USWNT vs. Costa Rica: Final score 7-2, Americans weather lightning to thrash Ticas

The United States put a thumping on Costa Rica for the second consecutive match to stay on Cloud 9 as they continued their post-World Cup Victory Tour. This time, the Americans cruised to a 7-2 win in Chattanooga, TN, where the only thing that could stop them was a lengthy lightning delay.

The U.S. got off to a quick start, setting up Abby Wambach for a wide open header just five minutes in. Wambach somehow missed the net, but the Americans scored not long after. Carli Lloyd took a free kick from 25 yards that was ripped on goal. It took a little deflection from the wall, but that didn't change much as the bullet hit the crossbar and then the net.

Lloyd's long distance shooting set up the Americans' second goal too, as the Costa Rican goalkeeper failed to hold onto a blast from the midfielder. That left a rebound out in front of Heather O'Reilly to hop on and knock home for a 2-0 advantage.

The match came to a halt after 15 minutes when lightning in the area forced the referee to send both teams to the locker rooms. The lightning came with some heavy rain that made the turf surface a bit of a mess, but after nearly 90 minutes the teams returned to the field and continued the match.

As soon as the match was restarted, the U.S. pounced. They scored three times in five minutes to turn the match into a rout right away. Wambach started things when she slotted home a shot from 12 yards to make it 3-0. Right after, Lloyd got on the end of a Megan Rapinoe corner kick. The next goal also came from a corner kick as Wambach played it in and O'Reilly finished to give the U.S. a 5-0 lead.

Costa Rica got in on the goalscoring, first for the U.S. when the Ticas put an American corner kick in their own net. The Ticas did get a bit of their own play going in scoring a couple to make it 6-2. The match was well out of hand at that point, but it was big for the Ticas seeing as those were their first ever goals against the U.S.

Finally, Alex Morgan came off the bench and found the back of the net to wrap up a 7-2 win. It was easy as could be for the U.S., who put on a show for the sellout crowd of 20,535 that stayed through the lightning delay to see the world champions make it two wins from two matches on their Victory Tour.