{"id":398178,"date":"2026-04-18T05:14:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T05:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/398178\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T05:14:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T05:14:07","slug":"u-s-womens-national-team-dominate-third-instalment-of-japan-series-with-second-half-goal-surge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/398178\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. women\u2019s national team dominate third instalment of Japan series with second-half goal surge"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United States Women\u2019s National Team (USWNT) stormed to a 3-0 victory over Japan on Friday evening (17 April), delighting\u00a0football<\/a>\u00a0fans in snowy Colorado.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After dominating a goalless first half, the U.S. came out with a point to prove in the second as they immediately broke the deadlock through\u00a0Naomi Girma<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rose Lavelle<\/a>\u00a0added a second ten minutes later, before defender\u00a0Kennedy Wesley\u00a0bagged her first international goal to seal their second win of this three-game mini-series.<\/p>\n

It was a bright start from the hosts, both\u00a0Trinity Rodman<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Sophia Wilson<\/a>\u00a0linking up on the right in a bid to carve out the first chance of the game, though their efforts ultimately led to nothing.<\/p>\n

Moments later, Japan unlocked the opposing defence for the first effort on goal through\u00a0Koga T\u014dko<\/a>. It came on the back of a goalmouth scramble through a corner, with U.S. goalkeeper\u00a0Claudia Dickey\u00a0gathering the effort and holding firm.<\/p>\n

The opening exchanges between these great rivals remained finely poised, though Emma Hayes\u2019s side soon tested Japan\u2019s resolve. This time it was their chance to capitalise on a set piece, Wilson coming the closest to breaking the deadlock. She hit the ball on a sweet half-volley but could only watch as\u00a0Chika Hirao\u00a0parried it into the path of\u00a0Naomi Girma<\/a>, whose subsequent header sailed over the bar.<\/p>\n

Wilson, a standout performer across both sides in the opening 45, continued to excel whether she was linking up play or making things happen on her own from different areas of the pitch. The recent first-time mother came close to the first goal of the game after some great skill down the right, but her effort was wide of the mark.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Minutes before the interval,\u00a0Claire Hutton\u00a0came the closest of any player when her effort from the edge of the area ricocheted off Hirao\u2019s crossbar. Despite the added time, it was goalless at the break.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United States Women\u2019s National Team (USWNT) stormed to a 3-0 victory over Japan on Friday evening (17…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-398178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}