VANCOUVER, B.C. — So much was on the line for the U.S. women’s soccer team that maybe some jitters were understandable. When a 30-yard shot hit the frame of the goalpost, leaving the ball sitting in front of an empty net, the hearts really started pounding.
“That,” defender Rachel Buehler said, “was a very intense moment in the game.”
Buehler motored in to save the day, knocking an opposing striker off the ball. The Americans had survived another dicey moment. It took awhile, but eventually they wore down a heavy underdog and earned their spot in the Olympics.
The United States booked its way to London on Friday night with a 3-0 victory over Costa Rica in the semifinals of the CONCACAF qualifying tournament, a game more suspenseful than most anyone expected.
“There were moments where I think Costa Rica were outplaying us, and it just shows you how important it was to all of us,” forward Abby Wambach said. “Nobody wanted to make that mistake. And luckily we didn’t.”
Tobin Heath scored in the 16th minute to give U.S. all the offense it needed, and goals by Carli Lloyd (72nd) and Alex Morgan (89th) put the game away.
“We know that sometimes under big-game circumstances players can get a little tight,” Wambach said. “And you’ve just kind of got to deal with it. … It was almost as if we scored that goal and nobody wanted to get stuck into a tackle. We were kind of playing a little bit soft, and we fixed that in the second half.”
The top-ranked Americans were certainly not as crisp as they were when they were beating teams by a combined 31-0 in their previous three games and drawing criticism for running up the score. Sloppy passes led to giveaways in the first half, forcing goalkeeper Hope Solo to work harder than she has all tournament. Solo played despite a slightly pulled right quadriceps that had been bothering her all week.
The U.S. will be the two-time defending champions in London, having won gold in Athens in 2004 and in Beijing in 2008.
The Associated Press
