U.S. Women's Soccer Team Tops Italy, Qualifies For World Cup '11

It wasn't necessarily pretty, the but the United States Women's Soccer Team qualified for the 2011 World Cup with a 2-0 aggregate victory over Italy.

The U.S. secured the berth by winning 1-0 on Saturday, getting a goal from Amy Rodriguez.

That goal, which came in stoppage time of the first half, effectively covered up what had been a less-than-stellar performance up to that point.

Well, first of all I want to apologize for the first 20 minutes, it was crap and I felt it was very important for us to change the game plan," U.S. coach Pia Sundhage said. "The real reason is that the back four struggled to start up the attack and the midfield wasn’t on top of their game. I said you have to trust the coaches and we thought that instead of playing our old style of keeping possession, we needed to find space where we were successful in the first half and that was behind the backline. I think in the second half we did a better job and I’m very happy with the way we played…eventually."

By beating Italy, the U.S. avoided missing the Women's World Cup for the first time in the tournament's history and became the 16th and final team to qualify. This was the first time in six World Cups that the U.S. had to go through a playoff to qualify.

"I think it’s huge," U.S. midfielder Megan Rapinoe said of qualifying. "Some people take it for granted because we have been so successful in past, but it’s huge for us. Women’s soccer as a whole and with the new league, I think everybody’s looking forward to it a lot."

After a rather sluggish first half, the U.S. dominated the second half. They ended up outshooting Italy 17-5 and forced Italy goalkeeper Ana Maria Picarelli in eight saves. U.S. goalkeeper Nicole Barnhart only had to make three saves, all of them in the first half.

The only goal of the match came when Amy Rodriguez was able to pounce on Rapinoe's shot after it was knocked down by Picarelli. Rodriguez took a sliding shot.

"It was a jumble in front of the net," Rodriguez said. "The ball was loose and I just saw it escape from the goalie and tried to just dive in there and put it on frame. And luckily it hit the back of the net."

After the most stressful qualifying run in their history, the U.S. can finally turn its attention to Germany. The draw will be held on Nov. 29 and the first match will be played in Berlin on June 26, 2011.

The U.S. has not made it to the finals of two straight World Cups after winning two of the first three.

"The women’s game is developing so fast," Sundhage said. "Since FIFA put in the U-17 and U-20 Women’s World Cup so many things have happened in different countries. Going back to the qualification in Mexico, were playing against Costa Rica, Guatemala and they’re technical. That’s the important thing about the future of the women’s game, it’s technical and that’s something this country needs, technical players.

"I would say the world’s catching up and on top of rank No. 1, it’s hard to stay there, but were doing what we can."