Team USA has advanced to the knockout stage in women’s soccer at the Tokyo Olympics, despite sleepily and sloppily winning just one of its three round-robin games in Group G.
The U.S. Women’s National Team secured the point it needed to reach the quarterfinals Tuesday morning with a lackluster and mostly uneventful scoreless draw against Australia in Kashima.
The top-ranked Americans, who received two saves from goalie Alyssa Naeher in the dual clean sheet, finished the group stage with the same 1-1-1 record as the Aussies. The U.S. advanced to the quarterfinals as the second-place finisher based on a better goal differential.
The USWNT dropped its opening match to group winner Sweden last week (3-0) before rebounding with a 6-1 victory over New Zealand. The top two finishers in each group and the two best third-place finishers advance to the quarters beginning Friday. As the second-place team in Group G, the Americans will face the winner of Group F, likely either Brazil or the Netherlands, at 7 a.m. ET Friday in Yokohama.
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Australia, ranked ninth in the FIFA world rankings, still could advance as one of the third-place finishers.
The U.S. squad was knocked out by Sweden in penalty kicks in the Olympic quarterfinals in 2016 in Brazil before capturing its fourth World Cup title in 2019.
