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TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Hope Solo got her 71st career shutout, Sydney Leroux scored a first-half goal, and the United States women's team beat France 1-0 in a friendly Saturday night.
Solo made a nice save on Elodie Thomis early on, and got a break when Eugenie Le Sommer's shot hit the post 15 minutes before halftime. Solo tied Briana Scurry for the most shutouts by a U.S. goalkeeper.
"It's an amazing moment, Solo said. "It goes down in history. I'm happy it was against a great team. I earned it. I had a couple saves. That's going to go down as a very memorable game for me."
Leroux scored her team-leading seventh goal this season from in-close in the 21st minute.
U.S. forward Abby Wambach, who has 167 career goals, was not in the lineup. Wambach hurt her left knee during a NWSL game earlier this month and is listed as day-to-day.
The match against France was the first for the U.S. team since Jill Ellis was promoted to head coach on May 16. Ellis was the team's interim coach after Tom Sermanni was unexpectedly fired in early April after an exhibition victory against China.
"We just played a tremendous opponent, so it's very meaningful," Ellis said.
France made a late push in the second half, but failed to get the equalizer.
"France put the pedal down," Ellis said. "But I thought we defended very well."
"We had chances," France midfielder Ines Jaurena said.
U.S. forward Alex Morgan entered in the 49th minute, her first national team appearance since November. Morgan had been out with an ankle injury.
"It's been a long time definitely," Morgan said. "The speed (of the game) I need to get used to."
Saturday's start was delayed 40 minutes due a thunderstorm that prompted officials at Raymond James Stadium to clear the stands and have fans move to covered areas under the stands 30 minutes before the scheduled 7:30 start. It was the first meeting between the teams since the 2012 Olympics, which the U.S. won 4-2
The U.S. women will host the eight-team CONCACAF World Cup qualifying tournament in October.
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