USA were made to work overtime before earning a come-from-behind 1-1 draw against Ghana to ensure top spot in Group C.<\/p>\n
It was a hard-fought match with limited goal scoring opportunities at either end in a blustery Sir John Guise Stadium in Port Moresby.<\/p>\n
USA commenced the day in top spot and needed only a draw to guarantee progression, but a point would have left the door open for France or New Zealand to leapfrog them at the summit.<\/p>\n
As it panned out, France\u2019s 2-0 win saw the pair level at the top on points and goals only for USA to finish as group-winners on Fair Play criteria, having picked up one fewer yellow card.<\/p>\n
The goal scoring was compacted into two first-half minutes with Ghana breaking the deadlock on 20 minutes. Ernestina Abambila pushed a lobbed ball over the backline that seemed neither shot nor pass, but goalkeeper Casey Murphy could only fumble on to the frame of the goal and over the line.<\/p>\n
However, USA captain and attacking focal point Mallory Pugh again displayed her class with a smart equaliser. A driving run was followed by a perfect low shot for Pugh\u2019s second of the tournament.<\/p>\n
Earlier, the lively Ashley Sanchez pushed a shot just inches wide of the post, and could also have netted midway through the second half after ghosting in behind the Ghana backline.<\/p>\n
The best opening of the second half, however, fell to Ghana with seven minutes remaining, but Sandra Owusu-Ansah stabbed her close-range effort over from close range.
\n–<\/p>\n
Credit:FIFA.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
USA were made to work overtime before earning a come-from-behind 1-1 draw against Ghana to ensure top spot in Group C. It was a hard-fought match with limited goal scoring opportunities at either end in a blustery Sir John Guise Stadium in Port Moresby. USA commenced the day in top spot and needed only a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":270377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[142],"tags":[12235,564,42,3],"class_list":["post-270376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-black-maidens","tag-citi-sports","tag-ghana","tag-ghana-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=270376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=270376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=270376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=270376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}