The U.S. Women’s National Team snapped its first two-game losing streak since 2001 with a 3-0 shutout of North Korea, good for a seventh-place finish in the 2014 Algarve Cup in Portugal.
Abby Wambach scored her 166th and 167th career goals in the win, and Heather O’Reilly scored the third in what was her 200th appearance for the USA. O’Reilly, who played collegiate soccer at UNC Chapel Hill, is the 9th U.S. player to earn her 200th cap. In those 200 games, she has been directly involved in 90 goals scored, 40 of which she scored and the other 50 being goals in which she had an assist.
The win was actually the only victory for the U.S. team in the tournament, which opened with a 1-1 draw against Japan, followed by losses to Sweden (1-0) and Denmark (5-3). The U.S. had not lost a game to Denmark since 2004.
The USA is now 4-2-1 on the year, and moved to 5-0-1 all-time against Korea DPR. This is the first match between the two countries that did not take place in a Women’s World Cup or Olympic Gams.
Germany won the Algarve Cup championship with a 3-0 victory over Japan. In yet another sign of the USA bringing out the best in its opponents, Sweden lost in the third-place match to Iceland, 2-1, and Denmark fell in the fifth-place match to China PR in penalty kicks, after tying 1-1 in regulation.
Most of the U.S. players will now return home to begin their pre-season camps with their National Women’s Soccer League clubs, while several will head back to Europe to finish their European club campaigns. The second season of the NWSL kicks off on April 12.
The USA will be back in action next for two games against China PR on April 6 at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colo. (3 p.m. MT) and April 10 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego (8 p.m. PT, NBC Sports Network).