USA wins the Algarve Cup

posted by Pretty Tough
Wednesday, March 9, 2011 at 6:04pm EST

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The USA won’ it’s 8th Algarve Cup with a 4-2 win against Iceland. A critical goal from Lauren Cheney just before halftime leveled thing out for the USA who were down 2-1 at one point. Heather O’Reilly scored the game-winner, while Alex Morgan added an insurance goal with 3 minutes left in regulation.

The first goal of the match came in the 8th minute when Amy Rodriguez received a pass with her back to the goal. She played the ball of to Carli Lloyd who cracked a shot from 25 yards out into the top right corner of the net to give the USA an early lead.

Iceland got back into the game in the 24th minute when Nicole Barnhart saved an initial shot, but the ball was left in front of the goal for Margaret Vidarsdottir to pick up and assist Katrin Omarsdottir equalizer. Just two minutes later, Iceland had the lead with a goal from Halberra Gisladottir.

As Iceland played a defensive-minded game, the US pushed for another goal with multiple shots throughout the rest of the half until one of them payed off. Lauren Cheney tied the game up in the 43rd minute after Megan Rapinoe sent a cross into the penalty area where she shot a volley into the goal to send the teams into halftime with a 2-2 score.

The US continued to attack well in the 2nd half. In the 57th minute, Heather O’Reilly finally scored the game-winner off a rebound from a Shannon Boxx shot.

Refusing to settle for a 3-2 score the US powered through the Iceland defense again in the 87th minute. Abby Wambach won a ball in the air that fell to Alex Morgan, who went up against three defenders to score the final goal of the match.

Iceland almost scored at the very end, but the shot went wide.

This is the second tournament of the year that the USA has won. They won the Four Nations Tournament in January, and now the Algarve Cup. The next tournament will be the big one: The World Cup.

But before that, the USA will have a 20-day training camp in Europe including a friendly match against England on April 2 which will air live on ESPN2 at 3 pm ET.

In other news, Canada defended its Cyprus Cup with a 2-1 win against Holland. Jonele Filigno scored for Canada in the 20th minute before Claudia van den Heiligenberg scored the equalizer in the 40th minute. The game went into over time where Emily Zurrer scored the game-winner for Canada.

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USA wins the Algarve Cup

2011 Algarve Cup

Algarve Cup
March 2 - 9, 2011

Heather O'Reilly

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USA wins the Algarve Cup

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Heather O'Reilly

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Algarve Cup
March 2 - 9, 2011