Game report

It took the U.S. squad a few minutes to get over their first night nervousness, but once settled they virtually controlled the match the rest of the way as they continuously got in behind the South Korean defense. They seemed unable to handle Woznuk who meandered though their mid field and back line, and the first goal came early when Rapinoe was chopped down in the box. Within minutes another goal had put the USA firmly in command, and but for some poor finishing could have had several more than the final three. From defense to attack it was an impressive first game for the whole U.S. squad.

Post match quotes

U.S. U-19 National Team Head Coach Mark Krikorian

After the first five minutes, we did a good job of funneling them on defense and then varying the way we were attacking.  They took a good chance early in the game on a ball that Park Sun competed for in the air.  After that I thought our defending settled down and we were able to limit their chances and developed rhythm when we got the ball. 

The heat and humidity here is a little bit more than what we are used to back in the States and the Korean team is a very good team, they are physical and athletic, so they made us press very hard during the course of the game. Fortunately, we were able to hang in there and fight for 90 minutes.

Rodriguez was very good tonight.  She's physical and athletic and scored a nice goal for us.  She's a hard player for opponents to deal with and I thought she did a very nice job up front. Wozzy (Woznuk) was very good today.  She is kind of the engine that makes us go in a lot of different ways.  I thought she had a very strong performance.

Our defense was exceptional.  The concentration and commitment to defend Park was first class and I think she may have been frustrated as the game wore on.  I think Buehler , Sauerbrunn, Holmes, and Lopez deserve a lot of credit, plus defensive midfielder Logterman for dropping in and giving some help as well.

Rachel Buehler

I'm very proud of my team.  Korea came out intensely the first few minutes, but we held them and didn't let them get too many shots off.  It was very emotional and intense, but we held it together well and defended really well as a team.  We backed each other up when they got a few attacks up the middle.  It was a challenge marking 5-foot-10 Park Eun Sun on set plays, but Megan Rapinoe helped me out too so that made it a little bit easier for us to control where she was going, but she can jump, man.  I just kind of had to impede her path, mess her up rather than try to win the header.

Amy Rodriguez, scoring in her first game

I can't even believe the goal happened.  Our midfielders and forwards worked really well together tonight.  Our midfielders were reading our forwards runs and vice-versa and we were able to get behind them a bunch of times.

Angie Wosnuk

Our team played awesome.  The defense did a great job of stepping up and not letting their forwards hold the ball.  When we took possession, we could have done a little better, but we did well overall.  We did a great job of getting in behind them. We had a lot of breakaways, but their goalie did well.  She saved a lot of good shots.