Defending Champions, USA Stunned by Portugal in a Goalless Draw

Defending Champions of the Women’s World Cup, USA escaped defeat on Tuesday at Eden Park as little rated Portugal turned the soccer giants to Lilliputians via a goalless draw saving the Americans what would have been a seismic thunderbolt in world football.

Portugal attempted to become first European side to beat a title holder in a group stage. Portugal is ranked 21 in the world and USA is ranked number 1 so it is a David versus Goliath encounter.

USA tried all the tricks in the books to win neatly using aggressive strategies that got them into bookings. The Americans were more tensed towards the end of the match as Portugal put more pressures to get a goal but kept shooting wide and America had to make two changes at added time of 90+3 minutes of the expected 90+6 minutes to gain time.

This is their first meeting at the world cup where USA had won all 8 matches against all debutantes they have met scoring 18 goals and conceding 4. USA won all their final group games except the 1-2 loss to Sweden in 2011.

Portugal and USA met on 8th November2018 and USA won 1-0; met 30th August 2019 when USA slammed Portugal 4-0; met 4th September 2019 and USA again defeated Portugal 3-0 and 11th June 2021 when USA piped Portugal 1-0.

In the first round, USA lashed Vietnam 3-0 and Netherlands clipped Portugal 1-0. In the second round, USA and Netherlands played 1-1 draw and Portugal won 2-0 over Vietnam.

By this goalless draw, USA is second in group E and qualified with Netherland who tops the group chalking 7 points winning two matches and a draw scoring 9 goals and conceding 1; USA is second with 5 points winning a match and having 2 drawn games scoring 4 goals and conceding 1; Unlucky Portugal had 4 points winning one match, with a draw and a loss scoring 2 goals and conceding one while Vietnam that had no point and scored no goal , no win but conceded 12 goals the highest in the tournament so far rocks the bottom of the group.

Netherlands will meet Runners up of Group G and USA will meet the champions of the group in the Round of 16. Group G qualifiers will be decided tomorrow.

The USA is the most successful women’s team in the world looking for a record 5th win having won the coveted world cup four times in 1991 at China; 1999 at home; 2015 in Canada and 2019 in France. The country also won the Olympics female soccer Gold four times in 1996; 2004; 2008 and 2012. Appearing in all tournaments, she also bagged the Silver in Germany 2011 and made three Bronze medals at Sweden 95; USA 2003 and China 2007.

We are still expecting Group D matches to be decided at 12 noon today as the Lionesses of England tackles China at Hindmarsh Stadium and Haiti faces Denmark at NIB Stadium.

Tomorrow Wednesday 2nd August, Group G matches will be decided simultaneously at 0800 hours. Argentina will square up against Sweden at the FMG Stadium Waikato while South Africa has a herculean task to beat Italy at Wellington Regional Stadium for a surprise win may let Africa have another team at the Round of 16.

Also tomorrow at 1100 hours Group F matches will be determined. Panama the whipped team of the group will try to survive against former Champions, France at the Allianz Stadium while the Reggae Girlz will try to obtain another miracle with a win over the Samba Girls of Brazil at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium.

By Eniola Olatunji