Jul 13, 2011

Wambach does it again as U.S. Beats France, advance to Women's World Cup Final

A strong header from forward Abby Wambach sealed the victory for the USWNT in their semifinal match against France.

For most of the first 60 minutes France controlled possession and former Wambach teammate, Sonia Bompastor beat U.S. keeper Hope Solo from distance to even the game at 1-1 early in the second half.

U.S. Head Coach Pia Sundhage made some important substitutions in the second half to help refresh the faltering U.S. attack by bringing in Megan Rapinoe and a short while later Alex Morgan.

Rapinoe looked to be the better of the two substitutions making her presence known on the left side of the attack for the Americans while Morgan struggled to finish a couple of good opportunities.

With nearly 20 plus minutes to go in regulation Wambach made a charge at the top of the box to seemingly be brought down by Bompastor of France but there was no call. A motivated Wambach charged right back moments later to connect on the end of a corner from Lauren Chaney. In a near replay of her goal against Brazil the former Washington Freedom star came to the rescue for the second straight match. Having started slowly this World Cup Wambach clearly has all cylinders firing.

On multiple plays substitute Alex Morgan was unable to finish on a couple of clear goal scoring opportunities and fell down on a play where had she kept her footing she would have easily had a one-on-one with the French goalkeeper. Instead Morgan eventually found the back of the net with a great left footed shot only minutes after Wambachs' go ahead goal. With the Morgan goal the U.S. had done it again and is now headed to the Women's World Cup final for the first time since 1999 where they won their second World Cup title.

Up next for the women representing the Red, White, and Blue is the winner of the other semi-final match between Japan and Sweden. Should Sweden advance it would set up a rematch for the U.S. against the only team to beat them this tournament when the USWNT fell to the Swedes 2-1 on July 6th.




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