How losing Rapinoe and Holiday will affect U.S.

Originally published June 24, 2015.

EDMONTON, Alberta - The United States will face its biggest challenge yet in the Women's World Cup quarterfinals, and it will have nothing to do with the team across the field.

Key creative midfielders Megan Rapinoe and Lauren Holiday will be suspended for Friday's game against China in Ottawa after picking up their second yellow cards of the tournament in Monday's 2-0 win over Colombia. By FIFA rule, any player who gets two yellow cards at any point before the quarterfinals - even across separate games - must sit out one game.

Filling the hole left by Rapinoe's absence will be an enormous challenge. No other player on the U.S. squad has her mix of speed, dynamism and unpredictability. Time and again in this tournament, Rapinoe has shown that she's America's best weapon for unlocking opponents that bunker in defensively. China is expected to do just that.

If head coach Jill Ellis' recent lineups are any indication, it would seem the most likely move is to shift winger Tobin Heath from the right flank to the left, and put Christen Press in Heath's spot. But Press is a striker by nature, as she showed with her well-taken goal against Australia. A more natural fit would be Heather O'Reilly, but she's down Ellis' depth chart for reasons that the coach has never made clear.

Ellis didn't make any specific mention of who will replace Rapinoe.

"We've got players with tremendous technical skills, we've got good pace in certain positions, and I know that they will step up," Ellis said. "I thought Tobin has been very consistent, very good in the last couple of games. I have utmost confidence in the players we have."

The two yellow card rule does not sit well with a lot of people in the global soccer community, but it is a long-established precedent in FIFA tournaments. So it was startling to hear U.S. forward Abby Wambach call out French referee Stephanie Frappart with an accusation of bias in a postgame interview Monday night.

"I don't know if they were yellows," Wambach said. "It seemed like she was purposefully giving yellows to, maybe, players that she knew were sitting on yellows. I don't know if it was just a psychological thing, who knows?"

Those remarks could get Wambach in serious hot water with FIFA. When Canadian star Christine Sinclair criticized the referees after losing to the U.S. in the 2012 Olympics, FIFA suspended her four games for "unsporting behavior."

It's up to FIFA to deal with Wambach, but it's up to Ellis to deal with how to replace Rapinoe and Holiday.

Ellis said Monday night that Morgan Brian will likely slot into Holiday's place in the center of the park next to Carli Lloyd. Both players' skill sets are similar, and the 22-year-old Brian has already shown that her lack of experience is no hindrance in delivering on soccer's biggest stage.

"Hopefully, I just go in there and it's pretty seamless," said Brian, who plays alongside Lloyd at club level with the National Women's Soccer League's Houston Dash.