USWNT silence 10-women Colombia, punch quarterfinal ticket

The final score says the United States women’s national team won 2-0 against Colombia at Commonwealth Stadium on Monday night. However, it was the upstarts from the 28th-ranked team in the world who earned a different kind of victory -- and may be one that points to changes the U.S. will have to consider if they wants to reclaim their reputation as the most powerful team in women’s soccer.

Footwork? Colombia came with that. Faster and quicker. Technical ability? The Colombians made the shifty passes that showed creativity and flair.

Is this a story about Colombia? Only in that Colombia came into Monday night's Round of 16 match hellbent on holding a referendum on the style and prowess of the U.S. women’s national team. They smack-talked about the U.S. and conflated an old Olympic showdown against the Americans into headline news. They weren’t scared. They wanted to show how off how far they’ve come in the few years since women’s soccer started to make inroads.

The U.S. will live to see at least another round of this 2015 Women’s World Cup. Alex Morgan scored and Carli Lloyd added a penalty kick to give the U.S. the win. It plays China on Friday in a quarterfinal match in Ottawa (live, FOX, Sports Go, June 26, 9 p.m. ET) -- a matchup against an old rival that is also one of the new faces in women’s soccer.

After years of terrible international showings, China has revamped their roster with talented young players and organized themselves around a very determined defense. China will be the opposite of what Colombia brought, which was open space and the desire to dribble and run at the U.S. But in both cases, the U.S. are facing youthful rosters in a women’s game where parity is being demonstrated.

The U.S. does not leave Edmonton with great reason to feel in total command of their own destiny. But they will accept that winning this World Cup may not be pretty -- if the U.S. gets that far. The U.S. won the game essentially in one half on Monday night. Just two minutes into the second half, starting U.S. striker Alex Morgan drove to the Colombia goal on a breakaway and brought on the game’s turning point -- or seemed to be. Colombia was already starting their backup goalkeeper Catalina Perez after starting keeper Sandra Sepulveda was booked for two yellow cards in group play.

Perez flew out of the goal to contest Morgan’s charge, and in sliding to tackle Morgan, Perez took an extra kick at Morgan’s shins as the U.S. striker was already heading face first to the turf. It was clear as Morgan lay on Commonwealth Stadium turf that Perez was going to be called for the hit. Out came the red card and off went Perez.

With Stefany Castano in goal for Colombia, U.S. striker Abby Wambach lined up to take the penalty kick. For a split second, a certain absurdity seemed to be distilled. Here was the all-time leading scorer in all of international football lining up to tee off against Castano, a relatively inexperienced keeper.

Wambach took a good look at the goal as the goalkeeper whose nickname is "The Skinny One" took a few deep breathes. And then Wambach launched her free kick so far left that it didn’t even touch the post. It was a telltale moment for Wambach, whose role here in Canada has teetered between being a super-sub and a starter -- and a starter only because the U.S. attack has never materialized over the course of an entire year.

No matter how many combinations coach Jill Ellis has tried to play, it may simply be a fact that the U.S. needs to dig deeper into the talent pool and come back to the world stage with the kind of youthful, technically gifted players who would like to run and counter upstarts like Colombia, Australia, France and Germany, as well as some of the emerging teams out of Africa.

Lloyd, who scored the U.S.'s second goal on the night from the penalty spot said earning the win will give the team a boost.

"I think we found our groove, we came out strong and hard in the second half," said Lloyd. "It was one of our better performances. We knew we had to put them away and that’s what we did in the second half."

By this point in the tournament, it’s clear that the class of the 2015 Women’s World Cup are Germany and France. Both sides have been commanding in their matches. And even with the French losing to Colombia in group play, Les Bleues reappeared in their next match and simply buried Mexico 5-0, scoring three times before the 13th minute.

Germany, ranked No. 1, look eager to give out-going coach Silvia Neid a fitting send-off after a decade at the helm of the German senior national team. Their opener was a 10-0 rout over Cote d'Ivoire and they scored an easy 4-1 win over a lackluster Sweden team in the Round of 16.

The World Cup draw says the final will be played in Vancouver on July 5. However, given the prowess shown by these two top-rated sides, the de facto heavyweight battle takes place Friday in Montreal, where Germany plays France at Olympic Stadium.

A sure sign of the tough night on hand was the two yellow cards that the U.S. was tagged with in the first half. Quick whistles for infractions hardly deserving reprimand. Still, Lauren Holiday was hit for a slight bump and Megan Rapinoe was equally less convinced that the call against her was a proper booking. The consequences will be significant, since both U.S. midfielders will be unavailable for the quarterfinal match.

Rapinoe addressed her suspension for the quaterfinal match in her typical style: "Yeah, it totally sucks. I mean, I knew that coming in and knew that that was part of it. It's not going to change the way I play. I have to come out and play hard. I felt it was a little undeserving, I think Cheney [Holiday] would feel the same way -- hers even more than mine -- but that's the way it is. We have tons of good people on the bench ready for China in Ottawa, and we'll just cheer our hearts out and hopefully be ready for the semifinal."

The chippy play was more than expected. The Colombians had recorded a tournament-high eight yellow cards coming into the match, proof that they’re a physical team content to disrupt. Wambach called Colombia’s style "streetball that is organized," but wasn’t unhappy with the prospect of Colombia fouls leading to U.S. set pieces. Too bad the set pieces were few and far between.

The history of bad blood between these two teams dates back to the 2012 Olympics. The U.S. defeated Colombia, but not without sideshow drama. Colombia striker Lady Andrade flung her hand in Wambach’s eye, dropping the U.S. striker to the ground. Andrade was punished with a two-match suspension. Andrade at first maintained it was an accident.

"It was dangerous. In all honesty, a really terrible play. Unsportsmanlike behavior absolutely. I hope FIFA and the Olympic Committee will look at the film and say that this is not the type of player that we want in the Olympics," Wambach lamented at the time.

"They wanted to tactically get inside our heads and play physical. It was their game plan, and I thought that they did a really great job at that. I think slowing the game down, going down, conceding injuries, whatever, sucker-punching when they can just to try to get whatever they could out of this game. They did well but we did better scoring three goals," added Wambach in 2012.

Somehow, the events of three years ago were still alive for Las Cafeteras. Midfielder Yoreli Rincon said on Sunday that Colombia still doesn’t appreciate Wambach’s comments. Eight players from the 2012 Olympic squad remain on the Colombian team.

"They defeated us 3-0. However, they said all sorts of things because one of their players unfortunately got smacked. But that happens in many matches. It always happens -- a foul, a player is awarded a card. But what's happened following that episode because of something that happened three years ago, they've said things that have not been taken by us in the best way," said Rincon.

Colombia wanted a showdown. They wound up playing a woman short for nearly the entire second half of the Round of 16 match. The U.S. could barely eke out a win.