EDMONTON, Alberta — Now that Alex Morgan has a goal, she doesn’t want to look back on the opportunities she’s missed.

She wants to look forward to the goals to come.

“I don’t remember the last goal I’ve had with this team,” said Morgan, who had been hampered by a bone bruise in her left knee going into the tournament. “And that’s not a good sign. I don’t want to look back and see when the last one was because now I’ve scored, and it’s a fresh start moving forward.”

Morgan scored her first goal of the Women’s World Cup and the United States advanced to the quarterfinals with a 2-0 victory over Colombia on Monday night. Her previous U.S. goal came March 6 in the Algarve Cup.

Abby Wambach’s penalty kick early in the second half went wide after Colombia goalkeeper Catalina Perez — a backup herself — was ejected for a foul on Morgan. Stefany Castano, who replaced Perez in goal, got a hand on Morgan’s shot five minutes later, but couldn’t stop the goal to put the United States up 1-0.

“It didn’t have much power on it as I wanted, but it went in and that’s all that matters,” she said about her right-footed goal.

Usually she’s lefty: “It comes in handy when it needs to,” she smiled.

Carli Lloyd also scored for the second-ranked Americans, who will face No. 16 China on Friday in Ottawa. The United States is seeking its third World Cup title, but first since 1999.

The Americans have not allowed a goal in 333 minutes.

Colombia has never won soccer’s premier tournament, but the No. 28 Las Cafeteras pulled off one of the biggest upsets in any World Cup in the group stage when they defeated third-ranked France 2-0.

Morgan and Wambach started up top for the United States, which used the same starting lineup as it did in the group-stage finale against Nigeria — a first since Jill Ellis became coach.

It was Morgan’s second straight start after working her way back from a bone bruise in her left knee. Morgan came in as a sub in the first two matches of the tournament.

Morgan missed all three send-off matches because of the injury. Her last match with the U.S. team was on April 4, a 4-0 exhibition win over New Zealand in St. Louis.

Perez, a 20-year-old junior at Miami, started because regular goalkeeper Sandra Sepulveda was suspended for yellow-card accumulation. Sepulveda had six saves in Colombia’s win over France. Castano had started in Colombia’s World Cup opener, a 1-1 draw with Mexico.

The teams played to a goalless first half, with the United States unable to finish several good chances.

Wambach was offside on her rebound goal in the fourth minute. Morgan later had a chance, but her shot bounced in front of Perez, who tipped it up and over the crossbar, one of her three saves in the first half.

Lauren Holiday got a yellow card in the 17th minute, her