After a goalless 90 minutes, the USA break the deadlock in extra time to send
them through to the semi-finals, one step closer to a fifth Olympic Gold.
Halfway through extra time at Parc de Princes, the USA’s Trinity Rodman was the
one to eventually break the stalemate by curling her strike into the top-left corner
when the clock hit 105+2 minutes.
Despite this quarter final being where chances were minimal and far apart, the USA
had a total of four shots in target compared to Japan who had just one.
Before the moment of glory for Emma Hayes’ side, Sophia Smith came close on two occasions
as well as Mallory Swanson having a curling attempt at goal, but couldn’t quite get
her shot to dip below the bar.
A few chances for Japan included Mina Tanaka forced Alyssa Naeher into a save
after her low effort, aswell as a shot from Miyabi Moriya which was high of the net.
The match winning moment which came during the extra time started off with a long-
range pass from Crystal Dunn ended up at the feet of Rodman. She dribbled past
Japan’s Hikaru Kitagawa and delivered a left-footed shot towards the target, which
ended up hitting the top-left of the back of the net.
Deep into extra time, the USA were forced into a late substitute as Arsenal’s Emily
Fox went down injured. This could potentially mean Hayes will have to switch up who
starts in the backline for the semifinals, aswell as her being a significant part of the
team if this injury was to keep her sidelined.
With this victory over Japan, the USWNT continue their unbeaten run so far this
Olympics, with this being the squad’s first major tournament under Hayes since her
appointment in May.
Emma Hayes is no stranger to steering her team in the direction towards success as she guided Chelsea WFC to 13 major trophies across her 11 year span in charge. It is no doubt she will want this success to carry over into her first experience managing a national team.
This triumph has the Americans another step closer to achieving their fifth Olympic
gold after their last title for this tournament was the London 2012 games, where the
final also consisted of USA and Japan. In this match, Japan also experienced a
narrow defeat with a final score of 2-1 leaving them with the silver medal.
The USA next take on Germany in the semi-finals This game is taking place at Parc
Olympique Lyonnais on the 6 th August with a 5pm (BST) kick off.
Starting XIs:
USA: Naeher, Dunn, Sonnett, Girma, Fox (Casey Krueger 120+1’), Albert, Horan
(Capt.), Lavelle (Nighswonger 106’), Smith, Swanson (Williams 91’), Rodman.
Substitutes not used: Murphy, Shaw, Sams
Head coach: Emma Hayes
Japan: Yamashita, Moriya, Koga (Takahashi 91’), Kumagai (Capt.), Minami,
Kitagawa (Chiba 106’), Hasegawa (Hayashi 106’), Nagano, Fujino (Miyazawa 81’),
Tanaka (Ueki 70’), Seike (Hamano 46’)
Substitute not used: Ohba
Head coach: Futoshi Ikeda
Photo Credit: Agustin Marcarian/Reuters
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