U.S. sweeps China in exhibition series
Tobin Heath scored the goahead goal in the 75th minute in her return from injury and the U.S. national team beat China 2-1 on Tuesday night in Cleveland to sweep the two-game exhibition series.
Three minutes after China tied it at 1-1 on Li Ying’s fastbreak goal, Heath chipped the goalkeeper on a miss hit.
It was Heath’s first game with the national team since appearing as a substitute in a friendly against New Zealand in September. She had surgery to remove bone growth on her right ankle in early January.
Megan Rapinoe put the U.S. ahead in the 35th by heading home Christen Press’ cross at the far post. Press, a Stanford alum, became the 37th player to appear in 100 matches for the U.S.
U.S. goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris made her first start of 2018. She denied a well-placed free kick from just outside the penalty box in the 74th.
The Americans beat China 1-0 on Thursday in Sandy, Utah. Japan wins: Japan got its first win under coach Akira Nishino, scoring four times in the second half — the first two by Takashi Inui — in a 4-2 win over Paraguay on Tuesday in Innsbruck, Austria, to end a 231-minute goal drought.
Japan had lost 2-0 to both Ghana and Switzerland in its previous matches under Nishino, who replaced Vahid Halilhodzic in April. Halilhodzic was dismissed two months before the start of the World Cup despite securing qualification for Japan with a match to spare.
Japan will play against Colombia in its Group H opener in Saransk on Tuesday before facing Senegal and Poland. NBCSN simulcast: NBCUniversal stepped up efforts to draw viewers to its Spanishlanguage World Cup coverage in the United States by scheduling a simulcast on the NBC Sports Network of Sunday’s match between Brazil and Switzerland.
Fox took over U.S. Englishlanguage rights from ESPN for this World Cup. Telemundo, part of Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal Inc., replaced Univision as the U.S. Spanishlanguage rights holder.
Fox is scheduled to carry the game on its FS1 cable network and its Fox Sports app. Telemundo is airing the game on Telemundo Deportes and NBCSN, along with digital streams on the Telemundo Deportes En Vivo and NBC Sports apps.
Briefly: Spain coach Julen Lopetegui will replace Zinedine Zidane as Real Madrid manager after the World Cup. Zidane resigned after leading Madrid to its third straight Champions League title . ... Manchester United has been rated by Forbes as the world’s most valuable soccer team for the second straight year. The team’s worth increased to $4.12 billion from $3.69 billion a year ago and ranked just ahead of Real Madrid ($4.09 billion) and Barcelona ($4.06 billion) . ... FIFA has appointed referee Nestor Pitana of Argentina to handle the opening game of the World Cup. The Saudi Arabia-Russia match at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow on Thursday will be the first World Cup game to use video review of decisions.