The United States national
team beat Germany, 2-0, on Tuesday night in Montreal to return to the Women’s
World Cup final.
The Americans, who won two of the first three World Cups but
lost the 2011 title game to Japan, dominated the Germans from start to finish.
Carli Lloyd scored on a second-half penalty after Germany missed one, and then
fed Kelley O’Hara for a clinching score in the 84th minute.
The Americans will play the winner of Wednesday’s second
semifinal — Japan vs. England — in Sunday’s final in Vancouver.
Lloyd, a feisty New Jersey native who delivered the winning goal
in the Americans’ quarterfinal win over China on Friday, was the difference
again. Freed to roam forward by Coach Jill Ellis for the second game in a row,
she did just that: teasing, fighting, scrapping and in the end, scoring.
Her penalty kick in the 69th minute probably should not have
been a penalty at all — replays showed Alex Morgan was fouled just outside the
area and then fell in — but she buried it in the side netting for her third
goal in three games.
Her score came less than 10 minutes after Germany’s Celia Sasic,
the tournament scoring leader with six goals, pulled a penalty kick wide left.
Again, the United States had a little luck; Julie Johnston, who had committed
the foul that conceded the penalty, could have been red-carded on the play but
was not.
Instead, the game turned a few minutes later, just as the
tournament has turned in the past two games for Ellis and her newly confident
team. The Americans struggled in their early performances in the tournament,
playing defensively, but have broken out with some tactical changes that
resulted in two straight starts on the bench for the veteran striker Abby
Wambach.
Lost in the win was another fine performance by the United
States defense. Hope Solo recorded her fifth straight shutout, and the United
States extended its goalless streak to 513 minutes — dating to a first-half
score by Australia in their tournament opener.
Has laoreet percipitur ad. Vide interesset in mei, no his legimus verterem. Et nostrum imperdiet appellantur usu, mnesarchum referrentur id vim.
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