that precision."

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