U.S. Women’s National Team Defeats Colombia, Yellow Cards Deliver Big Loss

The USWNT defeated Colombia 2-0 to move onto the quarterfinals, but suffer big losses due to a pair of yellow cards.

U.S. Women’s National Team Defeats Colombia

The U.S. National Women’s Team has not looked the freshest during the 2015 World Cup. At times, they show momentary brilliance, but the wins have been stigmatized with some poor play on both sides of the ball.

Plainly, the U.S. should have won by way more than 2-0. However, Abby Wambach missed two clear opportunities — she was offside in the opening minutes and also missed a wide open penalty kick — as the somewhat struggling offense was shut out during the first half.

But it was Alex Morgan — who was getting good looks, as she just missed a header and her breakaway resulted in a red card to goalie Catalina Perez and the Wambach missed penalty kick — that ultimately put in the deciding goal. Morgan decided to take a deep angle in the box, but backup keeper Sandra Sepúlveda did not hug the post. In all reality, Morgan’s best play was to pass it to Wambach, but she instead took a chance on the goalie’s mental mistake and was rewarded with her third ever World Cup score.

Later in the 65th minute, Megan Rapinoe, who has emerged the star of this year’s World Cup, split two defenders, but was tripped by Angelo Clavijo in the box. As a result, Carli Lloyd lined up for the USWNT’s second penalty kick of the night. And unlike Wambach, Lloyd patiently psyched out Sepúlveda and put one in the back of the net.

The U.S. would go onto control the rest of the match, delivering a 2-0 victory and advancing to the quarterfinals matchup against China. However, the key takeaway from last night was the undisciplined play, which resulted in 22 fouls. Two specifically, resulted in yellow cards being delivered to Megan Rapinoe and midfielder Lauren Holiday.

Unfortunately, these are both their second of the tournament, resulting in them missing Friday’s very important elimination game. Worst of all, these two have been standouts in a fairly average showing by the USWNT, leaving many to wonder can the U.S. survive with these two losses?

Coach Jill Ellis has always preached about the team’s depth. Well, the world is going to see if Morgan Brian and Christen Press, the likely replacements, can fill some very big shoes.