ORLANDO, Florida -- As soon as the ball sailed off her foot and curled spectacularly in the air, Christen Press knew she had herself a goal. A supremely powerful, did-you-just-see-that goal, created in a way only Press can create.
"Just a beauty," teammate Julie Ertz said.
Press has scored goals like that before, but everything that led to that moment and everything that followed in a 2-0 win over England in the SheBelieves Cup on Thursday suggests the United States is on the verge of putting together an Olympics run that looks quite different from its 2019 winning run at the Women's World Cup.
New coach Vlatko Andonovski has revamped the underlying tactical approach -- making the most recognizable women's soccer team in the world somewhat unrecognizable, transformed in a way that even casual observers cannot miss. They are constantly on the attack, using their superior players at forward and midfield to constantly put pressure on the opposition.
Though that was easy enough to do in early friendlies and against overmatched teams during Olympic qualifying, the true test would come against England -- a team that took the United States down to the wire in the World Cup semifinals less than a year ago. If any bad blood remained between the two squads -- Alex Morgan infamously sipped tea after scoring a goal -- it failed to materialize.
- U.S. women beat England with Press, Lloyd goals
- Ertz becomes 40th U.S. woman to earn 100 caps
- USWNT faces difficult task in SheBelieves Cup
Instead, what became obvious 10 minutes in was that England was no match for the United States. Granted, England was missing several key starters off its team due to injury, but it is hard to say they would have had much impact in slowing down the United States. If not for two brilliant saves from Carly Telford, the U.S. would have scored at least two goals in the first half.
But within a two-minute span in the second half, the Press goal and then another from Carli Lloyd put the match out of reach. The United States took 22 total shots, a number that suggests this is the new normal. Except it had not been against England, a team desperate to catch its American counterparts. This was the first time the United States beat England by two goals since the 2007 Women's World Cup.
"What Vlatko and the coaching staff are doing an amazing job of -- they're injecting confidence into players and they're wanting players to be themselves and they're encouraging positional change. And they're encouraging people to take players on," team captain Carli Lloyd said. "Things are starting to flow and come into sync."
You could argue the change in coaching staff, style and approach has benefited Lloyd most of all. With Morgan out (she is due to give birth next month), Andonovski saw a natural opportunity to fill the position with Lloyd. She has not disappointed.
In seven games under Andonovski, she has scored five goals. Lloyd said the pass Lindsey Horan delivered to set up her goal on Thursday night is something they had practiced multiple times.
"The front three, we have a really incredible amount of running we need to do in the defensive press up there and that suits me because I've been a midfielder my whole life and I have the mindset of doing that dirty work," Lloyd said. "Most people label forwards as maybe not wanting to do the defensive work. But in this formation, and the way we play, we have to, we're the start of it. That suits me. I can help lead the team and start the press off but having somebody who respects who am I as a person, as a player, sees how much work I put in every single training session, every single game, I'm just here to keep continuing to get better.
"It's been nice to have the freedom and support from Vlatko and the coaching staff to just be me. To pop in those pockets where I can. If I can turn, if I can play some through balls ... I try to take everything he's telling me and when we sit down to watch video trying to implement everything I can to help the team."
Andonovski said the approach with Lloyd is simple: "One thing that I wanted from Carli is to get more involved, not just to score goals but to create for this team and to be a leader by action. It seems like she's finding herself a little better in different spaces in different areas of the field, which is great for her. Because of that, she becomes a little more unpredictable now and that's why she'll find herself in a goal-scoring opportunities because her game is changing from minute to minute."
As the United States prepares for a quick turnaround against Spain on Sunday in New Jersey in the next SheBelieves Cup game (5 p.m. ET, ESPN/WatchESPN), the topic will most certainly not be its pretty goals but how to finish off the myriad opportunities it had against England.
Another area the team is working on is its creativity on the field, or as Andonovski said "add a little flair because this team has the quality to do that." Given the abundance of talent among its capable goal scorers, you can imagine where a little more of that could take this group.
"He's done incredible," Horan said of Andonovski. "He's challenged us in a different way, in the way we're playing and the things we're trying to do. We pride ourselves in what he's done with us and keeping our standards high."
Those standards this year mean trying to make some history. It's not lost on any of them that no team has ever won the Women's World Cup and then the Olympics the following year. The United States is on a 29-match unbeaten streak, and the goal appears to be clear even if the playing style is a little bit different.
"We can never take our foot off the pedal," Lloyd said. "We've also got an unbelievable team and as long as we keep getting better, this team is definitely unstoppable."