Goals by Abby Wambach, on a pass from Alex Morgan, and Sydney Leroux, on a pass from UNC’s Tobin Heath, defeated New Zealand 2-0 in the Olympics today to move the United States women’s soccer team into the semi-finals against either Canada or Great Britain.

Heath, who started for the first time since the opening game of the Olympics, played the whole game while fellow Tar Heel Heather O’Reilly came on in place of Megan Rapinoe for the last 20 minutes.

Those last 20 minutes, with both Heath and O’Reilly, proved to be the most intriguing part of the game. New Zealand, down 1-0, desperately attacked in this elimination match. The U.S. didn’t back down, trying to get the insurance goal. The substitution of O’Reilly may have been made for several reasons, not the least of which is that O’Reilly can attack and defend equally – which matched the late trend of the game.

Just after O’Reilly came in, Morgan was injured when she and New Zealand goalkeeper Jinny Bindon collided. O’Reilly had a couple of chances to score but, on one occasion, she couldn’t control a pass to her in front of the goal while, on another occasion, she made a good run at the goal but popped it just over the net.

It took a goal from Leroux, who had replaced Morgan, to wrap things up. While the media seemingly only wants to talk about Leroux scoring the goal, it took a long left-footed lead pass from Heath to put Leroux in clear position to score. Heath banged it about 40 yards down the left sideline with perfect pace for Leroux to run underneath it 20 yards out. Leroux control it and footed it in from about 10 yards away. NBC announcers never credited Heath and numerous afternoon reports on NBC said erroneously that the pass was from Christie Rampone.

Interesting, Leroux, a Canadian-born U.S. player, scored against Bindon, who was raised in the United States. In addition, New Zealand’s captain, Rebecca Smith, is a former Duke soccer captain who was born in the United States to a pair of New Zealand-born parents. There really should be no such thing as dual citizenship – your allegiance can really only be to one country.

It seems strange that a New Zealand soccer star could one day be president of the United States or that a U.S. soccer star could one day be prime minister of Canada. Leroux, who not only was born in Canada but lived there until she was 14, would probably not be elected though as he has been booed mercilessly in Canada for playing for the U.S. team.

Those boos could come again Sunday as the Americans will face Canada. Also adding intrigued to a game with Canada is that former Tar Heel Robyn Gayle plays for the Canadians.

UNC’s Heath and O’Reilly have each started two games during the Olympics. The U.S. bench is full of players that can start or play when called upon. Former U.S. player Brandi Chastain said that while all members of the team want to play, they are completely fine with someone else coming in. “As a team they have a collective awareness that everyone on the team is capable and confident to come in and do the job,” she said.

It sounds as if the juggling of a starting lineup as well as who will come on late in the game will continue for the gold medal favorite U.S. team.