Though the United States women's field hockey team displayed its best offensive performance through the first half of its match against Great Britain, a lack of tight defense led to the Eagles' demise, ending their bid for a spot in the knockout round with a 5-2 loss to the English.
Though Great Britain wasn't the strongest foe the United States had faced thus far, the contest was certainly the Eagles' most important.
The United States had one point heading into the match, sitting fifth in pool standings. With Australia and Argentina having already claimed two of the four quarterfinal spots available to Pool B, anything but a win would almost certainly eliminate the United States from knockout contention. Great Britain sat in fourth, two points ahead of the United States. (Each win awards three points to the victor.)
Great Britain opened the scoring three minutes in, drawing goalkeeper Kelsey Bing out of the net with a shot that deflected off Bing's pad and into the cage. It was a bad omen for the Eagles, who have failed to rally from behind through their first three games of the tournament, but it didn't seem to phase them at all. Four minutes later, on the team's second penalty corner of the day, American Abby Tamer found the equalizer, grabbing a rebound and chipping it into the top corner of the cage.
A fiery, clean period from the United States resulted in a staggering six penalty corners for the Eagles, a stark and welcome change from their match against Spain, in which messy play resulted in seven penalty corners across the middle two quarters. The U.S. played possibly their best quarter of the tournament so far, keeping the score knotted at one behind a series of smart passes.
The second frame marked the beginning of a steep drop-off in the composed play with which the U.S. began the match. Twice before the half, Great Britain snuck goals past Bing, once landing a shot just between her pads and the right goal post, and once connecting a series of beautiful passes for an easy penalty corner tally and a two-goal edge.
With two minutes to go before the half, Tamer added her second of the game, launching a rocket straight into the middle of the cage to shorten the deficit once more, but a weakening U.S. defense failed to support the 21-year-old's offensive efforts. The English opened the third quarter with two more goals, bringing their lead to the final 5-2.
The Eagles' energy continued to drain seemingly in accordance with the final fifteen minutes of the match. Despite three green cards and eight penalty corners in favor of the United States, the young squad found itself unable to rebound once again. With six minutes to go, Bing headed to the bench in favor of an extra attacker, but to no avail. The Eagles fell, effectively stamping an end date on their Olympic competition in Paris.
The U.S. will likely play its final game on Saturday against South Africa.