Page 18 - aruba-today-20170729

A18 SPORTS
Saturday 29 July 2017

Australian women beat U.S.

1-0 in Tournament of Nations

By ANNE M. PETERSON in 28 matches dating back well to save. The U.S. cre-
AP Sports Writer to 1987. “We found a way ated some more opportu-
SEATTLE (AP) — Australia to hang in there which is nities but just could not get
upset the United States 1-0 a good sign of maturity of the ball into the Australian
in the opening round of this group and a massive net. “I think at the end of
the women’s Tournament hurdle that is the first time the day we gave up a
of Nations at CenturyLink we’ve ever climbed that goal that was against the
Field on Thursday to regis- hurdle, especially against run of play and was unfor-
ter their first ever win over such a big opponent on tunate but we should have
the Americans after three home soil,” Australia coach climbed our way back in
decades of trying. Alen Stajcic said. and we were a little un-
Australian midfielder Tame- The Americans tried des- lucky on those chances,”
ka Butt scored the only goal perately to get an equal- U.S. forward Alex Morgan
of the match in the 67th izer but to no avail. Just mo- said. Ranked seventh in
minute after the Americans ments after Butt broke the the world, the Matildas
Australia midfielder Tameka Butt, left, starts to kick a goal past failed to clear the ball from deadlock, substitute Carli have been consistent per-
the defense of U.S.midfielder Allie Long, right during the second inside their own box, then Lloyd blasted a low shot formers in recent years,
half of a Tournament of Nations women’s soccer match, Thurs-
day, July 27, 2017, in Seattle. Australia won 1-0. the Matildas held on grimly from the edge of the box reaching the quarter-finals
Associated Press to post their maiden victory that the Australian goal- at last year’s Rio Olympics
over the world champions keeper Lydia Williams did and the 2015 World Cup,
won by the top-ranked U.S.
The U.S. women are re-
building after they were
surprisingly beaten on pen-
alties by eventual silver
medalists Sweden in the
quarter-finals at Rio, end-
ing their run of three suc-
cessive Olympic gold med-
als, and head coach Jill El-
lis said the loss to Australia
showed they needed to
be more clinical with their
finishing.
“I think we generated some
chances and it didn’t go
our way,” Ellis said. “Again
I think we’re trying to put
different pieces together,
look at different things.”
Japan and Brazil, who are
also entered in the four-
team Tournament of Na-
tions, played out a 1-1 in
the first game of the com-
petition.
Substitute Yuka Momiki
put Japan in front when
she latched on to a cross
from Emi Nakajima to
score in the 63rd minute
before Camila came off
the bench and equalized
for Brazil in the 87th minute
with a long-range shot.q