WNT Aims to Secure Top Spot in Group D Against Nigeria

The U.S. Women’s National Team will be playing for the top spot in Group D at the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup when it faces Nigeria on Tuesday, June 16, at BC Place in Vancouver, Canada. The match will be broadcast live on FOX and NBC Universo at 8 p.m. ET (5 p.m. PT). Pre-game coverage of the match begins a full hour ahead of kickoff on FOX at 7 p.m. ET. Fans can follow all the action on Twitter @ussoccer_wnt and @ussoccer_esp, as well as Instagram and Snapchat (ussoccer_wnt). 

GROUP D STANDINGS: The USA (1-0-1; 4 points) drew Sweden 0-0 on June 12 in front of a crowd of more than 32,000 fans at Winnipeg Stadium. The tie kept the U.S. atop Group D after opening the tournament with a 3-1 win against Australia on June 8 when Megan Rapinoe scored twice and Christen Press added a goal in front of more than 31,000 in Winnipeg. After two match days, the U.S. is followed by Australia (1-1-0, 3 points), Sweden (0-0-2; 2 points) and Nigeria (0-1-1; 1 point). The USA, Nigeria and Sweden have competed in every edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup.

Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD	Pts.
USA	2	1	0	1	3	1	+2	4
AUS	2	1	1	0	3	3	0	3
SWE	2	0	0	2	3	3	0	2
NGA	2	0	1	1	5	3	-2	1

ADVANCEMENT SCENARIOS: The U.S. Women’s National Team is assured advancement to the knockout stage if it finishes Group D in first or second place.

The USA will finish in first place in the group if:

• It beats Nigeria
• It ties Nigeria and Australia vs. Sweden finishes in a tie
• It ties Nigeria and Sweden beats Australia by one goal
• It loses to Nigeria by one goal and Sweden ties Australia

If the USA finishes first in Group D, the team would play the third place finisher of Group B/E/F on June 22 in Edmonton.

The USA will finish in second place in the group if:

• It ties Nigeria and Australia beats Sweden
• It ties Nigeria and Sweden beats Australia by more than two goals
• It ties Nigeria and Sweden beats Australia by two goals, but Sweden has more "Goals For" than USA
• It loses to Nigeria by one goal and there is a winner between Australia and Sweden
• It loses to Nigeria by two goals, Australia and Sweden tie, and the USA has more "Goals For" than Australia

If the USA finishes second in Group D, the team will play Brazil on June 21 in Moncton.

The USA can also advance if it finishes as one of the top four third-place finishers across the six World Cup groups. Advancement as a third-place team will not be assured until the Group Stage concludes on June 17. The U.S. cannot finish below third place in the group. Though Nigeria would pass the U.S. with a multi-goal margin of victory, it is not possible for both Sweden and Australia to overtake the U.S.

The USA could finish in third place if:

• It loses to Nigeria by two or more goals

If the USA finishes third in Group D and advances, the team could play the winner of Group B on June 20 in Ottawa – or – play the winner of Group A on June 21 in Vancouver.

#SHEBELIEVES: The U.S. Women’s National Team players want to make an impact on the soccer field during the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, but they also are determined to make an impact on their fans, especially the young girls and women who will be watching them. Conceived and developed by the USWNT players, the #SheBelieves campaign is a message to young girls that they can accomplish all their goals and dreams. During the week of May 19-24, all 23 players went into their communities to give back and share the message that anyone’s dreams and goals can become a reality if one just believes.

• WATCH: #SheBelieves in her Community
• Read the USWNT’s letter

ONE NATION. ONE TEAM. 23 STORIES: While you watch the WNT give its all at the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada, get to know each player through U.S. Soccer’s "One Nation. One Team. 23 Stories." series, presented by Clorox. Sprinkled with humor, fun and heartfelt stories, the videos give fans insight into the players’ personalities, families, motivations, and some of the challenges they’ve experienced on the different roads they’ve traveled to earn the right to represent the United States in the ultimate competition for a soccer player.

• Watch all 23 Videos

FAN SUPPORT FOLLOWS THE U.S. WNT: The U.S. WNT played in front of three sold-out crowds during its Women’s World Cup Send-Off Series and the vast majority of the more than 31,000 at Winnipeg Stadium on June 8 and more than 32,000 on June 12 were also solidly decked out in red, white and blue. The match against Nigeria at BC Place in Vancouver is expected to be a sell-out, and with the city so close to the U.S. border, a massive U.S. presence is expected.

