The U.S. U-20 women’s national team opened the 2015 U-20 Women’s NTC Invitational in Carson, Calif., with a 3-0 loss to Japan.
The defeat marked the first loss of the year against a national teamopponent for the Michelle French-coached U-20s, who won the La Manga tournament in Spain with wins over Norway (2-0), the Netherlands (2-0) and Sweden (2-0).
The USA faces Mexico on Thursday(9 pm ET) and Brazil on Saturday (6 pm ET). Brazil beat Mexico, 2-0, in their opener. All the NTC Invitational games are streamed live at
June 2 in Carson, Calif.
USA 0 Japan 3. Goals:Mizutani (Kobayashi) 6, Hasegawa (Kobayashi) 38, Sumida 56.
USA — Murphy, Elliston, Riehl, Jacobs, Flores, Harvey (1 Buckingham, 46), Ogle (Roberts, 64), Canales Petersen, 72),Pugh (Hedge, 81), Harr (Sanchez, 17), Racioppi (DeMelo, 64).
Japan — Matsumoto, Miyagawa (Shimizu, 60), Norimatsu, Ichise, Kitagawa (Takemura, 72), Sumida, Mizutani (Sugita,60), Miomiki (Miura, 72), Hasegawa (Sonoda, 86), Kobayashi, Shiraki (Seike, 60).
Att.: 300
Referee: Reyna Fonseca