United States Women’s National Team Defeat Colombia 2-0 In 2015 Women’s World Cup Round of 16

Team USA Celebrates Goal By Alex Morgan (click to enlarge)

The most important thing is to win and advance. The United States Women’s National Team did just that…some might argue only just that…with a 2-0 victory over Colombia in the 2015 Women’s World Cup round of 16. Focusing on the good first: Alex Morgan, the biggest gun we have on this squad, scored the initial goal that put the Americans up 1-0 in the 53rd minute. Carli Lloyd would add the finishing touch with a penalty kick goal in the 66th minute. Speaking of penalty kicks, Abby Wambach missed one earlier when a red card was issued to Colombian goalkeeper Catalina Perez after she fouled Alex Morgan charging alone into the box, behind the defense. So while the USA did score twice, which is an improvement from the last couple of games, both goals were scored with Colombia having 10 players on the field. I will say that Morgan looked a lot better moving around in this match, getting taken down and bouncing back up while going the distance in minutes played. Although Hope Solo and the the American defenders have not surrendered a goal since an early score by Australia in their first match, I don’t know if they can just ride Solo and the D to victory. Defense might win championships but you still have to score to win games. I’d like to see more of Cristen Press out there in the next game against China. Press has the talent to put pressure on an opposing defense. Our Ladies will need it as Megan Rapinoe will miss the next game after receiving her second yellow card (as will Lauren Holiday). I do have to give credit to Colombia for making things difficult for the USWNT. Don’t forget that Colombia beat world #3 France in Group play, the same French team that looked very impressive against South Korea in the round of 16 knockout stage. So Colombia is a team on the rise. They did a lot of talking before the match. As they grow as a team, perhaps they should concentrate on doing their talking with their play during the match instead. It’s takes more than bulletin board material to beat teams like the USA.