USA FACES NEW ZEALAND IN OLYMPIC QUARTERFINALS: The U.S. Women’s National Team, which is coming off its first 3-0-0 performance in the group stage, faces New Zealand in the quarterfinals of the 2012 Olympics at 9:30 a.m. ET on Friday, Aug. 3, at St. James’ Park in Newcastle, England.

The match will be broadcast live on the NBC Sports Network, NBC Olympic Soccer Channel and streamed on NBC Live Extra. Fans can follow the match via ussoccer.com’s MatchTracker and on Twitter @ussoccer_wnt.

Should the U.S. advance past New Zealand, the team would face the winner of the Great Britain-Canada quarterfinal match on Monday, Aug. 6, in the Olympic Semifinals at Old Trafford in Manchester, England.

 

2012 U.S. WNT Schedule

Date	Opponent	Result/ Time (ET)	U.S. Goalscorers/TV	Venue
Jan. 20*	Dominican Republic	14-0 W	Wambach (2), Lloyd, Buehler, O’Reilly (3), Heath, Rodriguez (5), Cheney	BC Place, Vancouver, Canada
Jan. 22*	Guatemala	13-0 W	Wambach (2), Cheney, Rodriguez, Lloyd, Lindsey, Leroux (5), Rapinoe, Morgan	BC Place, Vancouver, Canada
Jan. 24*	Mexico	4-0 W	Lloyd (3), O’Reilly	BC Place, Vancouver, Canada
Jan. 27*	Costa Rica	3-0 W	Heath, Lloyd, Morgan	BC Place, Vancouver, Canada
Jan. 29*	Canada	4-0 W	Morgan (2), Wambach (2)	BC Place, Vancouver, Canada
Feb. 11	New Zealand	2-1 W	Morgan (2)	FC Dallas Stadium, Frisco, Texas
Feb. 29^	Denmark	5-0 W	Morgan (2), Wambach, Lloyd, Leroux	Estadio Municipal; Lagos, Portugal
March 2^	Norway	2-1 W	Wambach, Leroux	Estadio Municipal; Lagos, Portugal
March 5^	Japan	0-1 L	--	Estadio Algarve; Faro, Portugal
March 7^	Sweden	4-0 W	Morgan (3), Wambach	Estadio Bela Vista; Parchal, Portugal
April 1**	Japan	1-1 T	Morgan	Yurtec Stadium; Sendai, Japan
April 3**	Brazil	3-0 W	Lloyd, Boxx, Rodriguez	Fukuda Denshi Arena; Chiba, Japan
May 27	China PR	4-1 W	Morgan (2), own goal, Wambach	PPL Park; Chester, Pa.
June 16^^	Sweden	3-1 W	Wambach, Morgan, Heath	Örjans Vall Stadium; Halmstad, Sweden
June 18^^	Japan	4-1 W	Morgan (2), Wambach (2)	Örjans Vall Stadium; Halmstad, Sweden
June 30	Canada	2-1 W	Own goal, Rodriguez	Rio Tinto Stadium; Sandy, Utah
July 25~	France	4-2 W	Wambach, Morgan (2), Lloyd	Hampden Park; Glasgow, Scotland
July 28~	Colombia	3-0 W	Rapinoe, Wambach, Lloyd	Hampden Park; Glasgow, Scotland
July 31~	Korea DPR	1-0 W	Wambach	Old Trafford; Manchester, England
Aug. 3~	New Zealand	9:30 a.m. ET	NBC Sports Network; NBC Olympic Soccer Channel; NBC Live Extra (web)	St. James’ Park; Newcastle, England

* CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying tournament
^ Algarve Cup
** Kirin Challenge Cup
^^ Volvo Winners Cup
~ 2012 London Olympics

U.S. ROSTER BY POSITION – Detailed Roster
GOALKEEPERS (2): 1-Hope Solo, 18-Nicole Barnhart
DEFENDERS (6): 2-Heather Mitts, 3-Christie Rampone, 4-Becky Sauerbrunn, 5-Kelley O’Hara, 6-Amy LePeilbet, 16-Rachel Buehler
MIDFIELDERS (6): 7-Shannon Boxx, 8-Amy Rodriguez, 9-Heather O’Reilly, 10-Carli Lloyd, 15-Megan Rapinoe, 17-Tobin Heath
FORWARDS (4): 11-Sydney Leroux, 12-Lauren Cheney, 13-Alex Morgan, 14-Abby Wambach

