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Team USA advanced to the knockout stages of women’s football at the Tokyo Olympics, despite a sleepy and negligent victory in just one of their three round robin matches in Group G.
The United States Women’s National Team got the point they needed to reach the quarter-finals on Tuesday morning with a scoreless and lackluster draw against Australia in Kashima.
“It was a great test for us today to see that the players can execute the game plan very, very well,” said USA coach Vlatko Andonovski after the game. “So whatever we think we have to do to win the [next] game, we’re going to present it to them and then let them do their job.
The top-ranked Americans, who got two saves from goalie Alyssa Naeher in the double clean sheet, finished the group stage with the same 1-1-1 record as the Australians. Alex Morgan had a potential goal from a header denied by VAR (Assistant Video Referee) in the 33rd minute, when she was ruled offside on a corner kick from Kelley O’Hara.
The United States advanced to the quarter-finals finishing second on the basis of a better goal differential.
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The USWNT lost their opener to group-winning Sweden last week (3-0) before rebounding with a 6-1 victory over New Zealand. The top two from each group and the top two thirds qualify for the quarterfinals from Friday. As the second team in Group G, the Americans will face the winner of Group F, likely Brazil or the Netherlands, at 7 a.m.ET Friday in Yokohama.
Australia, ranked ninth in the FIFA world rankings, could still move up to third.
The US team were eliminated by Sweden on penalties in the 2016 Olympic quarter-finals in Brazil before claiming their fourth World Cup title in 2019.
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