U.S. women beat China in chippy international friendly

• The USA defeated China 2-0 in an international friendly with Carli Lloyd and Sydney Leroux scoring

Forget friendly, it got downright chippy at Ford Field on Saturday afternoon … and Ndamukong Suh was nowhere to be seen.

Instead of Suh, the ferocious Detroit Lions defensive tackle, creating havoc, it was the U.S. and China women's national soccer teams that were in the thick of the battle, which turned a bit nasty at times.

Cast as an international friendly, the game was a tough, bone-jarring fight, with the USA, the London Olympic champion, emerging the winner 2-0 thanks to goals by Carli Lloyd in the 50th minute and Sydney Leroux sealing China's fate with a blast past keeper Zhang Yue in the 84th.

With a crowd of 17,371 — many of them teen and pre-teen girls from Detroit metro area soccer clubs — rooting on the USA, the Americans finally shrugged off the young, aggressive Chinese team, which drew two yellow flags and a total of 14 fouls (compared with the USA's eight) but showed plenty of tenacity and skill.

The USA outshot China 21-11, thanks to a strong second half by midfielder Lloyd, forward Alex Morgan and star goalkeeper Hope Solo, who was named player of the game.

"It was a good game," said Lloyd, the team's clutch sharpshooter, who scored the winning goal in overtime in the 2008 Olympic final against Brazil and had the two goals in the USA's 2-1 gold medal victory against Japan in the London Olympics in July. "They are a good team, a little physical and chippy, but that makes for a tough game."

Lloyd was happy to get the job done again for her team.

"That's what I train for — to come up in the big moments," Lloyd said. "It was good, and I had fun and really enjoyed it."

The USA started the opening minutes of the first half with a full head of steam, with captain Amy Rodriguez, playing her 100th game for the national team, taking the first shot on goal, which was stopped by Chinese keeper Zhang.

Rodriguez was in all the early action, along with midfielder Megan Rapinoe and defender Amy LePeilbet.

"Man, I really came close — I had a good chance to score," Rodriguez said of her miss. "It would have been nice to score in my 100th game. China played well today; they never gave us a lot of chances."

It was an emotional Rodriguez who took the field for the game after a sideline presentation on her 100th cap.

"I don't know if you noticed before the game, but I had some little tears in my eyes," she said. "It was really a special moment. You think back to all the years I've played and the relationships I've formed and the players I've grown up with. It was a special moment to be out there and lead my team and celebrate my job on this team."

The USA could have been a couple goals ahead in the opening 10 minutes Saturday if not for the good net work of Zhang.

At the other end of the field, Solo denied two quick shots by China, which was sharing the ball around and playing tough.

The yellow card came out for Chinese midfielder Zhang Rui at the 20-minute mark of the first half for interfering with Rapinoe.

Prolific U.S. goal scorer Abby Wambach gave her team perhaps the best chance of a first-half goal when she just missed with her header to the right about the 21st minute, while China almost took the lead on a breakaway that led to a hard shot on goal at 41:14 of the half, only to see Solo make a brilliant stop, one of several by the celebrated keeper.

Mike Brudenell also writes for the Detroit Free Press