OK, so hear me out. I understand that Rapinoe has had an excellent World Cup performance thus far, and she deserves an immense amount of credit for helping get the U.S. to the final. However, when watching the U.S. play England on Tuesday, I saw something that I hadn’t seen from the USWNT all tournament: cohesion on both sides of the ball.
OH WHEN THE YANKS...
Megan Rapinoe’s absence from the starting lineup was the major talking point in the hour before the USWNT’s Women’s World Cup semifinal against England on Tuesday. Was it a tactical decision? Was there some unknown Megan Rapinoe injury? Was it because of what she said about the president?
England’s crusade to knock the USWNT from its perch has ended in failure.
From the British media’s uproar over the Americans’ nerve to celebrate scoring goals at a Women’s World Cup to Phil Neville’s attempts to motivate his charges by trying to claim the U.S. was spying on the team, the USWNT has been Public Enemy No. 1 in England for some time now.
But when it came down to it, there were too many antics and too few goals as the U.S. defeated England 2-1 in the Women’s World Cup semifinals on Tuesday.
In between showing that replay of Chile not scoring on a free kick and talking about Hope Solo, we forgot to give Alyssa Naeher her proper due. She stayed calm and alert despite Becky Sauerbrunn's error against Spain, recorded four saves and withstood France’s second-half flurry last Friday, but still we didn’t take any time to address the U.S. goalkeeper. Now nobody's gonna talk about anything besides Alyssa Naeher.
Kids love to have imaginary tea parties when they’re young. Alex Morgan is still having one in France.
Alex Morgan, who turned 30 on Tuesday, celebrated with a fine cup of imaginary tea after scoring the second goal for the U.S. against England at the Women’s World Cup.
Christen Press, who started in place of Megan Rapinoe, and Ellen White traded goals early on before Morgan gave the USWNT a 2-1 lead in the 31st minute with a headed goal.
The USWNT lineup vs England was announced shortly before the gigantic Women’s World Cup semifinal match in Lyon on Tuesday and the tournament’s biggest star is on the bench.
USWNT coach Jill Ellis put Megan Rapinoe, who has scored two goals in two straight knockout-round matches, on the bench, replacing her with Christen Press at left wing.
OH WHEN THE YANKS...
The USWNT continues to find itself in the headlines following a 2-1 victory over France in the World Cup quarterfinals.
Nike senior director Heidi Burgett has just released a statement claiming that the USWNT's home kit is the best selling jersey ever on Nike.com within a single season, for men or women.
Is this it — the moment we all live to regret? Yesterday, a U.S. team administrator and her boss were apprehended whilst dozily meandering around the private rooms of England’s Fourvière hotel, which the rogue Americans could potentially use as a base of operations should they secure passage to the final at the expense of the Lionesses.
To say Germany had Sweden’s number in major international tournaments would be an insult to number-having everywhere. In nine knockout-round matches between the two all time, the Germans had won all of them.
Well, all but one after Saturday.
Sweden overcame an early goal to rally past the second-ranked team in the world 2-1, providing perhaps the biggest upset of the Women’s World Cup to advance to the semifinals.
Sweden joined the U.S., England and the Netherlands in the final four and will play the Dutch on Wednesday.
Anyone who has been to the Netherlands can attest: the Dutch are tall. Based on national statistics, the European nation is among the very tallest in the world with an average height of 5-6 for the women, and these Oranje national team players are even taller.
The Oranje certainly exemplify this with perhaps the most dominant aerial abilities of any team left in France. Stefanie van der Gragt is 5-10, Vivianne Miedema is 5-9, Jill Roord is 5-8 and Anouk Dekker is 6-0.