Key events
69 min: Horan and Lavelle have their wires crossed, and Japan have a mini-breakaway. Good recovery, though, and the ball goes out to a wide-open Rodman. Her first touch is far too heavy, but then Kumagai and Yamashita can’t decide who should clear it, and it’s knocked out for a corner.
Unusually imperfect play from both sides there.
67 min: That’s better. Rodman again makes things happen, and a ball toward the center deflects toward Lavelle, who tees up a long shot that is deflected for a corner.
66 min: The whistling from the crowd has resumed. I’m getting drowsy.
65 min: Resume US keepaway practice.
63 min: SHOT for the USA. Lavelle’s pass is deflected for a corner. Swanson plays a short corner and takes a return pass, then dribbles into the penalty area and shoots a curling ball to the far post that doesn’t miss by too much.
Probably the closest the USA have come to scoring, though that’s not saying much.
61 min: CHANCE for the USA after someone (Rodman?) takes one for the team and blocks a hard pass. Smith winds up taking on two defenders and nearly gets by both.
60 min: Easy interception by Dunn, and Girma will complete a few more passes.
59 min: Swanson also comes back, and she cleanly wins the ball and plays ahead to Smith, who goes on a 40-yard run. But the next touch is lacking, and Japan earn possession.
59 min: Japan have 2 on 5, and they win the battle somehow. But it’s Rodman, an outstanding two-way player, coming back to cut out the danger.
57 min: That was, officially the first offside of the game, though we’ve seen several instances in which the flag just never went up.
Now we have the first yellow card, as Emily Sonnett slides through Fujino’s legs 40 yards from goal. The referee correctly waits to see if advantage materializes, then brings the play back when it doesn’t.
And now we have the first offside call against Japan, so all three officials have been summoned to action after 56 mostly idle minutes.
56 min: Rodman goes marauding through the penalty area and creates some danger. She earns a corner … or not, because now the AR’s flag is up, answering the question about whether the ARs are still in the stadium.
55 min: I think Girma just had an incomplete pass. Her first? Is her percentage now down to 99.98 or something?
54 min: Joe Pearson writes: “It sure seems that Japan’s movement off the ball when in possession is much more inventive and attacking than the USA’s. The USA seem bereft of attacking ideas.”
I think that’s fair. On most of the rare plays in the attacking third, the USA have passed to where someone should be but is not.
53 min: Pass back to Naeher that bounces while the US goalkeeper is a yard outside the penalty area. She awkwardly traps it with her chest and keeps possession.
But that seems like a little lapse in a half in which the USA have had a few little lapses.
52 min: A clever attempt to flick the ball from the near post into traffic. It rolls through, and Aobi takes a shot that looks like one of my drives the last time I took my golf clubs to the range. That’s not good.
51 min: That was surely offside. But play is allowed to continue, and Dunn has to sweep a dangerous cross out of play.
Do we have ARs in this game? I saw them on the stat sheet.
Corner kick for Japan again.
48 min: One thing to consider with the way this game is going – the USA have not rotated players in the group stage. Japan did. With the USA possessing and Japan chasing, any edge in freshness may be eliminated. No one from the USA should be tired after that first half.
Hey, Japan win a corner. Looked like a player was offside, but ARs now keep the flag down until the cows come home, so …
47 min: Julie Foudy has picked up a startling stat from Opta – Naomi Girma completed 105 passes in the first half.
105??!@!@
Crystal Dunn tries a through ball to no one.
46 min: Second verse, same as the first …
Sub: Maika Hamano, who played for Emma Hayes at Chelsea, replaces Kiko Seike.
The peloton reeled in the breakaway in the men’s road race.
Back in this game – the stats from the first half are stunning. The shot count (4-2 USA total, 2-1 USA on target) isn’t all that unusual, though at least one of those US shots on goal was from a play that would’ve been called back for offside.
But each team has 1 foul. The USA have the only corner of the game.
Japan and the USA have each won medals while this game has been in progress.
Checking the mailbag …
Charles Antaki puts the medal count in perspective:
Medals…hmm… I imagine loads of people are playing around with various kinds of adjustments according to each country’s population, GDP, Government subsidy, latitude and longitude and anything else. Population seems the least contentious and perhaps most informative. On that basis you’d have to shake hands with (at the moment) 108,436,154 Chinese people to find a gold medallist, but only 2,273,545 Australians. Still a lot of shaking hands, mind you.
Also in the mail:
I noticed that you own a website. I bet you’re always looking for ways to increase traffic and get more traffic on your website. Did you know that guest posting can help with that? Guest posting is a great way to establish trust and authority with the search engines, which can result in higher rankings over time. This way, you’re website ranked higher in google search result, and it also help to make more business.
Reminds me of the time I was working at a wire service and fielded a call from someone asking me to switch my company’s phone carrier. That would be like asking the guy delivering your pizza about switching the company’s internet host.
Halftime: USA 0-0 Japan
Much passing. No shooting. Ball mostly at the USA’s feet.
45 min: It’ll be one minute of stoppage time. Swanson was down injured at one point, so that probably accounts for most of it.
44 min: The ball remains in or near the Japanese half.
Stoppage time should be minimal. I’d be tempted to give negative-1 minute.
42 min: Smith takes on a defender and passes wide to Horan, whose pass to Lavelle is knocked out of play.
The US keep possession and … a foul! We have a foul! Tanaka is late sliding on Sonnett. Nothing malicious, and not in a dangerous spot, but noteworthy because it’s the first foul on Japan. And that’s not because the referee has been lenient.
41 min: The restless crowd have started whistling.
39 min: The US work it forward to Rodman, who takes on a defender and earns a corner kick, the first of the game.
They take it short, and Lavelle puts the ball in toward the onrushing Horan, but it’s a simple catch for Yamashita.
39 min: Resume US possession.
36 min: CHANCE FOR JAPAN! Seike flips a lovely ball toward Fujino. Dunn stretches a leg out to try to at least get it farther in the air and delay things until more players can help out, and perhaps that was just enough to make Moriya rush her shot, which goes high.
35 min: SHOT ON GOAL FOR JAPAN! Seike unexpectedly beats Girma and plays for Tanaka, who turns past Horan and has an angle to shoot. She takes a touch to get a better angle, but I think the first one was better. Her shot is straight at Naeher, who makes the first legitimate save of the game.
34 min: Kitagawa intercepts a pass but can only play it out of bounds.
Dunn tries to go a bit more direct on the left flank, but the pass is blocked.
And now it’s back with … you guessed it … Naomi Girma.
33 min: Lavelle and Dunn stumble simultaneously, but there was no apparent foul. Japan have still not committed a foul in this game.
31 min: Fox passes to Smith, which is unfortunate because there are four Japanese players around her, and they win possession.
But Rodman, who is a fierce ball-winner when she tracks back from her forward possession, immediately takes it back.
30 min: A SHOT! WE HAVE A SHOT! Horan flicks the ball to Smith, who seems to be of two minds in the eternal “pass or shoot” dilemma and ends up firing well wide.
30 min: The foul on Fox was the first foul of the game.
29 min: A wonderful give-and-go puts the US under pressure, and Sonnett swings over to cover for Dunn and knock the ball out of play.
Japan falter with the throw-in, and it’ll be a goal kick.
28 min: Hasegawa plays it an onrushing player at the near post, but the US defense is unimpressed and unmoved.
But Japan maintain possession at the back, taking their turn passing it endlessly.