U.S. ROSTER NOTES:

• Seven U.S. players have played all 180 minutes of the tournament so far: midfielder Lauren Holiday, defender Julie Johnston, defender Meghan Klingenberg, defender Ali Krieger, midfielder Carli Lloyd, defender Becky Sauerbrunn and goalkeeper Hope Solo.
• The USA has allowed seven shots on goal over the 180 minutes of action so far and allowed just one against Sweden.
• Morgan Brian, Meghan Klingenberg, Julie Johnston, Sydney Leroux and Christen Press all made their World Cup debuts against Australia on June 8. All played against Sweden on June 12 as well, with Brian getting her first start.
• Press and Leroux also recorded their first World Cup points on June 8, with Press scoring a goal and Leroux an assist.
• So far, 14 of the 20 field players on the World Cup roster have seen action in the tournament.
• Brian made her first start in a World Cup against Sweden on June 12, while Amy Rodriguez made her first appearance of the tournament.
• In its last 12 games, the U.S. has surrendered just three goals and has scored 23. Its only defeat of the year came on the first match, a 2-0 loss to France on Feb. 8, 2015, in Lorient, France.
• Forward Abby Wambach leads the U.S. roster with five goals in 2015.
• Lori Chalupny scored against New Zealand in her hometown of St. Louis on April 4, marking it her first goal for the USA since she scored against the Republic of Ireland on Sept. 20, 2008. She scored her second goal of the year against Mexico on May 17, just 45 seconds after coming into the match as a second half sub.
• Klingenberg scored her second National Team goal on a long-range blast against New Zealand. Her first goal was a similar long-range effort that came against Haiti on Oct. 8, during Women’s World Cup qualifying tournament last year.
• Johnston has three goals in 2015, all coming in consecutive games. Her three goals were all from set pieces and all assisted by Lauren Holiday.
• Eleven different players have scored for the USA in 2015: Alex Morgan, Abby Wambach, Amy Rodriguez, Christen Press, Johnston, Klingenberg, Megan Rapinoe, Morgan Brian, Chalupny, Sydney Leroux and Carli Lloyd.
• Alex Morgan has played 25 minutes so far in the tournament, coming off the bench in against Australia and Sweden for 12 and 13 minutes, respectively.
• U.S. captain Christie Rampone is currently the second most-capped player in U.S. and world history with 306 appearances.
• Rampone earned her 300th cap against with Mexico on Oct. 24, 2014, and currently has 306 games, the most of any active player in the world and behind only former teammate Kristine Lilly.
• Defender Becky Sauerbrunn is the only player on the roster to start every game for the USA. She has played the most minutes (1059) of anyone on the team.
• Carli Lloyd currently sits at 197 caps and could hit the 200 mark during the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. She would become the 10th player in U.S. history to reach that mark and the fourth in the current roster. Rampone, Wambach and Heather O’Reilly are the other three.
• Lauren Holiday leads all U.S. players on the rosters in assists with five in 2015. Holiday was the 2014 U.S. Soccer Female Athlete of the Year.
• Brian, the USA’s youngest player at age 22, was the 2014 U.S. Soccer Young Female Athlete of the Year. She was also named the 2013 and 2014 Hermann Trophy winner while playing for the University of Virginia.
• While Wambach is the USA’s top scorer on the roster with 182 goals, Lloyd is next with 63 career international goals and Morgan has 51. Heather O’Reilly has scored 41.
• Christen Press’ four-goal performance against Argentina in Brazil last December was the ninth such game in U.S. history and second of 2014 after Wambach scored four times against Costa Rica in the final of the CONCACAF Women’s Championship. It was the first-career hat trick for Press.
• All nine NWSL clubs are represented on the Women’s World Cup roster.
• Seven U.S. players that took the field in the last meeting with Nigeria at the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup are part of this World Cup roster.

