Alex Morgan's 83rd minute strike allowed the U.S. Women's National Team to salvage a 1-1 tie with China on Wednesday in the second part of their two-match World Cup qualifying warm-up.
The goal was the 21-year-old's first in her senior national team career and it allowed the U.S. women to avoid what would have been a disappointing result.
China was able to grab the lead in the 37th minute on a Ma Jun 12-yard volley and did a fair job of limiting the Americans' opportunities until the final 30 minutes of the match.
Aided by some late substitutes, including Morgan, the U.S. turned up the pressure toward the end of the match.
"If you look at the first half, I thought we couldn’t connect and China made us look not so good," U.S. coach Pia Sundhage said. "We struggled a little but, but even a goal down the attitude was to come back. Having players come of the bench and change the game like Yael Averbuch and Alex Morgan was a good thing and that was a big goal to tie the game late. We did that a lot in 2008 and we did it again now. As long as we can do that – coming back – we are a strong team."