Olympics Final Result: U.S.-Japan
Heather O'Reilly and Japan's Aya Miyama battle for a loose ball in today's Olympic semifinal.
AP Photo
The U.S. women wore down Japan, 4-2, to set up a rematch of the gold medal game four years ago in Athens against Brazil, which destroyed Germany, 4-1, earlier today.
The final is set for 6 a.m. Thursday on USA.
Two goals in three minutes just before half time sealed the U.S. win with Lori Chalupny beating three Japanese defenders with a solo effort for the second that sapped the life from their opponents.
The U.S. line-up: 18-Hope Solo; 2-Heather Mitts (14-Stephanie Cox, 86), 15-Kate Markgraf, 3-Christie Rampone - Capt., 17-Lori Chalupny; 9-Heather O'Reilly, 7-Shannon Boxx, 11-Carli Lloyd, 5-Lindsay Tarpley (6-Natasha Kai, 67); 8-Amy Rodriguez (12-Lauren Cheney, 83), 16-Angela Hucles.
Notable:
*Since women's soccer was added to the Olympics in 1996, the U.S. is the only team to advance to all four Olympic Finals, and for the second consecutive Olympics will play Brazil with the gold medal on the line.
*The crowd of 50,137 was the third largest ever to watch the U.S. play outside of the U.S., and the 11th largest crowd of all-time to see the U.S. play.
Quotable:
"Angela Hucles is a fantastic story," said Coach Pia Sundhage of the scorer of a brace in the come-from-behind-win. "As the coach for the Boston Breakers in 2003 (in WUSA), we talked about changing the point of attack and changing speed, and she was average. I saw her for the first time in December with the U.S. team and something happened as she decided to get fit and change speed. She has been one of the most important players in this team."
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About 100 Percent Soccer
Sportswriter Nick Green has written the 100 Percent Soccer column since 2005 for the Daily News, Daily Breeze and other Los Angeles area newspapers. The blog of the same name began in 2007. A native of England, he began writing about soccer in the mid-1980s and in 2000 permanently exchanged a seat in the stands for one in the press box. He lives six miles from Carson's Home Depot Center, home of the Los Angeles Galaxy, Chivas USA and the training headquarters for U.S. Soccer and is married to a long-suffering soccer widow. Join Nick on FaceBook and follow him on Twitter.
This is going to be one interesting game, to say the least! The U.S. is going to be more intense than August heat on the Texas plains. Fortunately, Sundhage seems to be able to calm the players' emotions and redirect their energies toward the task at hand. Even if the U.S. loses, she has shown that she deserves to be the WNT coach after the Olympics.
I hope the U.S. wins, if only for the fact that a victory will close the books on the international careers of Lilly, Wambach, Scurry and Whitehill, the key troublemakers from the Women's World Cup last year.