IN THE RECORD BOOKS:

• With her first goal of the game against Australia on June 8, U.S. midfielder Megan Rapinoe became the 13th U.S. female player to score 30 goals and tally 30 assists. She currently has 31 goals and 32 assists. Her brace against Australia were her first tallies of 2015.
• Rapinoe became the 31st American female player to reach the century mark in caps, achieving that feat against New Zealand on April 4. She currently has 103 caps. Lori Chalupny became the 32nd player against Ireland on May 10.
• With three goals against Argentina on Dec. 18 of last year, Carli Lloyd upped her career total to 61 and moved into sole possession of seventh place on the U.S. WNT’s all-time goal scoring list, passing Shannon MacMillan who scored 60 goals in her career. Lloyd, now with 63 goals, is the highest-scoring player in U.S. history who has played exclusively as a midfielder.
• Heather O’Reilly is the ninth player to hit 200 caps in U.S. history after reaching the milestone against Korea DPR on March 12, 2014. Now with 219, she is seventh on the USA’s all-time list. Abby Wambach (244) and Christie Rampone (306) are the only active players ahead of her.
• O’Reilly is the second-youngest player to hit 200 caps for the USA. Lilly was 28 years, 9 months and 15 days old when she earned cap No. 200 on May 7, 2000. O’Reilly was 29 years, 2 months and 10 days old when she earned her 200th cap.
• O’Reilly is currently sixth all-time in assists with 52 and is 13th all-time in goals with 41.
• In addition to breaking Mia Hamm’s world scoring record, Wambach’s June 20, 2013, performance against the Korea Republic also made her the USA’s all-time leader in multiple-goal games with 39 for her career. She has since added six more and now sits at 45. She has 37 two-goal games, five hat tricks, two four-goal games and one five-goal game.
• Sydney Leroux is tied with April Heinrichs in 14th place on the all-time U.S. WNT goal-scoring list with 35 goals.
• With her game-winning goal against England on Feb. 13, Alex Morgan became the 10th player in U.S. history to score 50 or more goals. She now has 51.
• Hope Solo has a U.S. record 85 career shutouts and has 172 caps with the USWNT, the second-most for a goalkeeper in U.S. history behind Brianna Scurry (173; 1994-2008.)
• Solo has the most starts by a WNT goalkeeper with 166, surpassing Scurry’s 159 (from 1994-2008). Solo is also in 10th place on the WNT’s all-time starts list surpassing Carla Overbeck (161 games from 1988-2000), and behind ninth place Carli Lloyd, who has 169 starts.
• Solo is currently second all-time in goalkeeper wins with 131, behind only Scurry who had 133. Solo could surpass Scurry and become the all-time leader in wins for a goalkeeper in U.S. history during the 2015 Women’s World Cup.

2015 FIFA WOMEN’S WORLD CUP NOTES:

• After scoring three times against Australia in its opening match of the 2015 FIFA WWC, the USA became the first country to reach and then surpass the century mark of World Cup goals scored. The USA currently has scored 101 WWC goals. Christen Press had the honor of scoring the 100th goal in U.S. Women’s World Cup history.
• The draw with Sweden was the first scoreless draw in U.S. history during group play in a World Cup. It was the second overall scoreless draw for the USA in a World Cup (0-0 against China in the 1999 WWC Final).
• The 0-0 draw with Sweden was the first World Cup clean sheet for the USA since July 2, 2011, when Hope Solo and the USA defeated Colombia 3-0 in group play. It was also Solo’s sixth clean sheet in World Cup play, the second most by a U.S. goalkeeper behind Brianna Scurry’s 10.
• The USA is making its seventh appearance in a FIFA Women’s World Cup and is one of seven countries to appear in all seven editions of the tournament, the others being Brazil, Germany, Japan, Nigeria, Norway and Sweden.
• The U.S. is the only country to have reached semifinals of every FIFA Women’s World Cup. The USA won in 1991 and 1999.
• The WNT has now earned at least a point in each of its seven opening matches at a Women’s World Cup.
• The 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup features six venues: Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Moncton Stadium in Moncton, Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Frank Clair Stadium in Ottawa, BC Place Stadium in Vancouver and Winnipeg Stadium in Winnipeg. Nine matches, including the semifinal, will be played at Olympic Stadium.
• The 90,185 spectators on hand at the Rose Bowl for the USA’s victory against China PR in the 1991 FIFA Women’s World Cup represent the largest attendance in the tournament’s history. The largest venue at the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup is Olympic Stadium, which seats 66,308.
• Abby Wambach’s 13 goals in FIFA Women’s World Cup competition rank third all-time. She trails only Brazil’s Marta (15, with one goal so far in this tournament) and Germany’s Birgit Prinz who have (14).
• Nine players on the current USA roster have scored in a Women’s World Cup tournament: Wambach, Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, Carli Lloyd, Lauren Holiday, Heather O’Reilly, Lori Chalupny, Shannon Boxx, and Christen Press.
• The U.S. WNT is 28-5-5 all-time in the Women’s World Cup, outscoring its opponents 101-33 in 38 games. The 28 wins, 38 games played and 101 goals scored are all FIFA Women’s World Cup records.
• The USA’s most lopsided victory in the tournament was a 7-0 win against Chinese Taipei in 1991.
• Michelle Akers’ five goals against Chinese Taipei are the most in a single match in tournament history.
• The U.S. holds two other individual records with Kristine Lilly playing a record 30 games in five World Cups and goalkeeper Briana Scurry earning a record 10 shutouts

