Final tuneup for U.S. women missing a spark

This is not exactly what the U.S. women's national had in mind in its final warm-up prior to the Women's World Cup:

A rather lackluster and bland scoreless draw with South Korea Saturday.

Given the high expectations of one of the best women's teams on the planet and a sellout crowd of 26,467 that packed Red Bull Arena, much, much more was expected.

"To be honest it was a boring game," said striker Abby Wambach, who scored four goals while breaking Mia Hamm's all-time scoring record with four goals the last time she played here -- a 5-0 victory over Korea on June 20, 2013.

Wambach, who played the opening 60 minutes before she was replaced by Amy Rodriguez, was not much of a factor as she failed to add to her record scoring total of 182 goals.

Striker Sydney Leroux was the USA's most dangerous player, but could not find the net on several occasions.

"There really wasn't much attack," Wambach said. "There really wasn't much brilliance individually or collectively. I thought they did pretty well slowing the game down and playing their game. Obviously, we wanted a different result. We want to win every game."

U.S. head coach Jill Ellis sat out two key starters -- midfielder Megan Rapinoe and striker Alex Morgan. Ellis said that Rapinoe "will be fine."

"She took a pretty heavy knock [Friday]," she said, adding that Rapinoe had some swelling in her quad. "It's precautionary. We don't want her to get another hit."

Morgan, who has scored 51 goals in 84 matches, is recuperating from a bone bruise in her right knee.

"We're building her," Ellis said. "Realistically, she's been off for a while so in terms of minutes, that's something we're going to have to build through the early games in terms of her being ready. We don't want to blow her up too early."

Ready or not for the rest of the team, the World Cup begins for the USA against Australia in a Group D match in Winnipeg a week from Monday.

Wambach expects a much more enthusiastic performance from the USA.

"If you don't get fired up playing in a World Cup game, then you probably shouldn't be playing this game," she said. "Come Australia, you better believe this team will be ready, flying at Australia in the first half."