The U.S. Women’s National Team needed to win big to put itself in position to potentially advance to the final of the 2014 International Tournament of Brasilia, and its offense came through. Led by four goals from Christen Press and a Carli Lloyd hat trick, the USA defeated Argentina 7-0 in its third group match at Mane Garrincha Stadium.
Press scored three goals in the first half and the seventh of the game while Lloyd notched her second-career hat trick (the other came against Mexico on Jan. 24, 2012) and also moved into seventh place on the WNT’s all-time goal scoring list with 61.
The USA must await the result of the second game of the evening between Brazil (2-0-0, 6 points, plus-5 goal differential) and China PR (1-0-1, 4 points, plus-6).
Should Brazil defeat China, the USA (1-1-1, 4 points, plus-6) would advance to the tournament’s title game on Sunday, Dec. 21. If China earns a draw or victory against Brazil, then those two teams would face one another in the final, while the USA plays for third place against Argentina (0-3-0, 0 points, minus-17).
Goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher made her full WNT debut and made one save to earn the clean sheet, becoming the seventh U.S. WNT goalkeeper to post a shutout in her first cap.
Thursday’s USA-Argentina game originally was scheduled for Wednesday and was postponed because of inclement weather and poor field conditions.
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