Sellout Crowd Sees WNT Open 2018 Tournament of Nations with 4-2 Win vs. Japan

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (July 26, 2018) – The U.S. Women’s National Team opened its 2018 Tournament of Nations schedule with a dominant 4-2 win against its biggest rival of the past decade, Japan, in front of a rocking crowd of 18,467 on a warm Thursday night at Children’s Mercy Park.

The first few minutes of play saw both teams go back-and-forth, with each having a few chances to break through and push forward. In the 18th minute, the USA struck first, with a textbook play between Christen Press, Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan for the opening score of the match. Japan however, responded quickly two minutes later with a quality chance, finding open space up front and chipping a ball over U.S. goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher to tie the match. 

Ten minutes later, it was Morgan again who found herself in the right spot and headed home her second goal to give the USA a lead they would not relinquish. Morgan completed her hat trick in the second half, and Rapinoe added a fourth for the U.S. before Japan’s Moeno Sakaguchi pulled one back for the final 4-2 score line.

In the first game of the day, Australia put in a solid all-around performance to defeat Brazil, 3-1. Both of Australia’s first half goals came off corner kicks, in the ninth and 38th minute, and both came courtesy of some assistance from Brazilian defender Poliana, who scored the first with her head for an own goal and then failed to clear the second. It was Marta and Debinha that combined for Brazil’s lone goal in the 79th minute. Kerr effectively put the game away early in the second half with a brilliant finish of a counter-attack down the right side.

The USA and Australia both won their opening games and sit atop the standings with 3 points each, but the U.S. is ahead on the tiebreaker due to scoring four goals compared to Australia’s three.

2018 Tournament of Nations Standings

Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD	Pts.
United States	1	1	0	0	4	2	+2	3
Australia	1	1	0	0	3	1	+2	3
Japan	1	0	1	0	2	4	-2	0
Brazil	1	0	1	0	1	3	-2	0

Next Up: The 2018 Tournament of Nations moves to the East Coast, as the teams travel to East Hartford, Connecticut for the second set of games on Sunday, July 29. Brazil will take on Japan (4:15 p.m. ET; Live on ussoccer.com), while the USA faces Australia at 7 p.m. ET on FS1.

Social: Follow #USWNT, #ToN2018, #SoccerUnites on Facebook; Twitter (@ussoccer_wnt; @ussoccer_esp); Instagram; Snapchat (ussoccer_wnt).

Goal Scoring Rundown:
USA – Alex Morgan (Megan Rapinoe), 18th minute: Press began the play with an excellent run from the right wing as she sprinted centrally and slipped a slick through ball to Rapinoe on the left side. Rapinoe got a step on her defender and sent a left-footed cross into the center of the box where Morgan timed her run perfectly to push the ball into the left side of the net with a defender on her back. USA 1, JPN 0. WATCH.

JPN – Mina Tanaka (Yui Hasegawa), 20th minute: Japan attacked straight up the middle and Hasegawa found space to pass between the two U.S. center backs to Tanaka. Emily Sonnett came sprinting back from her right back position and arrived in time to tackle, but was unfortunate as Tanaka’s shot clipped off her leg and looped over U.S. ‘keeper Alyssa Naeher to tie the game. USA 1, JPN 1. WATCH.

USA – Alex Morgan (Emily Sonnett), 26th minute: Dunn crossed the ball from the right side into the penalty box where Emily Sonnett brought it down before lifting a pass over a few Japan defenders to Alex Morgan, who was positioned in the middle of the box. Morgan redirected the ball with her head into lower left corner for her second score of the match. USA 2, JPN 1. WATCH.

USA – Alex Morgan, 56th minute: Second half substitute Tobin Heath pulled off a spectacular sequence of dribbles down the right side, beating two Japan defenders and eventually burst free down the end line towards goal before crossing into the middle. Japan failed to clear and the ball bounced directly to Morgan who brought the ball down with her left knee and then smashed her shot into the roof of the net with her left foot from six yards out to complete her hat trick. USA 3, JPN 1. WATCH.

USA – Megan Rapinoe, 66th minute: Rapinoe darted into the heart of the Japan defense and played to Rose Lavelle, who immediately returned the pass. It hit off the foot of a Japan player and bounced right into the path of Rapinoe who had continued her run. With an open look at goal, Rapinoe blasted her shot into the left corner, giving goalkeeper Yamashita no chance. USA 4, JPN 1. WATCH.

