U.S. Women follow scoreless draw with 5-0 blowout
Quarteira, Portugal (Sports Network) - After a scoreless draw with China, the U.S. Women's National Team moved to the top of the Group B standings with a 5-0 win over Denmark Saturday.
The U.S. nearly sealed the win in the first half, scoring four goals before the halftime whistle. The comfortable win allowed U.S. coach Greg Ryan to use all six of the team's substitutes, including Natasha Kai, who scored the team's fifth goal of the day and the first of her career.
Kai made history Saturday, becoming the first Hawaii native to earn a cap with the full National Team squad. A women's team player hasn't scored a goal in her first appearance since September 1, 2003, when Shannon Broxx found the back of the net against Costa Rica in her first cap.
Heather O'Reilly opened the scoring with two first half goals to give the U.S. the early lead. The double was O'Reilly's first of her career. Abby Wambach and Kristine Lilly followed with a goal each to push the deficit to four.
Lilly's goal pushed her into the second place spot on the all-time international goals list with 108. Lilly trails Mia Hamm, who has 158 career goals, for the lead spot.
Overall, the U.S. offense out shot its Denmark opponents 22-6, with nine of those shots on goal.
The 5-0 routing over Denmark is the U.S.'s largest margin of victory in Algarve Cup history.
The U.S. faces France in the final Group B match on Monday, March 13.
"Kai made history Saturday"
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Scott
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"Kai made history Saturday"
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Mahalo,
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"Hawaii's Fan Based Sports Page"
Natasha Kai continues to impress, scoring a goal against French.
U.S. to Play Germany for Algarve Cup
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
FARO, Portugal (AP) -- Kristine Lilly scored in the first minute, and the United States went on to beat France 4-1 Monday and will play for the Algarve Cup title against Women's World Cup champion Germany.
Aly Wagner, Lindsay Tarplay and Natasha Kai also scored the Americans, who clinched first place in Group B. Hoda Lattaf had the lone goal for France.
Wednesday's title game will be a repeat of last year's final, when the Americans won 1-0 to capture a third straight crown.
Germany defeated Norway 1-0 with on Petra Wimbersky's goal in the last minute of injury time. Germany already had won Group A after beating Finland and Sweden. ''They'll be a great challenge for us as we're only just starting to come together,'' U.S. coach Greg Ryan said.
Lilly scored the 109th goal of her career with a powerful shot from the edge of the penalty area that went in off the crossbar. Blunders by the French defense allowed the Americans to stretch their lead in the 52nd when Wagner scored from inside the penalty area. Tarplay then hit a left-footed volley in the 54th to put the game beyond France's reach.
Lattaf scored for France with a short volley in the 64th. France midfielder Sandrine Soubeyrand was then shown her second yellow card and sent off.
Kai entered in the 73rd and scored three minutes later, lobbing a shot over goalkeeper Sarah Bouhaddi to complete the U.S. victory.
The United States won its group with seven points. China beat Denmark 6-0 in the other group game. On Monday, Sweden beat Finland 4-1 to finish second in Group A. In Group C, which does not compete for the title, Mexico routed Portugal 6-0.
U.S. to Play Germany for Algarve Cup
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
FARO, Portugal (AP) -- Kristine Lilly scored in the first minute, and the United States went on to beat France 4-1 Monday and will play for the Algarve Cup title against Women's World Cup champion Germany.
Aly Wagner, Lindsay Tarplay and Natasha Kai also scored the Americans, who clinched first place in Group B. Hoda Lattaf had the lone goal for France.
Wednesday's title game will be a repeat of last year's final, when the Americans won 1-0 to capture a third straight crown.
Germany defeated Norway 1-0 with on Petra Wimbersky's goal in the last minute of injury time. Germany already had won Group A after beating Finland and Sweden. ''They'll be a great challenge for us as we're only just starting to come together,'' U.S. coach Greg Ryan said.
Lilly scored the 109th goal of her career with a powerful shot from the edge of the penalty area that went in off the crossbar. Blunders by the French defense allowed the Americans to stretch their lead in the 52nd when Wagner scored from inside the penalty area. Tarplay then hit a left-footed volley in the 54th to put the game beyond France's reach.
Lattaf scored for France with a short volley in the 64th. France midfielder Sandrine Soubeyrand was then shown her second yellow card and sent off.
Kai entered in the 73rd and scored three minutes later, lobbing a shot over goalkeeper Sarah Bouhaddi to complete the U.S. victory.
The United States won its group with seven points. China beat Denmark 6-0 in the other group game. On Monday, Sweden beat Finland 4-1 to finish second in Group A. In Group C, which does not compete for the title, Mexico routed Portugal 6-0.
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BigWave96744
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You betcha! Natasha is the first local girl to make it with the USA National Soccer Team. Coaching staff is very high on her talent and nose for the goal. She'll definitely be the first local girl with a chance to bring home a soccer gold medal at the 2008 Bejing Olympics. After the olympics, onward to Europe where soccer is King--stardom and the big bucks (or big euro) awaits her. I can almost hear it...gooooooooal...gooooooooal by Natasha Kai from the University of Hawaii. Chicken skin time.BigWave96744 wrote:Could Natasha Kai be the greatest local born and raised women's soccer player to come out of the 808 state?
Is Ching the greatest local boy playing soccer today?