The New Zealand women’s football team suffered their second successive defeat at the Olympics when they were outplayed 6-1 by a fired up United States combination.
It was a torrid test for the New Zealand women. They have struggled in recent years against the US anyway. And in their Olympic opener the US, for so long the giants of world women’s football, suffered a shock 3-0 defeat by Sweden, so they had a lot to prove against New Zealand.
Though the final score blew out, no-one could criticise the New Zealand players, who on an oppressively hot evening, stuck to their task gamely against a slick and skilled team.
The Americans didn’t take long to show they meant business. After nine minutes Rose Lavelle calmly slotted a goal from the right. For the rest of the first half the US dominated for long patches. Amazingly they were four times ruled offside and on three of those occasions the ball was in the New Zealand net, much to goalie Anna Leat’s discomfort.
There were glimpses of class from New Zealand, especially when Hannah Wilkinson twice went close to heading goals.
The Americans dealt a hammer blow on the stroke of halftime when a corner led to Lindsey Horan heading home a goal to take the score to 2-0.
The second half was generally more of the same and after 63 minutes New Zealand’s Abby Erceg, hard on defence, headed an own goal.
New Zealand got on the scoreboard in the 71st minute when Paige Satchell, who had a fine match, chased hard down the right to earn possession, then centred the ball to Betsy Hassett, who calmly netted.
The Americans added their fourth goal in the 80th minute when Julie Ertz crossed beautifully to Christen Press, who expertly placed the ball past Leat. Five minutes later Alex Morgan latched on to a cross from Press and scored to make it 5-1.
There was salt added to the New Zealand wound in injury time when Press shot for the Americans and CJ Bott deflected a second own goal - United States 6, New Zealand 1.
New Zealand coach Tom Sermanni was full of praise for the effort his team put in.
"I thought we had a terrific 80 minutes and unfortunately the last 10 minutes kind of let us down a little bit on the scoreline," he said.
"For the first 30 minutes of the second half we played exceptionally well, with good our discipline.
“We got ourselves back in the game at 3-1, and then the last 10 minutes, we lost our way a little bit. Unfortunately the scoreline I think was a little bit blown out, which is disappointing.”
He said he could not fault the effort his players put in. "They gave blood, sweat and tears on the field tonight against a very good team. The effort was first-class.
"If we could fulfill the game plan for the full 90 minutes, the scoreline would have been a bit more respectable.”
In the other second-round game in this group, Sweden carried on their impressive form by beating Australia 4-2.