MATCH STATS
It was a nervy problem, however the U.S. girls’s nationwide workforce did simply sufficient after 120 minutes of play to flee with a 1-0 win towards Japan in a quarterfinal match on the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Heading into the match, Japan was a workforce enjoying a sure model that the U.S. had not but confronted within the match.
The Individuals had been unable to create momentum all through the match as Japan sat deep in its personal half and tried to hit the U.S. on the counter. The attacking trio of Sophia Smith, Mallory Swanson and Trinity Rodman couldn’t discover a option to break previous the Japanese protection. Midfielders Lindsey Horan and Rose Lavelle had the ball lots — because the workforce’s 71% possession benefit suggests — however discovered it difficult to create alternatives for his or her attackers.
“It was a really arduous match. It was like a chess match,” Horan stated. “That is what we had been saying within the huddle simply now after the sport. Japan [is] an incredible workforce and I really feel for them.”
Each groups took almost the identical quantity of pictures (15 for the U.S. and 12 for Japan), however Japan regarded just like the workforce nearer to scoring because it examined the American protection. Sturdy performances from Naomi Girma and Crystal Dunn on the again had been greater than sufficient to maintain the U.S. within the sport.
After an underwhelming 90 minutes, the USWNT left it very late to search out its breakthrough in further time.
Rodman scored a flashy aim within the a hundred and fifth minute because the 22-year-old took on a defender earlier than chopping to her left foot and curling the ball from the sting of the field into the highest left nook of the aim. It was a coming-of-age second for Rodman, proving that she is usually a participant to depend on in essential moments of a match. She is now the youngest participant in USWNT historical past to attain a aim in an Olympic knockout match.
“I’ve flashes of what occurred,” Rodman stated. “I bought into the world, I acquired an exquisite go, then I took a shot. It wasn’t that I did not have confidence in my shot, however on the identical time, I could not imagine it. That is one of the best second in my profession.”