INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Trinity Rodman scored within the fifth minute of her return from a prolonged harm absence, and the U.S. girls’s nationwide workforce beat Brazil 2-0 Saturday in a pleasant rematch of the Paris Olympics gold-medal match.
Captain Lindsey Heaps scored a second-half penalty aim for the People within the first of two California friendlies in 4 days in opposition to Brazil, who misplaced 2-1 in Paris because the U.S. secured its fifth Olympic gold medal.
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Rodman, the 22-year-old star and Orange County native, delivered her eleventh aim for the U.S. by ending off an excellent run by Alyssa Thompson. Rodman had been sidelined by again issues for eight months and hadn’t performed for the U.S. for the reason that Olympic ultimate.
Phallon Tullis-Joyce made six saves whereas maintaining a clear sheet within the 28-year-old goalkeeper’s U.S. debut.
Performed earlier than a full of life crowd of 32,303, this recreation was billed as the primary skilled girls’s sporting occasion at SoFi Stadium, the almost 5-year-old residence of the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams.
The groups meet once more Tuesday evening in San Jose, California.
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Of their most up-to-date outing in late February, the U.S. girls took their first defeat of coach Emma Hayes’ tenure, falling 2-1 to Japan in San Diego within the ultimate of the SheBelieves Cup. The People had been 15-0-2 since Hayes took over in June 2024.
Again at it in SoFi, the People struck early — and with model.
Studio Metropolis native Thompson obtained a midfield contact and made a formidable run by Brazil’s formation, sending one defender to the grass in confusion earlier than pushing an ideal move to Rodman for her cool end into the nook.
After her teammates mobbed her in celebration, Rodman stepped away and grabbed her decrease again, pretending to grab up with ache — solely to face up tall and snigger whereas flipping her pink hair over each shoulders.
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Later within the first half, Rodman seemed to be coping with precise ache from the again harm that she lately mentioned may by no means be absolutely healed. She nonetheless performed 16 minutes into the second half earlier than coming off.
The depleted U.S. protection had a number of tough moments in entrance of aim. The Seleção carried vital stretches of play and compelled Tullis-Joyce to work arduous, however the Lengthy Island native who performs for Manchester United dealt with each probability capably.
The U.S. was awarded a penalty when substitute Lily Johannes was tripped within the field an prompt after releasing a move within the sixty fourth minute. Heaps hammered it residence with aptitude for her thirty seventh aim.
Regardless of Rodman’s return, the U.S. is taking part in this spring with out 13 members of that Olympic workforce, coping with absences as a consequence of accidents, retirement and private leaves.
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The People are with out their two beginning middle backs for not less than the close to future. Naomi Girma has been out all yr up to now with a calf harm, whereas Tierna Davidson will miss the remainder of the NWSL season after she tore a ligament in her knee final week whereas taking part in for NJ/NY Gotham FC.
The injured middle backs have been changed by Emily Sonnett and Tara McKeown, who solely broke into the U.S. lineup earlier this yr.
Two weeks after the Mexico males’s workforce received the CONCACAF Nations Cup at SoFi, this pleasant match was one other early chapter in a sequence of main soccer occasions within the Los Angeles space over the subsequent six years.
A number of matches within the males’s World Cup shall be performed right here in 2026, together with the primary match for the U.S. males’s workforce at SoFi. The Los Angeles Video games arrive two years later, though the Olympic soccer matches within the LA space shall be held on the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.
The U.S. can be anticipated to host the Ladies’s World Cup in 2031 because the chief of a CONCACAF-based bid.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/soccer