BY THE NUMBERS:
0.42           Goals per game the USA has allowed in 2015
2                USA’s FIFA ranking
1.92           Goals per game the USA scored in 2015
4                Number of players on the WWC from the Chicago Red Stars and FC Kansas City, most of any NWSL teams.
11              Number of different U.S. players to score a goal in 2015
21              Goals in 47 National Team games for Christen Press
63              Goals by Lloyd, most ever for a WNT player who has played exclusively as a midfielder
85              Shutouts by Hope Solo, an all-time U.S. WNT record
89              Minutes on the field per goal averaged by Sydney Leroux in her career
99              Minutes on the field per goal averaged by Alex Morgan in her career
99              Minutes on the field per goal averaged by Abby Wambach in her career
114            U.S. victories when Wambach scores a goal (114-2-8 overall)
130            Minutes on the field per goal averaged by Mia Hamm in her career
306            Caps by Christie Rampone, second all-time to Kristine Lilly (352)

BY THE NUMBERS, WWC EDITION:
2                Number of players in U.S. history to be named to Women’s World Cup rosters for non-consecutive tournaments: Brandi Chastain (1991, 1999) and Lori Chalupny (2007, 2015)
4                Number of players to have previously played in five Women’s World Cups: Kristine Lilly of the USA (1991-2007), Formiga of Brazil (1995-2011), Birgit Prinz of Germany (1995-2011) and Homare Sawa of Japan (1995-2011). Christie Rampone could join that group in Canada. Formiga and Sawa have seen action in Canada, making it six Women’s World Cup tournaments for each of them. Bente Nordby of Norway (1991-2007) was on five Women’s World Cup rosters but played in four tournaments.
6                Number of clean sheets U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo has recorded in World Cups.
6                Players on the roster who hail from California. Four are from New Jersey, two are from Georgia and two are from St. Louis, Mo.
7                Number of games it will take to win the 2015 Women’s World Cup, up from six in the previous six editions of the tournament.
8                U.S. players on their first Women’s World Cup roster: Ashlyn Harris, Alyssa Naeher, Whitney Engen, Julie Johnston, Meghan Klingenberg, Morgan Brian, Sydney Leroux and Christen Press. 
9                Number of players on the U.S. roster who have scored in a WWC tournament.
9                Former FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup champions on the 2015 WWC roster: Harris, Heather O’Reilly and Lori Chalupny (2002); Leroux, Alex Morgan, Klingenberg and Naeher (2008); Johnston and Brian (2012).
11              Number of players, out of 13, who played in the 2012 Olympic gold medal game who made this WWC roster.
13              Goals by Abby Wambach in Women’s World Cup play, a U.S. record.
14              Caps for Johnston, the least of any of the field players to make the WWC team. (She had nine when she was named to the WWC roster).
15              Players on the roster that have played for the USA in a FIFA Women’s World Cup at the youth level.
20              Women’s World Cup matches played by Wambach, the most on the 2015 WWC roster. Rampone has played in 17 Women’s World Cup games while Boxx has 15. Other players in double figures in Women’s World Cup matches are Carli Lloyd (13), O’Reilly (11) and Hope Solo (12). 
2            Age of Brian, the youngest player on the WWC roster. Johnston is 23.
23              Number of players on Women’s World Cup rosters, up from 21 for the 2011 tournament.
24              Number of nations that are participating, for the first time, in the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, up from 16 that participated in the previous four editions. The 1991 and 1995 Women’s World Cups featured 12 teams.
28              Average age of the USA’s WWC roster
30              Total Women’s World Cup goals scored by the USA’s WWC roster.
33              Goals allowed by the U.S. Women in WWC play.
37              Number of matches played by the USA in the WWC (28-4-5), most by any team.
39              Age of Rampone, the oldest player on the WWC roster. Boxx is 38.
101            Goals scored by the U.S. Women in WWC play.
110            Average caps per player on the WWC roster.
150            Number of Women’s World Cup matches combined played by the WWC roster.