July 30, (THEWILL) – In contrasting fortunes at the quarter-finals of football event at the Summer Games in Tokyo, Japan, the United States Women’s National Football Team, that began the Olympics with a 3-0 defeat have qualified on penalties against the Netherlands that beat Zambia 10-3 in their opener.
So much was made of the American team’s stuttering at the initial stages of the Games especially in being completely outclassed by Sweden in the 3-0 loss and fielding am aging but experienced side but the team put that loss behind them and have progressed by knocking out a gold contender.
Now, after suffering a quarterfinal elimination on penalty kicks at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the USWNT has qualified for the semi-finals via the sweet tasted of a shootout victory against the highly favoured and free-scoring Dutch female side boasting some of the best female talent in competitive European football.
Penalties were needed to separate the highest ranked team and world cup winners USWNT and the Netherlands, ranked fourth highest team in the world, after regulation time saw the both of them still deadlocked in a 2-2 result.
While Alyssa Naeher, America’s goalkeeper will be set aside for high praise, the standout performance of Lynn Williams on the attacking front was magnificent for the USA. Her surprise Olympic start, her first of this tournament, was exactly what the American side needed.
It was her cross that delivered USA’s opening goal for one of the Mewis sisters, Samantha, to draw the US level on goals after Vivianne Miedema’s 18th minute goal gave the Dutch the lead. Then, Williams scored the second for herself, pitching the USWNT ahead by a one-goal margin.
Expectedly, the Netherlands returned from the break swinging and Olympic top scorer Miedema scored her second of the match to bring parity to the scoreline for the Netherlands. It took her tally for this tournament alone to an incredible 10 goals after only four matches.
Having scored all her goals by full time, the goal machine that Miedema is, failed to convert in the penalty kick shootout. Naeher had resumed her heroics and prevented Miedema from getting an 11th goal to her name on the very first attempt for the Dutch.
Majority of the credit for the qualification of the American team will go to Naeher, America’s goalkeeper. She was decisive in seeing the Vlatko Andonovski-led team knock out the determined Netherlands and was easily the consensual star of the game as a whole.
But for her sharp reflexes and goal-stopping heroics, a potential game-winning penalty kick with 10 minutes to go in regulation could have potentially won it for the Dutch ladies. But, Naeher kept the ball out to keep Andonovski’s side still dreaming of becoming the first team ever to take Olympic gold after winning the World Cup.
If that was as far as Naeher went to help the USWNT with their sensational win, it could have been enough. But, she outdid herself when the penalty-kicks were played. Naeher stopped not one but two Dutch penalty attempts in the shootout to confirm the victory for the USWNT.
The second kick Naeher stopped was the Dutch’s fourth penalty kick by Aniek Nouwen to set up Megan Rapinoe, who struck hers into the net for the clinching strike ensuring that the USWNT scored all four penalty kicks they played.
In front of their advance to the big final will be northern neighbours Canada. The two familiar sides will contend for a slot in the final of the Games’ biggest event on Monday, next week.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
