In need of a bounce back win after its historic loss at the hands of Mexico, the U.S. women’s national team put in a controlled performance on Sunday night in Los Angeles for a 3-0 win over Colombia in the quarterfinals of the inaugural 2024 W Gold Cup.
With the win, the USWNT advances to the semifinals in San Diego where they will take on defending Olympic gold medalists Canada (who beat the USWNT in that Olympic semifinal en route to a gold medal). Mexico and Brazil will clash in the other semifinal to determine the W Gold Cup’s inaugural finalists.
As has been the case in USWNT wins this tournament, the Americans got off to a quick start. Jumping on an under-hit pass from Colombia, Alex Morgan won the ball with her press, played a quick give-and-go with Lindsey Horan, and swiftly drew a penalty which Horan subsequently buried for a 1-0 lead. Aside from missing a late sitter, Morgan delivered a vintage performance on Sunday night to remind everyone why she is invaluable to this squad.
The youth contingent handled the rest by halftime with Jenna Nighswonger finding her first USWNT goal from open play on a beautiful first-time finish followed by Jaedyn Shaw slotting home a Trinity Rodman cross for a 3-0 lead in first-half stoppage time. Colombia targeted Rodman in an attempt to get under the American’s skin in typical Concacaf fashion (despite being a COMNEBOL country) but the USWNT would have the last laugh.
It wasn’t just the scoreline that improved drastically for the USWNT against Colombia, but the performance as well. Against Mexico, the Americans couldn’t match their opponent’s physicality and struggled to play out of the Mexican press. On Sunday, the USWNT matched Colombia’s physicality and found solutions to play through the press, or over it when necessary.
“The ultimate goal is to take what the opponent gives us. We’re not limited to just one way of doing things and I think that’s one of the keys that we…
Source link : https://sbisoccer.com/2024/03/uswnt-delivers-bounce-back-win-over-colombia
Author : Justin Ruderman
Publish date : 2024-03-04 12:38:14
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.