US women lose consecutive home games for 1st time since '00

WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. women's soccer team lost consecutive home games for the first time in 17 years, stumbling to a 3-0 defeat to France on a rainy Tuesday night in the SheBelieves Cup.

The Americans have faltered since winning the 2015 Women's World Cup. They were knocked out of last summer's Olympics with a penalty-kicks loss to Sweden in the quarterfinals and after winning the opener of this tournament against Germany, lost 1-0 to England last weekend in New Jersey.

The U.S. had not lost back-to-back matches at home since a pair of exhibitions against Norway in February 2000. It had not lost consecutive games anywhere since defeats against Sweden and Denmark in March 2014 at the Algarve Cup in Portugal helped lead the U.S. Soccer Federation to fire coach Tom Sermanni a month later and replace him with Jill Ellis.

Next up for the Americans are a pair of exhibitions against Russia, on April 6 in Frisco, Texas, and three days later at Houston.

Camille Abily scored twice and Eugenie Le Sommer also had a goal for France, which won the second edition of the round-robin tournament, one of the highlights in a year with no World Cup or Olympics. Just five of the U.S. starters were in the lineup when the teams met at the Rio Olympics.

Abily converted a penalty kick in the eighth minute after Le Sommer got behind the defense for a through pass and was tripped by goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher.

Le Sommer made it 2-0 one minute later after racing past Allie Long to run onto Wendie Renard's long pass, cutting into the area and slotting inside the near post with a left-footed shot from 8 yards.

Abily tapped in Eve Perisset's cross from 4 yards in the 63rd.