USA vs. New Zealand Women's Olympic Soccer: Kiwis Will Fail to Stop Americans

No squad has been better than Team USA.

The United States Olympic women’s soccer team will face off against New Zealand in the quarterfinals on Friday, August 3.

Expect nothing less than a display of domination.

Given that the U.S. has handily defeated each opponent and that the Kiwis are nothing special, there’s no reason to anticipate any other outcome.

In the team's first game of the 2012 London Olympics, the Americans beat France 4-2. The Americans proceeded to clobber Colombia 3-0, before maintaining that suffocating defense on Tuesday and eliminating North Korea 1-0.

In reality, Team USA’s most threatening opposition thus far has been Hope Solo’s mouth. The goaltender attacked NBC color commentator Brandi Chastain on Twitter, which caused a major stir.

The Associated Press reported that Solo was forced to meet with U.S. coach Pia Sundhage over the outburst (via ESPN).

Of course, the drama failed to provide a strong enough distraction to phase the Americans. The Associated Press also reported that Solo said after the squad’s latest triumph (via ESPN):

"Do you see the way our team is performing? We're having fun. We're scoring goals. We swept our group. I don't think there's any distractions."

And because Solo’s antics haven’t proven to be a distraction, New Zealand has no hope.

The Kiwis were shut out 1-0 against Brazil and Great Britain. The team's only victory came against Cameroon. That is, a team who had 500-to-1 odds to win the gold—the worst in the entire field—according to Las Vegas Sports Betting.

Having scored eight goals and surrendered just two, Team USA boasts the best goal differential of the group stage. While the U.S.'s goal differential is six, New Zealand’s is zero.

Since women’s soccer became an Olympic sport in 1996, America has advanced to the gold-medal game each time. Only once, in 2000, did the Americans fail to win.

This year won’t be any different. Team  USA will advance on Friday.

David Daniels is a featured columnist at Bleacher Report and a syndicated writer.

Follow @TheRealDDaniels