Down a goal and a player well into extra time, the U.S. women's national team looked ready to see their 2011 World Cup end earlier than expected.
That was before Abby Wambach stepped up and delivered a historic equalizer, and Hope Solo made a vital penalty shootout save to set the stage for an amazing comeback. U.S. penalty takers converted all five attempts, including Ali Krieger's conversion to clinch the shootout victory in the World Cup quarterfinals in Dresden, Germany on Sunday.
Having gone a man down after a questionable red card issued to Rachel Buehler in the 66th minute, the United States kept pressing for a winner. After the match went into extra time, Marta scored what looked to be the winner for Brazil, but Wambach headed home a Megan Rapinoe cross in the 122nd minute to send the match into penalties.
Solo made a clutch diving save on Brazil's third attempt, by Diane, and that was enough for the United States to pull out the shootout victory in the 12th anniversary of the USA's World Cup Final penalty shootout victory over China.
"That is a perfect example of what this country is about," Wambach said after the match. "What the history of this team has always been. We never give up. We literally went to the last secend it seems."
The victory was a deserved one for the United States after some questionable calls went against the Americans. Buehler was sent off for a challenge on Marta, and after Solo saved Brazil's initial penalty attempt, the match referee ordered the kick to be retaken. Marta converted the re-taken penalty to tie the score at 1-1.
The United States will take on France in the semifinals.
First time in Women’s World Cup history that a team has scored playing 10 against 12.
Uh, Spain? Scalping the world #1 doesn’t rank your top 4?
Ironically, the best-looking woman on Brazil is our bête noire, Erika…
Jessica Clarke. Her Wikipedia photo is especially foxy.
Foudy did terrible with the time..at least 3 times she said something wrong about the time on the clock
Definitely ESPN3
Actually, she was carded for dissent at about the end of the first half.
It’s true that the crowd’s reaction was over the top, but she was basically acting as the lightning rod for criticism of the entire team and the officiating (crowd couldn’t exactly boo the official when she had the ball, could they…).
The card for Solo was for dissent. There is no card for the keeper coming off her line.
BTW, the announcer claimed Loyd, I think it was, got let off the hook for handling the ball deliberately and not receiving a 2nd yellow card. If a handball is not done deliberately, it is not an infraction, so by inference, all handballs that are called are deliberate and a handball in and of itself is not a cautionable offense. There are some circumstances like unsporting behaviour (often a tactical foul) results in a yellow card, or if a player handles the ball to prevent an opponent from playing it, a yellow card is the punishment and the special circumstance of attempting to score a goal with one’s hands. Preventing a goal from being scored with one’s hands is interpreted as denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity, the punishment for that is a red card. This handball was deliberate, but it was to control the ball, not directly to deny the opponent possession; it would be a bit of a stretch to call it a tactical since the opponent did not have possession.
Just a sports thing with them… not even just soccer. (See: Nene of NBA fame, or the 2008 silver medal beach volleyball team of Talita and Renata.)
Must get pretty damn confusing when multiple players have the same name, though.
Great USA victory over Brasil and the officials. The crowd correctly booed Marta and Brasil for diving and time wasting, There certainly wasn’t any beautiful soccer nor sportsmanship in their play.The officials should be removed from further duties.
Wouldn’t mind seeing a 4-2-3-1:
Wambach
Rapinoe Cheney Lindsay
Lloyd Boxx
Cox LePeilbet Rampone Krieger
[I’m assuming O’Reilly can’t go. She’s just not 100% at this point.]
I thought it was not a foul, the contact might not have been quite within strict shoulder-to-shoulder contact, but both players were attempting to play the ball which was bouncing away from them, and neither realy did anything of the sort that usually results in a foul being called. Once it was called as a foul, the only choice the referee had was either the one she took or to “confere” with her assistant referee in order to replay in her mind what she had seen and change the call or not accordingly. If it was a foul, it was a sending-off and a penalty-kick, but I don’t think it was a foul.
