It certainly was the semi-final that many had hoped to see in the final of this summer's Women's World Cup. The no. 1 side taking on its bitter no. 2 rival for the chance to make history by winning a third World Cup title. Unfortunately, Germany vs. the USA arrived a few days early, meaning that one of these top teams would have to settle for a possible third place in the consolation match on July 4th, a day before the much-anticipated final at Vancouver's BC Place.
After a tense 45 minutes that saw blood spilled and more yellow cards than goals, a breakthrough finally arrived after Julie Johnston hauled down Germany's Alexandra Popp in the box, presenting Silvia Neid's squad with the chance to take the lead. Shockingly, Celia Šašić, who had no problem firing in the equaliser from the spot against France and did it again in the penalty shoot-out, fluffed her lines and completely missed the target.
It would be a horrible mistake that she and her colleagues would be soon ruing as on the opposite end, the Stars and Stripes were given their own chance from 12 yards out, albeit after a controversial call following a foul on Alex Morgan. Unlike the tournament's top goal-scorer Šašić, Carli Lloyd had no problem firing home past Nadine Angerer to finally break the deadlock. And Lloyd, whose goal decided a tense game against China, would turn provider as she set up Kelley O'Hara for her first ever international goal and seal the USWNT's spot in the finals for the second straight tournament - and a revenge match with Japan in the process.
Meanwhile, Japan needed a bit of luck to get to this point as it was a heartbreaking own goal from England's Laura Bassett in stoppage time that condemned the Three Lionesses to defeat. Although the Japanese have won every single one of their matches so far in Canada, they needed a penalty in order to open the scoring and struggled at times after England equalised following a spot-kick of their own.
So far, the reigning champions have been solid, but not spectacular. Against Australia, they also found it difficult and it took until the 87th minute for them to finally be able to break down the Matildas, who were determined to make their opponents fight for every single minute of that game.
Despite being placed in one of the easier groups with three debutants for company, the Nadeshiko not surprisingly won all three matches, but did not exactly blow away the competition, with just a 1-0 win over Ecuador, who were slaughtered 10-1 by Switzerland and humiliated 6-0 by Cameroon. In fact, Japan have yet to win a game by more than a one goal margin in any of their six matches played. However, in the end, it is the final result that counts and Norio Sasaki's ladies have an opportunity to become only the second side to successfully defend their World Cup title after Germany did so in 2003 and 2007.
Should the USA win against Japan, they would be also setting another record, in addition to, of course, winning that third title that has eluded them in the past three tournaments. Here is an interesting stat as per ESPN:
The #USWNT hasn't allowed a goal in 513 minutes, just 28 short of the all-time World Cup record. Reaction #LIVEonSC. pic.twitter.com/6UkJcT7cyd
— ESPN (@espn) July 1, 2015
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