The Women’s Olympic Football Team was defeated 6-1 by reigning world champions USA tonight in their second group game of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The USA, having lost their opening game 3-0 against Sweden, were ruthless in Saitama Stadium, as they fought to reignite their Olympic campaign.

But while the final score line was disappointing, there were some positives to take from the performance, says New Zealand head coach Tom Sermanni.

"From our perspective, 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. I think for the first thirty minutes of the second half we played exceptionally well, our discipline was good.”

“We got ourselves back in the game at 3-1, and then the last 10 minutes, we kind of lost our way a little bit. And unfortunately the scoreline I think was a little bit blown out, which is disappointing.”

“But from an effort perspective, I can't fault the players, they gave blood, sweat and tears on the field tonight to come up against a very good team. The effort was first-class. What we just need to do again is, if we could fulfill the game plan for the full 90 minutes, then I think the score line would have been a bit more respectable.”

His comments were echoed by captain Ali Riley.

“I think even if we had played the USA first or after they had lost, they're always going to be a huge challenge, if not the biggest challenge, for any team. But like Tom said, I I'm really proud of how we played. I thought it was much braver than we've probably ever played in terms of combining and actually getting in behind and scoring on the number one ranked team in the world.

“So I think we can take so much positive from the game, but obviously it hurts to have that score line. I think at the end, for every good cross we had, we had some really poor defending, myself included. So I think it's just now, can we actually get a complete 90 minutes where we can come into the locker room and be completely proud and satisfied with our performance? We have one more chance to do it.”

The team next face Sweden for their final group game on 27 July (5pm Japan/8pm NZ) in Miyagi.

Article added: Sunday 25 July 2021

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