U.S. women beat Colombia, 3-0, clinch spot in soccer quarterfinals

LONDON -- Behind goals from Megan Rapinoe, Abby Wambach and Carli Lloyd, the U.S. clinched a spot in the quarterfinals of the women’s Olympic soccer tournament Saturday with a 3-0 win over a gutty Colombian team at historic Hampden Park in Glasgow, Scotland.

With two victories in as many matches, the U.S. leads its group with only Tuesday’s match against North Korea left to play. The Koreans, who won their first match, played winless France later Saturday. The top two teams in each four-team group move on to the knockout stage along with the top two third-place teams.

Rapinoe opened the scoring Saturday when she split a pair of defenders to score from 20 yards out in the 33rd minute.

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Wambach doubled the advantage in the 74th minute, outracing a pair of defenders to a short through ball and getting just enough of her right boot on the ball to slip it past keeper Sandra Sepulveda.

Until that goal the afternoon had been a frustrating -- and painful -- one for Wambach, who was not only thwarted on three excellent scoring chances but was clawed from behind by a Colombia player late in the first half and fell to the turf holding her right eye.

Wambach pleaded for a foul, yelling at referee Thalia Mitsi to “look at my eye” to no avail. She didn’t forget, though, so after scoring her goal, Wambach ran along the touch line pointing at her eye.

And two minutes later she nearly scored again, hitting the crossbar with a wicked left-footed shot. That mattered little though, because in the 77th minute Carli Lloyd’s second goal in as many games made it 3-0.

Rapinoe, who is having a spectacular tournament in her first Olympics, set up a score with a deft pass that found Lloyd alone behind the Colombian defense.

But if Colombia (0-2) was outplayed, it wasn’t outhustled, playing a tough, physical game before tiring noticeably in the final 20 minutes and allowing the Americans to pull away.

Sepulveda had an especially active day in front of the net, keeping the Colombians in the match.

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