The U.S. women’s national team made it two consecutive shutouts in the SheBelieves Cup as the team recorded a 1-0 win over Japan in front of 25,471 fans at Geodis Park in Nashville, Tenn. on Sunday.
Mallory Swanson continued her scorching form with her 31st career international goal as she scored in her fifth consecutive game.
The USA has six points through two games with a plus-three goal differential. Japan is still searching for its first points of the tournament after falling to Brazil 1-0 on the opening match day. Brazil can match the USA’s six points with a win over Canada in the second match of the doubleheader.
U.S. head coach Vlatko Andonovski made five changes from the Starting XI that defeated Canada on Feb. 16, switching Casey Murphy for Alyssa Naeher in goal, Naomi Girma and Sofia Huerta on defense for Becky Sauerbrunn and Crystal Dunn, Kristie Mewis in the midfield for Andi Sullivan and Lynn Williams in the attack for Trinity Rodman.
It was an important test for the partially revamped side, which featured seven players – Mewis, Huerta, Emily Fox, Alana Cook, Ashley Sanchez, Girma and Murphy – with fewer than 50 caps against a well-organized, skillful and feisty Japan squad. All but Mewis (49 career caps) had 28 caps or less.
The opening salvos saw a high-energy press from Japan unsettle the USA as they tried to play out of the back. The match settled into a battle of field position as Japan attempted to create turnovers and turn them into scoring chances while the U.S. sought paths to connect with the midfield and forwards.
Japan took six shots to the USA’s two in the first half, but the Nadeshiko fail to muster any real danger against Murphy in the U.S. net. At the other end, Williams had the USWNT’s best chance of the opening stanza when her 15th minute cross nearly caught Ayaka Yamashita out of the Japanese goal, but the keeper was able to get the slightest touch to the ball and tipped it onto the crossbar.
The U.S. was persistent in its attack and took the lead on the stroke of half time as Morgan sent Swanson behind the defense on the counter. Swanson deftly collected the ball and blazed past the defense before sliding the ball into the lower left corner to give the USWNT a 1-0 advantage at the break.
The second half saw a flurry of subs from both teams with Andonovski making six changes for the USWNT and his counterpart Futoshi Ikeda switching out four players for Japan. While the intensity of Japan’s press eventually ran out of steam, the visitors forced the U.S. to work hard for the victory with a surge at the end.
The final 10 minutes saw Murphy’s strong goalkeeping preserve the clean sheet for the USWNT. After Fuka Nagano pinged a shot off the top of the crossbar in the 79th minute, Murphy made two quality saves to deny Yui Hasegawa and Jun Endo in the 81st and 92nd minutes, respectively, sealing the 1-0 win and the ninth shutout of her young career.
The USWNT will face Brazil (7 p.m. ET on TNT, HBO Max, Universo and Peacock) on the final match day of the SheBelieves Cup, while Japan will take on Canada (4 p.m. ET on HBO Max, Universo and Peacock). Both games will be played at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas on Wednesday, Feb. 22.
