Women’s World Cup 2015: Semifinals

While I don’t think the U.S. Women’s Team looked quite as impressive as some people do they were certainly good enough to beat China who, as predicted, showed very little offensive spark indeed.  It was certainly Team USA’s best game of the Tournament so far.  The only score came 51 minutes in from Carli Lloyd, but the U.S. dominated shots on goal, 17 – 6, and possession time.

Tonight’s opponent, Germany, the Number One team in the world right now, looked incredibly vincible in their match against France.  They were only able to eke out a tie during regulation and extra time and scored their salvation goal with but 6 minutes to play.  Admittedly the French were much higher ranked than China, but winning on penalty kicks hardly cements Germany’s reputation.  You may hear a lot about their goal scoring prowess, well, 10 of those came in a devastating shutout of Ivory Coast. Likewise I’ve read some negative commentary that Hope Solo, the U.S. Keeper, has hardly been tested, yet her 11 saves are the most in the Tournament.

Against China, Team U.S. had to start substitutes for Lauren Holiday and Megan Rapinoe who were carded in the match against Colombia.  Tonight they are back at full strength and it’s entirely possible that they could win against Germany and advance to the Final against Japan (defending champion) or England (Cinderella).

Results of the Quarterfinals

Game start is at 7 pm ET on Fox.