By Ian S Palmer
The USA will be kicking off against South American nation Colombia in the round-of-16 stage at the 2015 Women’s World Cup at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta on Monday, June 22. The winner of this contest will advance to the quarterfinals where they’ll take on the winner of the China vs Cameroon showdown. A loss in this stage means elimination from the tournament, meaning any tied games will go to extra time and then a penalty shootout if it’s still level after the extra 30 minutes.
Women’s World Cup Betting Preview – USA vs Colombia
- bet365 lists USA as the favorites to win this match at 1/6 with Colombia 14/1 and a 90-minute draw at 6/1
The American women topped Group D, also known as the group of death, by beating Australia 3-1 in their opener and then drawing 0-0 with Sweden and taking down Nigeria 1-0. Colombia drew their first Group F match 1-1 with Mexico and then pulled off an upset when they shut out the French 2-0. They dropped their final contest 2-1 to England, but did enough to advance as one of the tournament’s best third-place teams.
The Americans have now advanced to the knockout stage in six of the seven Women’s World Cups thanks to Abby Wambach’s game-winner against Nigeria. It was Wambach’s first goal in the 2015 event and her 183rd overall in 245 games for her country. In other good news for coach Jill Ellis and the U.S. fans, striker Alex Morgan managed to play just over an hour against Nigeria after playing just 23 minutes in the first two matches due to an injured knee. With Morgan back on the pitch the U.S. attack will receive a huge boost as they’ve scored just four goals in their three outings. Morgan brings 51 goals to the table in her 87 career games for her country.
Colombia, who are ranked 28th in the world, should be a confident side after shutting out third-ranked France and losing a close encounter to England. Their win over France makes Colombia the lowest-ranked nation to beat a top-10 team since the women’s ranking system was introduced by FIFA back in 2003. They’ll be in tough against an experienced American side though and a team that is gunning for its third World Cup trophy. To make the task even tougher, Colombia will be without their number one goaltender Sandra Sepulveda as she’s suspended for this game after picking up her second yellow card of the event in the game against England.
The Colombians will have to start 21-year-old Stefany Castano in net and she has just eight games of senior international experience under her belt. Colombia prefers to counterattack rather than play an offensive style, but they’ll be asking for trouble if they sit back and let the Americans attack them in waves. If Colombia does manage to score, there’s a good chance it’ll be achieved by Lady Andrade as she scored against France and England.