USA and England went in goalless at the break but a dominant second-half display from the Americans swept them to a 3-0 win and a place in the last four of China 2007.
The ‘Three Lionesses’ had drawn 1-1 with Greg Ryan’s side when they last met in January but it was three of USA’s absentees from that fixture who scored their goals in Tianjin. Abby Wambach got the ball rolling three minutes after the restart, rising above her marker to powerfully head home a Kristine Lilly corner.
Within ten minutes their lead had doubled, Shannon Boxx punishing England’s failure to clear their lines with a low, right-footed shot into the bottom left-hand corner. Lilly then got her own name on the score-sheet, capitalising on a goalkeeping error from Rachel Brown for one of the easiest of her 124 international goals.
To England’s credit, they did push forward in search of a goal but found the resistance of the USA defence unbreachable. The two-time champions will now look forward to a semi-final against the winners of tomorrow’s contest between Brazil and Australia.
We kicked there ass up and down the pitch