GOOOOOOOOOAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!

USA Women's soccer/futbol has done it again! They got a big goal late in today's match off of Abby Wambach's head to lead them to victory over France. Combine this 3-1 victory with a shootout victory over Brazil in the quarterfinals on Sunday thanks to Hope Solo's great goalkeeping, and the United States are back in the World Cup Finals for the first time since 1999.

First, let me comment about women's soccer: I'm surprisingly enjoying it 10x more than men's. Many would argue that it's only because the US are actually good in women's soccer and not in men's...if so, then why did I end up watching many other matches, and my favorite match (besides USA/Brazil) was a group stage match between Norway and Equatorial Guinea?  Anonman is the best player at the 2011 World Cup Finals and nobody can convince me otherwise (sorry Abby).

Anonman (in red) was the only attacker for Equatorial Guinea, yet always had a good attempt on goal.


It was because of the fact that true goal-scoring opportunities appeared, unlike the men's game where every shot off of a foot ended up 20 yards over the crossbar. That may be part of FIFA's doing, but forgive me I like scoring and the average of 2.27 goals per game in the Men's 2010 World Cup (second lowest in history) is just unexciting. It was a miracle that the championship game didn't go to a shootout in my mind.

Also, and this may come out sounding very wrong, but here we go: The women are less girls than the men. There's no diving. There's no faking injuries, being taken off on a stretcher, then reappearing on the field 30 seconds later. There's no ignorant referees who allow great actors to buy free kicks by tripping himself.

 

 Oh no he got the ball away from me! I better fall down and make it look like I'm hurt!

This one is absolutely hilarious. A guy gets a free kick for punching himself in the face.....

So now let's get back to the current World Cup. Sweden and Japan are about to kick off their semi-final match, the winner to face the USA in the championship match. Japan knocked off host-nation Germany 2-1 and had a 4-0 win earlier in the tournament, but is inexperienced and playing with a lot of emotion.  Sweden defeated the US 2-1 in the group stage (two garbage goals on a penalty kick and a deflected free kick) and are playing better than Japan, but don't have the emotion that the Japanese have.

Here is the game tying goal for the US vs. Brazil in the 122nd minute...literally just 30 seconds or so from the match being over. Rapinoe (my favorite on this team) finds Wambach (who finally got out of her drought, knew it wouldn't last long!) who beats the keeper. She used her head well again today against France.


Either way, I like the red-white-and-blue in the finals. This team is ranked #1 in the world, yet was the last team to qualify for the 2011 World Cup in Germany. That doesn't matter, though. Hope Solo said it best following the France match: "We have the confidence because we know we're damn good." Come Sunday we might just see how "damn good" they are. USA! USA! USA!