JPN – Moeno Sakaguchi (Risa Shimizu), 76th minute: Japan reduced the margin to two when Sakaguchi pushed through a tackle on the left side, cut inside and then launched a perfect shot that flew over Alyssa Naeher and settled into the goal at the right post. USA 4, JPN 2. WATCH. FINAL.

Additional Notes:

• The USA is 8-0-1 in 2018, with wins against Denmark, Germany, England, Mexico (twice), China PR (twice) and Japan along with a tie against France.  
• The USA is unbeaten in its last 17 matches (15-0-2). The USA has outscored its opponents 53-15 through that stretch, scoring in all 17 games.
• Alex Morgan scored her 20th career brace tonight, and her fourth career hat trick. She now has 89 international goals and 23 multi-goal games. At age 29, she sits in sole possession of seventh place on the USA's all-time goal scoring list.
• She’s scored 16 goals over her last 16 WNT matches. She leads the WNT with nine goals in 2018.
• Megan Rapinoe made her 138th international appearance tonight. She leads the USA with seven assists on the year and now has 51 for her career. She sits in sole possession of seventh place in U.S. history. Rapinoe had a monster game on April 8 vs. Mexico, getting four assists and a goal.
• She has 38 career goals and sits in sole possession of 15th place on the all-time goals list. She has four goals in 2018.
• Emily Sonnett earned her 18th cap tonight and first career assist on Morgan’s second goal of the game. It was her fourth start of 2018.
• Tierna Davidson, Morgan and Rapinoe are the only three players to start every game so far in 2018.

- U.S. Women’s National Team Match Report -

Match: U.S. Women’s National Team vs. Japan
Date: July 26, 2018
Competition: 2018 Tournament of Nations
Venue: Children’s Mercy Park; Kansas City, Kansas
Kickoff: 6:15 p.m. CT
Attendance:  18,467 (sellout)
Weather: 80 degrees, sunny

Scoring Summary:    1          2          F
USA                             2          2          4
JPN                             1          1          2

USA – Alex Morgan (Megan Rapinoe)                    18th minute
JPN – Mina Tanaka (Yui Hasegawa)                                   20
USA – Alex Morgan (Emily Sonnett)                                   26
USA – Alex Morgan                                                  56
USA – Megan Rapinoe                                             66
JPN – Moeno Sakaguchi (Rika Masuya)                76

Lineups:
USA: 1-Alyssa Naeher; 22-Emily Sonnett, 7-Abby Dahlkemper, 12-Tierna Davidson, 19-Crystal Dunn; 2-Julie Ertz (16-Rose Lavelle, 64), 9-Lindsey Horan (3-Samantha Mewis, 74), 6-Morgan Brian (5-McCall Zerboni, 46); 23-Christen Press (17-Tobin Heath, 54), 13-Alex Morgan (capt.) (10-Carli Lloyd, 73), 15-Megan Rapinoe (14-Casey Short, 74)
Subs not used: 4-Becky Sauerbrunn, 8-Amy Rodriguez, 11-Merritt Mathias, 20-Allie Long, 21-Adrianna Franch, 24-Harris
Head coach: Jill Ellis

JPN: 18-Ayaka Yamashita; 3-Aya Sameshima (capt.), 4-Shiori Miyake, 6-Saori Ariyoshi (16-Rin Sumida, 86), 7-Emi Nakajima (9-Nahomi Kawasumi, 59), 8-Mana Iwabuchi (19-Rika Masuya, 60), 11-Mina Tanaka (20-Kumi Yokoyama, 59), 14-Yui Hasegawa (13-Yuika Sugasawa, 67), 15-Moeno Sakaguchi, 22-Risa Shimizu, 24-Narumi Miura
Subs not used: 1-Sakiko Ikeda, 2-Maya Doko, 12-Hina Sugita, 17-Yuka Momiki, 21-Chika Hirao, 23-Aimi Kunitake
Head coach: Asako Takakura

Final Stats Summary: USA / JPN
Shots: 15 / 11
Shots on Goal: 7 / 3
Saves: 1 / 3
Corner Kicks: 2 / 1
Fouls: 6 / 3
Offside: 2 / 6

Misconduct Summary:
None                          

Officials:
Referee: Carol-Ann Chenard (CAN)
Assistant Referee 1: Chantal Boudreau (CAN)
Assistant Referee 2: Marie-Han Gagnon-Chretien (CAN)
4th Official: Sheena Dickson (CAN)

Budweiser Woman of the Match:  Alex Morgan