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"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;VANCOUVER, British Columbia \u2014 The U.S. controls its own destiny in Group D when it meets Nigeria in the final group game here on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET, FOX). After a 3-1 win over Australia and 0-0 draw with Sweden, a win against the African side means the Americans win the group, which is actually pretty important.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Let\u2019s break it down:\r\n\r\n&lt;h3 class=\"p1\"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What\u2019s at stake?&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The U.S. enters the game leading the group with four points, followed by Australia (three), Sweden (two) and Nigeria (one). The top two group finishers are guaranteed to advance, while the third-place team will also advance presuming it is one of the top four third-place finishers in the competition.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If the U.S. wins the group, it\u2019ll go to Edmonton for its round of 16 game next Monday, most likely against the loser of Colombia-England (or England if it\u2019s a tie). If the U.S. finishes second in the group, a much more difficult round of 16 matchup would take place between the U.S. and Brazil in far-off Moncton on Sunday.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Long story short: The U.S. has a ton of incentive to win the group.\r\n\r\n&lt;h3 class=\"p1\"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who will start up top for the U.S.?&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;My sense is we\u2019ll finally see Abby Wambach and Alex Morgan start together up top. That\u2019s not guaranteed, of course, but Wambach seems like an obvious choice for coach Jill Ellis for a number of reasons: 1) She\u2019s fresh, having come off the bench in the last game; 2) The U.S. needs better hold-up play at forward; 3) Wambach is a menace on set-pieces, which the Nigerians have had all sorts of trouble defending.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As for Morgan, she thinks she\u2019s capable of starting having come off the bench in the first two games after her comeback from a bone bruise in her knee.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If Morgan is capable of at least 45 minutes, it makes sense to run her out and see where she is.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ellis said on Monday that she sees Morgan playing a bigger role for the team in upcoming games.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CEven going back as far as the send-off games, we put together a plan in terms of loading her,\u201D Ellis said. \u201CThat\u2019s important. We didn\u2019t want to go from suddenly not training to playing a lot. So yes, that is the plan. I think it\u2019s been good to get her in. My interest is certainly to get her more minutes for sure.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;h3 class=\"p1\"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What did Ellis think of Wambach\u2019s turf comments?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;On Saturday, Wambach argued that the U.S. would have more goals in this tournament if it had been played on grass. She had a point when it came to her header that bounced hard off the turf and over the crossbar against Sweden. That might have been on frame on a grass surface. But Wambach\u2019s contention that she wasn\u2019t going at 100% into diving headers on the turf was a head-scratcher. If that\u2019s the case, maybe Ellis should find someone who will?\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So I asked Ellis on Monday if she 1) agreed with Wambach, and 2) had concerns about Wambach not going full-throttle? Ellis sort of answered it.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI can\u2019t speak for Abby,\u201D she said. \u201CFrom my perception, listen, the game is different on turf, but it\u2019s the same for everybody. That\u2019s kind of been the mantra for our team. I would love the surfaces to be more wet. I think the surfaces are very dry. It\u2019s turf, and it is what it is, but I still think we can make the surfaces play faster by putting water on them.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As for Wambach, Ellis added: \u201CShe\u2019s played a lot of games. Only she can attest to how different it feels. But for me it\u2019s just the focus of: We\u2019re going to get it done. Period.\u201D\r\n\r\n\r\n\t&lt;strong&gt;WAHL: Nigeria's anti-homosexuality laws and their impact on the women's team&lt;/strong&gt;\r\n\r\n\r\n&lt;h3 class=\"p1\"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Will the U.S. midfield start improving?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When the U.S. hasn\u2019t been bypassing the central midfield altogether, there still hasn\u2019t been much movement of creative thrust in the first two games of the World Cup. \r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u200BYou could argue that the central midfield of Lauren Holiday and Carli Lloyd should be tweaked\u2014with Lloyd staying at home and Holiday playing more advanced, as in the 2012 Olympics.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ellis, for her part, remains upbeat.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI have faith in these players, and I think we will get better and better,\u201D she said. \u201CWe met the other night and talked about at times we do leave them on an island. The thing about playing a 4-4-2 is you don\u2019t want to be static, you don\u2019t want it to be just straight lines.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ellis went on to say that she wants her team to give Lloyd and Holiday more outlets against high-pressure teams and give them more support in defensive transition.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;h3 class=\"p1\"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Set from the start&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In a conversation prior to the World Cup, Ellis confirmed that the U.S. does indeed have a set play that it likes to use on kickoffs with the express intent of scoring to start the half.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CTeams probably know that we do,\u201D she admitted, but she likes to add wrinkles to give it a new look from time to time.\r\n\r\n&lt;h3 class=\"p1\"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;GALLERY: Leroux, Dwyer, Boss in uniform&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;\r\n\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.si.com/planet-futbol/2015/06/16/usa-nigeria-preview-womens-world-cup>