 

GROUP G UPDATE:

• USA 1, Korea DPR 0: The U.S. already had a quarterfinal spot locked up, but the team made sure to maintain its momentum heading into the knockout phase. Abby Wambach took care of the scoring with her third goal in three Olympic Games, and the USA posted its first 3-0-0 mark in the group stage of the Olympics. Wambach’s tally, the 141st of her career and U.S. WNT-best seventh in Olympic play, came in the 25th minute.
• France 1, Colombia 0: Needing a win to guarantee a place in the quarterfinals, France came through with an Elodie Thomis goal in the fifth minute to seal the deal. France could have run away with the match as Louisa Necib and Thomis also hit the frame. It was a dominant performance for France, which had a 13-2 shots on goal advantage and outshot Colombia 20-5 overall. France finished second in Group G at 2-0-1 and faces Sweden in the quarterfinals. Should France advance to the semifinals, it would face the winner of Friday’s Brazil-Japan match.

2012 Olympic Schedule

Date	Match	Time (ET)	Stage	Venue
Aug. 3	Sweden vs. France	7 a.m.	Quarterfinals	Hampden Park; Glasgow, Scotland
Aug. 3	USA vs. New Zealand	9:30 a.m.	Quarterfinals	St. James’ Park; Newcastle, England
Aug. 3	Brazil vs. Japan	12 p.m.	Quarterfinals	Millennium Stadium; Cardiff, Wales
Aug. 3	Great Britain vs. Canada	2:30 p.m.	Quarterfinals	City of Coventry Stadium; Coventry, England
Aug. 6	SWE/FRA vs. BZL/JPN winners	12 p.m.	Semifinals	BC Place, Vancouver, Canada
Aug. 6	USA /NZL vs. GBR/CAN winners	2:45 p.m.	Semifinals	Old Trafford Stadium; Manchester, England
Aug. 9	Semifinal Losers	8 a.m.	Bronze Medal	City of Coventry Stadium; Coventry, England
Aug. 9	Semifinal Winners	2:45 p.m.	Gold Medal	Wembley Stadium; London, England

 

U.S. ROSTER NOTES:

 

• Seven players on the U.S. roster have scored in an Olympics: Abby Wambach (4 goals in 2004; 3 goals in 2012), Carli Lloyd (2 goals in 2008; 2 goals in 2012), Heather O’Reilly (1 goal in 2004; 2 goals in 2008), Shannon Boxx (1 goal in 2004), Amy Rodriguez (1 goal in 2008), Alex Morgan (2 goals in 2012) and Megan Rapinoe (1 goal in 2012), who had the game-winning tally against Colombia on July 28.
• Only three U.S. WNT players have been on the field for all 270 minutes in the 2012 Olympics: goalkeeper Hope Solo, defender and team captain Christie Rampone and defender Kelley O’Hara, who turns 24 years old on Sunday, Aug. 4.
• Morgan leads the U.S. WNT with 19 goals in 18 games, and she has seven multi-goal games this year. Following her two-goal effort en route to a 4-2 win against France on July 25, Morgan moved into a tie for seventh place on the all-time U.S. WNT list for goals scored in a calendar year with April Heinrichs (1991), Mia Hamm (1995) and Cindy Parlow (2000).
• Morgan’s scoring clip is a rarity in U.S. Women’s history. The last person to record double-digit goals at a rate of more than one goal per game was Mia Hamm, who had 18 goals in 16 games in 1997. Even Wambach, who is second on the USA’s all-time goal scoring list, has not averaged one goal per game in any year. She has been close on several occasions, including her 20 goals in 21 games in 2007.
• The USA’s 4-2 win against France marked the first time in Olympic play that the team had come back to win from a two-goal deficit. In all previous Olympic competition, the USA allowed more than one goal only three times – a 3-2 loss to Norway in the 2000 gold medal game, a 2-0 loss to Norway in the opening game of the 2008 Olympics and a 4-2 victory against Japan in the semifinal match in 2008 (the USA was down 1-0 before scoring four straight).

