| Kai nets hat trick as Americans trump Canada |
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| Sunday, 11 May 2008 | |
 WASHINGTON (Ticker) - Natasha Kai recorded her first career hat trick as the United States women’s national team cruised to a 6-0 triumph over Canada in a friendly at RFK Stadium on Saturday. Lindsay Tarpley, Carli Lloyd and Leslie Osborne also tallied and Abby Wambach had three assists for the Americans. “For me, a goal is a goal, whoever scores it,” Kai said. “It’s a whole team effort. For those three goals, it started from the back, from the defense to the offense. As a forward, our job is to score, but I give credit to my teammates because they play so hard - and when you play hard, you get rewarded with a goal, no matter who scores it.” While Kai was more modest about the team’s success, Wambach was more than willing to credit her teammate. “Natasha is a goal scorer,” she said. “Natasha is one of those players that can disappear for minutes on end, but if you put her in the penalty box, she’s deadly. She keeps proving that. I don’t know what her goal-to-caps ratio is, but I think she’d probably one of the best in the world.” After Tarpley scored in the 23rd minute, Kai scored her first goal in the 54th minute to give the Americans a 2-0 advantage. Kai connected again six minutes later and capped her hat trick in the 75th minute. This match was decidedly different than the team’s last meeting on April 12 in the championship game of the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament. That contest was also won by the Americans on penalty kicks, with the first goal coming in the 107th minute. On Saturday, the United States enjoyed a 21-2 advantage in shots and scored five second-half goals. “I’m thrilled,” U.S. coach Pia Sundhage said. “We talked about changing up the rhythm in the attack. My dream is to take this game to the next level and I think we can do it. We’re halfway there. The way we played today, there were so many good things, I could stand here for an hour just talking about how good it was. And still it could be better.” Canadian goalkeeper Erin McLeod made six saves, while Hope Solo was not required to stop a shot on goal. |
