France and the United States will meet for the second time in a month on Wednesday in the Algarve Cup final, but Monday could not have gone much differently for two of the world’s top teams.
France defeated reigning World Cup champions Japan, 3-1, to finish perfect through all three games in Group C. Gaëtane Thiney scored a brace and Eugenie Le Sommer added another for France to cancel out Nahomi Kawasumi’s initial strike. France also defeated Denmark and Portugal earlier in the tournament.
The United States played to a scoreless draw against Iceland, failing to score a goal in the first half for the third straight match. It is only the second time that Iceland has held the United States scoreless. The U.S. advances to the final thanks to last week’s victories over Norway and Switzerland.
U.S. coach Jill Ellis made several changes to her lineup against Iceland, playing Lori Chalupny in central midfield instead of left back and starting Kelley O’Hara at right back and Heather O’Reilly on the right side of midfield. Tobin Heath started on the left and Abby Wambach played up front alongside Alex Morgan.
Here are the #USWNT starters for today's match vs. Iceland to finish Group B at the 2015 Algarve Cup in Portugal. pic.twitter.com/juVzwJlncY
— U.S. Soccer WNT (@ussoccer_wnt) March 9, 2015
Japan 1-3 France
Gaetane Thiney scored twice and Eugenie Le Sommer added another goal to offset Nahomi Kawasumi’s early strike.
Brazil 1-3 Germany
Alexandra Popp scored a thundering header before goals from Cecilia Sasic and Dzsenifer Marozsan in the second half. Brazil had hope for a moment with a goal from a corner kick two minutes after halftime.
Sweden 3-0 China
Kosovare Asllani, Lotta Schelin and Sofia Jakobsson all scored in the first half to lift Sweden to the top of Group A and into the 3rd-place match.
Norway 2-2 Switzerland
A draw is enough to get Norway into the 5th-place match.
Portugal 2-2 Denmark
Claudia Neto scored an 86th minute equalizer for Portugal to pick up a big point for the tournament hosts against a good Denmark team
Placement Matches on Wednesday
1st: USA vs. France
3rd: Sweden vs. Germany
5th: Norway vs. Denmark
7th: Brazil vs. Switzerland
9th: Japan vs. Iceland
11th: Portugal vs. China
Below are the match times (Portugal is four hours ahead of Eastern Time.
Algarve Cup final matches schedule. pic.twitter.com/aMQGFMvTdn
— Algarve Cup 2015 (@Algarve_Cup2015) March 10, 2015
