TUNING IN NBCSN averages 1.3 million for USWNT game

Seeking to become the first reigning Women’s World Cup champion to win the Olympic gold medal, the usa overcame a gritty New Zealand effort that made the Kiwis hard to play against, though they created few scoring chances in the US end.

Carli Lloyd got the scoring going early, and Alex Morgan sealed the win just seconds after halftime as the United States Women’s National Team cruised to a 2-0 victory over New Zealand to open up its Olympic title defense in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Making her first USA start since June due to injury, Heath created the space for her cross to Lloyd for the first US goal and beat her defenders several times on the ball. Defensively, the US will need to catch right back Ria Percival from making moves along the flanks and smother any quick long balls the Ferns can hit over the top for their pacey attackers. The last time United States of America lost, 1-0, was on December 15, 1987.

Throughout her global career, Lloyd has scored some of the most important goals in US women’s soccer history.

The revamped Americans next play Saturday afternoon, against France- again at the Mineirao.

The majority of seats at Olympic Stadium did not appear to be filled. Havelange stepped down as honorary president of Federation Internationale de Football Association in 2013 to avoid possible suspension for taking kickbacks.

Other games: Canada made Olympic history in its opener by taking only 20 seconds to score in a 2-0 win over Australia and then losing a player to a red card 19 minutes in at Sao Paulo.

It marked the Olympic debut of Pia Sundhage as head coach of her native Sweden.

USA Projected Starting XI: So much has changed since the early rounds of the World Cup previous year, when United States coach Jill Ellis had trouble finding the right way to fit the team together and played some of her best players out of position or in a role that didn’t suit them.

Germany hammered Zimbabwe 6-1, with Melanie Behringer getting two goals for the Germans and Kudakwashe Basopo scoring Zimbabwe’s first goal at an worldwide tournament. The goal was number 12 on the year for Morgan and put the game out of reach for the New Zealanders. This came at the 46th minute of the second half of the game.

Canada got off to a flawless start with a 2-0 win over Australia despite having just 10 players for the majority of the game, with Janine Beckie and Christine Sinclair scoring in each half.

It was nine seconds faster than Oribe Peralta’s strike for Mexico in the men’s gold-medal match against Brazil four years ago in London.

Canada vs. Australia (LIVE) – 11 a.m.

Mallory Pugh, 18, started the game to become the youngest American women’s player to start in an Olympic match.

Brazil, with the support of a fervent home-team crowd, defeated China 3-0.