Santa Clara's Kiki Bosio came off the bench to score the only goal in the 77th minute and give the U.S. under-21 women's national team a 1-0 victory over Norway in its opening game at the 2007 Nordic Cup in Narpio, Finland.

The USA is now off until July 22 when it faces Sweden. A victory will send the USA to the championship game being held on July 24 at Hietalahti Stadium in Vaasa. In the Group A match, host Finland rolled by England, 4-1.

An experienced U.S. team struggled to find its rhythm at the beginning of the match and did not capitalize on numerous chances.

"We created chances, we just didn't finish them off," said Coach Bill Irwin. "When it's nil-nil that late in the game, it can go anyone. We battled and we played some good soccer in periods, but everyone was a little nervous as it was the first game. Some of the players didn't perform as well as they could have, but I told the team, sometimes you play absolutely brilliantly and you lose. We didn't and we won. We did enough to win the game."

GAME SUMMARY:
June 18 in Narpio
USA 1 Norway 0. Goal: Bosio 77.
USA -- Alexander, Buehler , Krzysik, Logterman, Makoski, DiMartino (Sauerbrunn, 89), Krieger, Woznuk (Bosio, 55), Adams (Weissenhofer, 81), Carpenter (Masar, 55), Cinalli (Huffman, 71).
Norway -- Skarbo, Aseng, Vikestad, Berger, Giske (Abdulla, 32), Woods (Bjerk, 62), Knutsen (Nilsen, 78), Gronli, Ims, Forseth (Sannaess, 62), Pedersen (Schjelderup, 78).
Att.: 300.