Within the rules, Solo did come off the line before the ball was struck (but by only a tiny amount), so it comes down how much does it take to be “off the line”. The encroachment was clear and the LOTG, LAW14 actually is clear that that requires retaking the penalty (actually I think both a USA and Brazilian were encroaching, so hit or miss, it should have been retaken)
In the penalties to decide the match, Solo stayed on her line, the Brazilian keeper did not (I think not on any shot) so when the USA shot did not go in it was retaken, had any other USA shot missed, it would have been retaken. I thought The Brazilian keeper did not learn from the either the call against Solo, nor her own blatant step forward that gave the USA a second attempt.
The offsides on the last goal should not have been missed, the assistant referee was not paying attention! No way the center could judge that one from her position and she was let down by the assistant.
Generally, I thought the assistant referee on the near (camera) side made several wrong calls on balls that crossed the touch line awarding the ball to the wrong team in at least 5 cases (with a 50-50 chance of getting it right, she must have guessed 10 times when she did not see the play). That is way too much inattention to what she should have been doing!
Bornstein’s crosses aren’t all that bad.
So much this.
Cut the game to 40 clock minutes a half and stop the clock when the freakin’ ball is out of play.
No… ironically, the saved penalty was Daiane, who also yielded the own-goal in the 2nd minute.
Definitely not one for the ol’ scrapbook there.
The USA’s already had its “Miracle on Grass.” It was the Spain game.
If you want a hockey analogy, this felt much more like the 2010 gold medal game: two top teams going toe to toe to the death with everything on the line.
As an added bonus, this time the USA won…
I think that is one of the many, many lessons he needs
I think the best solution is just doing away with the running clock. What’s wrong with a stop clocked when play stops?
I pretty much agree, but when she first came on she ahd several bad touches and a few bad give-aways. Whether she settled down or whether her immediate opponent just got tired and the slow legs gave Rapanoe the time to look a lot better is hard to tell. But certainly she was a shining star from the time the USA went down to 10 players.
strange but definitely legal
Um, more than half of the women on our team are very pretty. Heather O’Reilly is as cute as a button. Sorry, but you can’t say the same for the Brazil team.
Anyone would be better than Harkes.
That dude couldn’t carry Julies microphone.
WTF?
Hope Solo is tough as nails and I don’t mean finger nails. The ref made two horrible calls in the red card and on Solo’s stunning first block. What a win!
I thought she was a solid sub. At the very least she put in some great balls on set plays
Damn iPhone spell ckecks. A few sentences were erased, sorry if it doesn’t make sense.
But those on top are my top 4 games.
No, you called them Algiers.
What a game by our girls today! Rapinoe cross was simply outstanding. She was solid, a few giveaways, but for the most part she was energetic and pushed as much as an athlete could. She is my player of the game. I’m not sure what some of you guys were watching. Rodriguez attracts a lot of attention around her position freeing up space in the 20 yrd box, that’s why I believe she should be the starter for now. She provides space for Abi. Alex Morgan is probably my favorite player and I believe she is the next big thing on our team. She is technical and speedy, the girl can shoot from distance and provide Adu type services. But right now I believe she is dangerous coming off the bench to give that high offensive pressure. Two offensive waves is devastating to the opponent, and we have that luxury on our bench. 🙂 Alex also is so damn hot!! 🙂
This games is definitely in my top 3 of all time!
1. USA vs Algeria. Too much BS to overcome in the group. It was historic.
2. Women vs Brazil. It was a hard choice, but beat out Argentina & Mexico game. My girls are nasty! 🙂
3. Beating Mexico 2-0 in the world cup.
4. Beating Argentina in Copa America! That made it clear we were on the rise. I cried during that game.lol
nope, took the men’s or the “federations” championships. they mentioned this on one of the espn telecasts…
To bad our nation is crumbling from financial debt, and losing out to China economicaly, we own barely anything in this country and China could buy Washington because they own all of our huge debt, their also increasing their military power as well and within a few years as projected will become the new World power, congrats to the women’s team (they still got lucky as hell like the mens team, except their magic runs out in big situations.)
