USA Field Hockey News

Angie Loy looks down field in a 0-0 draw with Japan at t he World Cup -

USA Field Hockey Women Play to 0-0 Draw with Japan at World Cup

MADRID – The USA Field Hockey team played to an unlucky 0-0 draw with Japan to earn its first point of the tournament at the Samsung World Cup.

“It’s a game we should have won,” said U.S. coach Lee Bodimeade on the match that saw the USA narrowly miss the goal throughout the day. “We had a number of opportunities and had a number of corners and goal shots. We were a bit unlucky and it was a little frustrating for us, but at the end of the day I think we should have won the game.”

The draw puts the USA at 0-2-1 at the tournament with one point while Japan also goes to 0-2-1 in Pool B.

The USA flirted with the goal on several occasions in both halves and had two apparent goals whistled dead before the shot and penalty corners resulted from the calls. The USA had seven penalty corner opportunities in the game.

Attacking throughout the game while successfully thwarting Japan’s counterattack on defense, the USA had two penalty corner opportunities in the final two minutes, but after the first attempt struck a Japan player, Keli Smith’s deflection attempt sailed over the top of the goal on the second attempt to seal the scoreless tie.

While denied the win, Bodimeade remains pleased with the USA’s play at the tournament.

“I think we’ve played well all the way through,” said Bodimeade on the USA’s first three games. “I though we played well against Argentina and were beaten by a better side against Australia. It’s a continuation , but I think overall we’ve been pretty good.”

After a day off, the USA returns to play on Monday against South Africa before concluding pool play against Korea on Wednesday.

“Nothing has really changed for us,” said Bodimeade on his team’s standings in the tournament. “We saw these last three games as ones where we needed to get points. We are disappointed that we didn’t get the win today, but we have two teams that we are ranked closely with ahead of us that hopefully we can get points from and we’ll see what happens from there.”

USA Starters: Kayla Bashore, Melissa Leonetti, Angie Loy, Kelly Doton, Rachel Dawson, Tiffany Snow, Sara Silvetti, Keli Smith, Carrie Lingo, Kate Barber, Amy Tran (GK)

Reserves: Sarah Dawson, April Fronzoni, Katelyn Falgowski, Dina Rizzo, Lauren Powley
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