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USA women steamroll Colombia at World Cup

USWNTColombia (ISIPhotos.com)

 

The U.S. women's national team sealed its place in the knockout rounds of the Women's World Cup with an emphatic 3-0 win against Colombia on Saturday.

The Americans were coming off their tournament-opening 2-0 win against North Korea and produced an even better display, though poor finishing kept the USA from posting a six or seven goal blowout. Heather O'Reilly started proceedings with a long-range blast before second-half substitute Megan Rapinoe scored her own beautiful goal. Carli Lloyd added the third goal on a long shot and goalkeeper blunder to send the United States to 2-0, without having allowed a goal, heading into the final group match against Sweden.

U.S. striker Abby Wambach continued to struggle to find the net, missing on a plethora of chances against an overmatched Colombia defense, but it didn't matter on Saturday as her teammates picked up the slack, overpowering a Colombia side that rarely threatened U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo.

Here are the match highlights:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEmE_-5Mf-c]

What did you think of the U.S. team's victory? Impressed with the team's passing, or more worried about the poor finishing? Think Abby Wambach will score a goal this World Cup?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Why in the world shouldn’t we compare the US men’s team with the women’s team? Out of simple curiosity I watched for the first time ever last week a ladies soccer match–the USWNT against North Korea. It was an epiphany experience. Yes, the US boys are bigger and stronger, but it is obvious that the ladies are world-class athletes with exceptional soccer skills and that the women’s team is much, much better coached by Pia Sundhage than the men by Bob Bradley. I watched the US against Columbia (in my opinion, the US played better against the stronger N. Korean team) and quite frankly, I am hooked. Can’t wait to watch US vs Sweden and then the US in the quarter-finals and hopefully in the semis and the Final. It makes me wonder why the US foxy babes can have a foreign coach and the US boys not. If I had to choose between Pia Sundhage to coach the men’s team and BB, I would honestly choose Sundhage, who no doubt has a better and deeper understanding of soccer than BB and who I truly believe would be more successful with the men’s team than BB.

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  2. I think it’s that large fish, small pond scenario, but that is just me. Women’s soccer around the world has had to catch up to the US while the men’s team has had to catch up with the other elite and second level teams.

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  3. re: Pitt… no one was really spending time comparing physical ability. the U.S. women show a much better mental ability than the U.S. men at managing games, making appropriate runs, and improving while AT the top of the game.

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  4. I’m not sure what you’re saying. Of course women’s to men’s is apples to oranges. All you can compare is how they compete in their respective competitions. USWNT is ranked first in the world and is playing to win their world cup. The USMNT – we try, but have years of development ahead before we can hang with the best. That’s the only comparisons there are.

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  5. Can we please stop comparing the women’s team to the men’s team. I am not knocking the women, but the competition at the higher levels of men’s soccer is still light years ahead of women’s. Columbia would be like having Haiti make the World Cup on the men’s side. The US Women area great team in their own right, let’s not compare apples to oranges here.

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  6. I think Wambach will be fine. She’s going to get out of the slump one of two ways: get a laugher, a tap-in-from-two-feet-away-into-open net kind of deal, or she’ll get a crazy amazing goal at a critical moment in an elimination game. One way or the other, it’ll happen, and then the goals will come in bunches. That’s my prediction.

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  7. These women look great. Passing is good, movement off the ball, defense. They got the whole package. We’ll see how they do against better teams. I would like to see Alex Morgan get a start against Sweeden.

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  8. Very impressed with the ball movement and player movement off the ball. The quality of passing also seemed much better than our men who are always passing behind their runners.

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  9. Agree – they’ve shown swarming defense, athleticism and ‘heart’, but they’re not patient or composed on the ball. I didn’t think they were convincing against North Korea (who played great possession tikitaka style)- but they did overwhelm Columbia. Should be a good match to watch against Sweden on wednesday.

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  10. This was my first look at the USWMT, and I was very impressed! I am looking forward to the match against Sweden to see how they do against stronger competition. Poor Abby just could not buy a goal this game.

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  11. steamroll is an apt description. they play with a certain arrogance. will be interesting to see how they perform against sweden and other stronger teams….

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