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The Indian U-23 women’s team suffered a 1-4 loss against the USA U-23 team after taking an early lead in their last encounter of the Women's Under-23 3-Nations tournament. Pyari Xaxa turned out to be only goalscorer for India in the match that was played at the Larods IP, Helsingborg, in Sweden on Saturday.
The Blue Tigresses came into the game after suffering a narrow 0-1 defeat against host nation Sweden's U-23 side in the opening match. Interim coach Suren Chhetri underlined after the game that India wouldn't change their approach and would instead try to be more adventurous going forward. And they did.
India opened the game on the front foot trying to take the attack to the USA side. The Blue Tigresses were rewarded almost immediately when they opened the scoring in the 8th minute. After being set up by Manisha Kalyan, forward Pyari Xaxa slammed a long-range effort to put India ahead.
However, the lead did not last long as Messiah Bright equalized about a minute later for USA.
Both teams had opportunities early on, and 13 minutes into the game, Indian goalkeeper Aditi Chauhan was called upon to make a quick stop. Aditi quickly caught a header that Megan Bornkamp flung inside the box.
Manisha and Pyari produced the greatest opportunities for their team as India continued to attack. The score was tied at 1-1 as the two teams entered the halftime.
USA U-23 take control of proceedings against Indian women in second half
However, coming out after the break, Jenna Nighswonger's free kick gave USA the advantage to start the second half.
Ratanbala Devi was replaced by Soumya Guguloth as the first substitution for India in the game. Meanwhile, Dular Marandi, who replaced Manisha in the 62nd minute, made her debut appearance for the Indian women's team.
As the game continued, Soumya came close to restoring parity for the Indian women's team when her header from an Ashalata free-kick narrowly missed the goal frame.
A strike from Sierra Enge in the 74th minute gave USA a two-goal lead. Another from substitute Ava Cook in the last five minutes took the final score to 4-1 in the USA's favour.
