US Women Survive Skillful Japanese Attack to Take Gold

United States 2:1 Japan

By Kara McDermott

The word redemption has been uttered so many times today by US soccer observers that it seems to have lost meaning – for everyone except the actual players of the Women’s National team as they held the lead against the constant danger of the Japanese offense to win a gold medal with a 2-1 victory over their World Cup rivals.

The US started early with the first shot on goal coming in the 3rd minute from a long run by Alex Morgan, fully stretching out her legs after touching around defender Saki Kumagi. Her shot from deep on the left side could not get enough angle to cause much trouble for Miho Fukumoto.

However, this would be prescient of plays to come as just five minutes later, Tobin Heath came down the left side and crossed the ball on the ground to Morgan at near post. The speedy forward touched away from the goal to the line, then whipped her whole body around on the ball to pop it towards the far post. Abby Wambach was waiting with her foot up to volley, but she was intercepted by her teammate Carli Lloyd bombing straight into the box and diving to her head on it first. Wambach didn’t seem to mind as she dogpiled the central midfielder in celebration of the early lead.

Lloyd was hugely visible in this match, running it seemed on different gear than those around her. With Shannon Boxx back in the lineup for the first time since her injury in the first 20 minutes of the opening group play match against France, anchored the central midfield allowing Lloyd to range the midfield and sparking the attack.

The player that scored the winning goal for gold in 2008 once again came through in a big way for her team. In the 53rd minute, Lloyd capitalized on a transition out of the defense to gather the ball near the midfield line. She took the ball with speed right down the center of the field, outstripping her defenders who could not stay with her. At the top of the box, she picked up her head, saw a vulnerable hole and whipped a shot into the far post, a shot that Fukumoto had no chance on.

The Japanese didn’t so much as lose the match as they simply got outscored. Their attacks were a constant threat: fast, skillful and dangerously technical. The individual footskills of the Japanese squad are largely unparalleled such that small spaces are no hindrance. A series of mad scrambles starting in the 17th minute nearly changed the outcome of the match, but Christie Rampone saved one off the line and keeper Hope Solo was there to deflect again and again.

This would be a common theme as the game continued as the Japanese exploited holes and moments to penetrate the US’ penalty area. Solo was called on in several key moments to tip a ball into the cross bar or to layout in a full dive to push a ball away from the net.

But the quick, clinical passes of Japan continued to batter the defense and eventually paid off as they got back into the game in the 63rd minute. Another fray in the US box started when Shinobu Ohno crossed a ball from the line back to Homare Sawa. Her shot was saved off the line again by Rampone, but came back to her for a follow up. Again, a deflection, only this time it went to Yuki Ogimi who finished the point blank shot with a simple redirect.

However, amid the barrage of great plays and pressure, the Americans held their lead to the final whistle to win gold for their third straight Olympic Games. They outshot their opponents 14 to 8 and continued looking for the goal all the way to the end.

To the victors go the rewards, and the American women can look forward to not only splitting a $1.5 million bonus from USSF (not counting the monetary prize from the USOC), but also a 10-game homecoming tour by merit of their top finish.

But perhaps even more, before they took the field the Boston Breakers released a statement intimating that a new women’s professional league would form in 2013 to fill the void of the WPS. The players thus will have a place to play when they bring the gold back home.