+11
The USA women are just as manly and unwoman like.
Hope Solo is a great leader and team player. That was evident today.
I am trying to figure out why the Brazilian women have five stars above thier crest. Didnt the men’s team earn all of them?
Yeah, I know I shouldn’t be saying this but the whole lot isn’t exactly the most photogenic bunch.
Agreed. She was clearly the best player out there once extra time hit.
Has anyone else noticed that Rosana looks exactly like Ronaldinho? I feel so sorry for her.
If you watch the replay Buehler has a fistful of Marta’s shirt in hand as Buehler goes down.
It would have been hard for Marta to go anywhere that way.
You could have called it either way.
Mata was acting very Landon Donovan-ish with the refs. Maybe she has been taking lessons from him.
True about the lack of FIFA explanation but I don’t see why she would be carded for going off the line early, you just re take it.
I’ve never seen a keeper carded for that before unless they give the refs some **** about it in which case it becomes dissent.
I got to admit This one outdid the mens.First full USWNT game I watch from start to finish.They won me over.Plus I think I developed a crush on Hope Solo
No. We beat Russia in the semis and Finland in the final in 1980.
France are playing the role of Russia and Sweden would be Finland of we make the final.
It’s not just the tackle (which didn’t deserve a red, btw)… it was her attitude and demeanor on the field all game, especially in the first half. “Heated and emotional” she may have been, but she was also acting ridiculous and over the top. Her attitude put a very ugly stamp on Brazil’s performance. She wanted the US to receive cards for every small act, but then she gets in the refs face, jumps up and down, freaks out about every call and doesn’t see any sort of discipline.
The American attacker did encroach into the penalty area right before the kick was taken. the replay shows it. Technically, the ref was within her right to call a re-kick.
HOWEVER, the spirit of the laws, which are just as important as the letter of same, would only have you retake the kick if it were am egregious encroachment our if it interfered with the kicker’s attention or if that player gained advantage from the encroachment – say, being in a better position to collect a rebound.From what I saw, the minor encroachment did not benefit the US team in any way.
Abby is the bomb!
Didn’t think about it at the time, but it does seem strange that they were able to switch players.
Love the result, and I am sure even in Brazil most would have to agree the U.S. deserved the win. ( well maybe not).
Agree with a post earlier, Foudy should stop coaching and start commenting on the match instead, maybe a good start would be to know how much time in extra time.
I have watched many matches but this ending was a true classic. Well done Ladies.
I don’t really get all the Marta-hating. Any player in that kind of tackle would’ve gone down in the same way. Earlier in the game, Wambach dove blatantly (as confirmed in the replay) and Marta got in her face and told her to get up. I think Marta’s really heated and emotional but I don’t remember any blatant flops. And Carli Lloyd almost broke the one girl’s leg at the beginning, so I didn’t blame her for rolling around. Erika is another story.
Random observation with respect to Canada and Mexico a bit being stronger supporters of the women’s game: put a WPS team in Monterrey and in Toronto.
Lady Wambach is on a whole other level. Jesus, that ref and her assistants made MLS refs look like the legal geniuses of the Supreme Court. Four words: Krieger all day long. And it has nothing to do w/her putting in the winning goal, she’s just flat out fine.
I think there are several situations that would need to be addressed separately. To potentially solve the problem we saw in overtime…if a player goes down due to “injury” in a play in which there was no foul called/committed on that person, the player would have to sit for a period of time (2-5 mins).
There is still the loophole of players exaggerating actual fouls, but hopefully it could reduce the nonsense that we saw today.
The ref finally got a call right by giving the Brazilian a yellow, but we shouldn’t rely on refs to catch it every time. Instead we should look to deter the behavior entirely.