US Women Roll Past Norway

Advance to Sixth Consecutive Algarve Cup Final

March 11, 2008

ALVOR, Portugal –The U.S. women’s soccer team got goals from Natasha Kai, Abby Wambach and Heather O’Reilly in an 11-minute span before second-half sub Amy Rodriguez finished the scoring in the 90th minute to cap a 4-0 victory over Norway and vault the Americans into their sixth straight Algarve Cup final.

The win gave the U.S. Women a perfect nine points in Group B and they will now face Group A winner Denmark for the championship on Wednesday, March 12, at Municipal Stadium in Vila Real de San Antonio.

Denmark defeated Finland, 1-0, to take full points from their group in three consecutive 1-0 wins. The U.S. and Denmark are the only two teams in the tournament that have yet to allow a goal. The final will be a rematch of last year’s Algarve Cup final, won 2-0 by the United States.

The U.S. started the match against Norway with a superior goal difference in the group from its first two matches and needed just a tie to make it to the title game. Still, Norway must have been satisfied with the 0-0 halftime score, especially after putting some intense pressure on the U.S. net in the first 15 minutes, highlighted by a thunderous 22-yard shot off the crossbar by Ingvild Stensland in the 11th minute.

Making just her sixth appearance and surely her most important match thus far for the U.S. National Team, goalkeeper Nicole Barnhart played an excellent game, smoothly handling every ball that was served her way and also came up with a big save in the 43rd minute. Isabell Herlovsen got behind the U.S. defense down the left flank and raced toward the penalty box. Barnhart came out to challenge and when Herlovsen tried to loop her shot over the U.S. ‘keeper from the top of the box, she got a hand on the ball and deflected it wide left of the goal. The touch by Barnhart took enough speed off the ball so that Kate Markgraf could recover to run it down and clear it away.

The first goal came on a play, and in a half, that Norway goalkeeper Ingrid Hjelmseth got the ball in her hands after sliding out to the top of the penalty box at the feet of Wambach. After gathering herself and letting almost all of the U.S. and Norwegian players jog up field, Hjelmseth placed the ball down at the top of the penalty area in preparation to kick it off the ground. She didn’t however, see Kai lurking to her left. As Hjelmseth took a few steps backwards, Kai was sprinting to the ball, but the Norwegian goalkeeper saw her too late. Kai swooped in, won the ball off Hjelmseth’s desperate lunging tackle, knocking it forward with her leg, and then simply dribbled the ball into the open net.

It was Kai’s first goal of 2008, and her ninth international goal, the first two of which were scored at the Algarve Cup in 2006.

The goal rocked the Norwegians, who found themselves down 2-0 just two minutes later. That goal originated on the left side as Lori Chalupny slipped a short pass to Carli Lloyd who was making a run into the penalty area. Lloyd took a touch to beat her defender to the end line and was cut down on the tackle, but not before driving her left-footed cross into the middle. Wambach was crashing the goal with Gunhild Følstad draped all over her, but still had the strength to dive and bundle the ball into the net with her chest right on the goal line. The goal was Wambach’s second of the tournament and 88th of her career.

On the third goal, Carli Lloyd then drove a long service that flew over the pack of players to Leslie Osborne who was standing a few yards from the right elbow of the goal box. She sent a perfect header back to the far post for O’Reilly, who jumped over two Norwegian defenders to head the ball home from close range. It was O’Reilly’s second goal of the tournament and 17th of her career.

Norway kept fighting, but the Americans continued to knock the ball around with aplomb and were gifted a fluky goal in the final minute of regulation time. Stephanie Cox played a long ball down the left wing that Wambach got a light touch on, sending Rodriguez behind the defense. She raced in on goal from the left and hit a soft shot with the outside of her right foot. Somehow, the Norwegian goalkeeper miss-judged the spin on the ball, dove to corral it, but instead let it roll over her body and just over the goal line before she could recover. It was Rodriguez’ third international goal.

For the third straight match, U.S. head coach Pia Sundhage made all six of the allowed substitutions, also giving time to defender Cat Whitehill and midfielder Tobin Heath.

In the other Group A match, Italy defeated China, 2-0, to relegate the Chinese to the match for ninth place, where they will face Portugal, a 3-0 loser to Iceland in Group C. In Group A, Germany defeated Sweden, 2-0, to earn a spot in the third-place game against Norway. Sweden will play Italy for fifth place. Iceland will play Finland for seventh place. In the other Group C game, Ireland defeated Poland, 1-0, and the two countries will play each other again for eleventh place.

Scoring Summary:
USA – Natasha Kai (unassisted) 55th
USA – Abby Wambach (Carli Lloyd) 57th
USA -- Heather O’Reilly (Leslie Osborne) 65th
USA – Amy Rodriguez (Abby Wambach) 90th

Lineups:
USA: 24-Nicole Barnhart; 26-Rachel Buehler, 15-Kate Markgraf, 3-Christie Rampone – Capt. (4-Cat Whitehill, 75), 17-Lori Chalupny (14-Stephanie Cox, 75); 7-Shannon Boxx (12-Leslie Osborne, 63), 11-Carli Lloyd, 10-Angie Woznuk (5-Lindsay Tarpley, 46), 9-Heather O’Reilly (13-Tobin Heath, 70); 6-Natasha Kai (19-Amy Rodriguez, 63), 20-Abby Wambach.

NOR: 12-Ingrid Hjelmseth: 2-Ane Horpestad, 3-Gunhild Følstad (15-Marita Lund, 58), 5-Siri Nordby,18-Runa Vikestad; 4-Ingvild Stensland, 6-Marie Knutsen, 7-Lene Storløkken, 9-Isabell Herlovsen, 10-Melissa Wiik, 11-Leni Kaurin (14-Guro Knutsen, 68).

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