Sunday, July 29, 2012

USA defeats Colombia 3-0, clinches a spot in the Quarterfinals

By Money Mike


The United States in their second group game of the 2012 Olympics completely dominated the entire match from start to finish and come away with a well deserved 3-0 win over Colombia to book their place into the quarterfinal round. The U.S. still have one more group game to go, which takes place on Tuesday at Old Trafford against North Korea. The U.S. would win with at least a draw in that one. I'm not gonna go through the scenarios, we'll just have to wait until the final match to find out who they're playing, when they're playing and where they're playing.

The opening goal didn't come until the 33rd minute for the USA. Colombia failed to get the ball out of their own area and Alex Morgan found Megan Rapinoe out wide. Rapinoe took a couple of small touches and from about 20 yards out, just curls it over the head of goalkeeper Sandra Sepulveda in to the net to put the United States ahead 1-0.

Six minutes later, we had a controversial moment and I got to tell you, Colombia are lucky not to pick up a red card. The United States were on the counter attack and off the ball, Colombian player Lady Andrade threw a forearm right into Abby Wambach's face and the referee somehow didn't see it. After the referee blew the play dead, you could see Wambach's right eye was swelling up. I don't understand how the referee didn't see that or why the assistant referee or fourth official weren't paying any attention to that because that's violent conduct and that should've been a red card. Now, the last thing I heard regarding this was that FIFA was reviewing this play. So by the look of things, Andrade could be banned from international play for a while. I mean that was just stupid and uncalled for.

In the 74th minute, the U.S. doubled their advantage.  Abby Wambach, who stayed in the match despite picking up a black eye, worked a brilliant give and go with Tobin Heath as she beat two Colombian defenders to the ball and slots it home to make it 2-0 USA.

Three minutes later, the U.S. would add one more for good measure. Carli Lloyd made a great run down the center and was found by Megan Rapinoe and she slots the ball away with ease for her second goal of the tournament and that was all the United States needed as they defeat Colombia 3-0 and clinches a birth in the Quarterfinals.


Scoring summary:

United States - Megan Rapinoe 1 (33')

United States - Abby Wambach 2 (74')

United States - Carli Lloyd 2 (77')


Misconduct summary:

NONE


Lineups:

Colombia - Sandra Sepulveda; Nataly Arias, Natalia Gaitan, Kelis Peduzine, Yulieht Dominguez; Tatiana Ariza (Liana Salazar 71'), Carmen Rodallega (Ana Montoya 71'), Maria Usme; Ingrid Vidal (Melissa Ortiz 86'), Orianica Velasquez, Lady Andrade

United States - Hope Solo; Heather Mitts, Christie Rampone, Rachel Buehler, Kelley O'Hara; Heather O'Reilly (Tobin Heath 67'), Carli Lloyd, Lauren Cheney, Megan Rapinoe (Amy Rodriguez 81'); Abby Wambach (Sydney Leroux 78'), Alex Morgan


Now I may be a couple days late with this video because I didn't see it until today, but here's a little trailier on the U.S. women's journey to another Olympic Gold Medal...

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