Leszek (Shek) Borkowski

Italy coach Pietro Ghedin showed respect when he selected a side to play a restraining game rather than to cause a shock but Italy began brightly, dominating midfield with underrated and impressive Alessia Tuttino showing intelligence, both in positioning herself to intercept and to support both Conti and Domenichetti.
Italy right back D’Adda looked vulnerable during her 45 minutes of play and had Megan Rapinoe shown more discipline to stay wider and received more service, Italians would have had more problems with her. As it were, USA’s only goal was a result of a good play by Rapinoe and poor play by Italy GK Picarelli who dropped Rapinoe’s initial shot straight to Amy Rodriguez. Rodriguez made up for her earlier misses with a calm finish.
Against Italy, USA showed patience and discipline and while their 40th minute goal may have been against the run of play, the second half was all USA.
As the match progressed Ghedin, who for this match played his most athletic player Sara Gama at left back specifically to deal with the threat of Heather O’Reilly, made two changes to reinforce, both on his right side, to cope with O’Reilly. The three changes, in my opinion a testimony to the excellence of the right-side work of O’Reilly, who was USA’s best player on the day.
Overall, USA played diligently, all ran tirelessly and fully deserved to qualify despite Italy’s well-organized 180-minute effort.