 

USA vs. NEW ZEALAND SERIES

 

• The U.S. is 8-1-0 against New Zealand and heads into Friday’s game with eight straight victories in the series.
• The two sides most recently met on Feb. 11, 2012, in a match played in freezing temperatures in Frisco, Texas. Hannah Wilkinson scored in the 49th minute and the Americans had the chase the game for the rest of the way. Alex Morgan then tallied the tying and game-winning goals in the closing minutes to defeat New Zealand 2-1 in front of a sellout crowd of 25,677 at FC Dallas Stadium.
• These two teams met in group play of the 2008 Olympics on Aug. 12 of that year with the USA winning 4-0 in Shenyang, China. The victory pushed the USA through to the quarterfinals earned the Group G title. USA midfielder Heather O’Reilly scored the game’s first goal just 40 seconds into the match, an Olympic record.
• In that Olympic match, the USA won its group with a plus-3 goal differential, while Norway (tied on points with the U.S. with six) lost its final group game 5-1 to Japan and finished with a minus-1 goal differential.
• The USA’s most lopsided victory against New Zealand was a 6-0 win on Oct. 10, 2004, in an international friendly at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati, the hometown of U.S. defender Heather Mitts.
• U.S. legend Mia Hamm and notched her 100th and 101st assists when the U.S. defeated New Zealand 5-0 on June 4, 2000, at the Pacific Cup in Sydney, Australia. Hamm (144 assists) and Kristine Lilly (105) are the only two U.S. WNT players to eclipse the 100-assist mark in their careers.

 

IN THE RECORD BOOKS

 

• Abby Wambach scored her seventh career Olympic goal during the USA’s 1-0 win against Korea DPR on July 31, putting her atop the U.S. leaderboard in career Olympic goals. During these Olympics Games she surpassed the previous record of five held by Mia Hamm and Tiffeny Milbrett.
• Veteran U.S. defender Christie Rampone became the USA’s all-time leader in Olympic appearances with 17 during the team’s 4-2 win against France on July 25. Rampone now has 19 career Olympic appearances following the team’s 1-0 victory against Korea DPR on July 31 and she is three ahead of previous USA record holders of Joy Fawcett, Julie Foudy, Kristine Lilly and Kate Markgraf.
• Rampone moved into a tie for fourth place on the all-time WNT list with her 234th career international start on July 31, matching former U.S. defender Joy Fawcett. Fawcett had 234 starts and 239 caps in 17 years of play. Rampone has 234 starts and 263 caps in her 14th year with the U.S. WNT.
• Alex Morgan ranks 16th all-time in career goals with 29 and is one goal away from tying 15th-ranked Brandi Chastain’s career mark of 30. Also with her next goal, Morgan (currently with 19 goals in 2012) will move into a tie for fourth place on the all-time list for goals during a calendar year with Mia Hamm (1998), Kristine Lilly (1999) and Abby Wambach (2007), who all had 20 goals in their respective campaigns.
• Morgan’s 46 points this year (19 goals, eight assists) are the most for a WNT player in a calendar year since 2004, when Wambach had 75 (31 goals, 13 assists) and Hamm had 50 (14 goals, 22 assists).

 

BY THE NUMBERS:

 

• 1: USA’s FIFA ranking
• 3: USA players who have scored at least two goals in this year’s Olympics: Carli Lloyd (2), Alex Morgan (2) and Abby Wambach (3)
• 5: Goals scored in a game by Sydney Leroux (Jan. 22, 2012), Amy Rodriguez (Jan. 20, 2012), Abby Wambach (Oct. 23, 2004), Tiffeny Milbrett (Nov. 2, 2002), Michelle Akers (Nov. 24, 1991) and Brandi Chastain (April 18, 1991)
• 7: Career Olympic goals by Wambach, a U.S. WNT record
• 8: Games this year in which Morgan and Wambach both contributed at least one goal (8-0-0 record)
• 19: Career Olympic appearances by U.S. captain Christie Rampone
• 23: New Zealand’s FIFA ranking
• 91: U.S. victories when Abby Wambach scores a goal (91-2-5 overall)
• 194: Players who have earned a cap for the U.S. Women’s National Team since the program’s inception in 1985, the most recent being Whitney Engen, who earned her first cap against Norway at the Algarve Cup on March 4, 2011
• 498: Games played by the U.S. WNT since team began play in 1985 (387-57-54 record)