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Women's World Cup Round of 16: Alex Morgan lead USWNT to a 2-0 win over Colombia

Alex Morgan finally got a start in the 3rd game of the 2015 Women's World Cup for U.S.A. Her runs were instrumental to the U.S. attack. Now it's the knock out stage, every match counts. Can Alex Morgan and USA advance to the quarter-finals?

By Ruey Yen
Michael Chow-USA TODAY Sports

Alex Morgan with her first goal of this World Cup, put the US up 1-0 in the 54th minute. Morgan also cause the game changing red card to be called on the Colombia keeper earlier in the second half (Abby Wambach missed the PK that would have put the US ahead though) when Morgan got a break away and was only stopped by a tackle inside the box by the Colombian keeper.

Check out Alex's goal below:

This was Alex's 52nd goal for the USWNT in her 88th cap. It was her 3rd World Cup goal, 1st one in the 2015 World Cup. Today's game marks only Alex Morgan's 2nd ever start in the World Cup.

US tagged on another goal when Megan Rapinoe earned a PK. Carli Lloyd was able to convert this one.

For the first time in this World Cup, Alex Morgan was able to play the full 90 minutes. With Abby Wambach now getting rather old by soccer standard, it is Alex Morgan who will be counted on to bring this World Cup title home for the US.

US will face China in the Quarterfinals on Friday.

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USA vs. Colombia -  Round of 16

Where: Commonwealth Stadium, Edmonton, Canada

When: June 22, 2015; 5 pm PT/8 pm ET (6 pm MT - local)

TV: Fox Sports 1

After some offensive struggle through group play, USWNT still managed to win its group and get a relatively favorable path to the 2015 Women's World Cup Final.

In their knock out stage opener, U.S.A. will face Colombia tonight for the right to play China on June 26th in Ottawa.

Cal alum Alex Morgan is expected to be a huge factor for the U.S. attack. Her injury, which prevented her from all the warm-up matches and limited her to just 15 minutes per game in the first two matches, is now a thing of the past and her fitness level is getting better and better as the tournament goes on. Morgan started the last match against Nigeria (which marked her first World Cup start since she was a super sub in the last World Cup where she introduced herself to the World by scoring a bunch of goals off the bench) and was instrumental on making a bunch of runs that opened up the U.S. offense, resulting in a goal by Abby Wambach in the first half en route to an 1-0 win that clinched the group D 1st place.

To be clear, Tuesday's tussle with Nigeria will not earn a place in Morgan's personal highlight reel. There were several clear chances that she failed to convert, with a 48th-minute effort that she tried loop over Super Falcons goalkeeper Precious Dede the best of the bunch. Morgan latched on to a pass from Ali Krieger in the 62nd minute only for Dede to save Morgan's shot from point-blank range. Her day was deemed complete by U.S. manager Jill Ellis four minutes later.

"I really thought I was going to finish that one, the last couple of minutes I was in," Morgan said afterward. "The Nigerian keeper came over and made a really good save, actually. Obviously, I would like to score, but at the end of the day we won and I got a good [66] minutes and I'm looking forward to the next game."

Expect Alex Morgan to start from this point forward and hopefully she will get back to her unprecedented scoring rate that was only halted by injuries in the last couple of years. Morgan had some chances against Nigeria but was a bit rusty to finish. Despite Abby Wambach's presence, there is a tremendous amount of pressure on Alex Morgan and her teammate to win the U.S.'s first World Cup win since 1999, when the U.S.A. was hosting the event. Since Canada is basically the U.S. (isn't that right, ehh?), this is the U.S.'s golden chance to recapture the World Cup glory.

GO BEARS!

GO USA!

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