We were in the nosebleed section: directly underneath one of the enormous screens in the corner of the stadium. It did provide a beautiful view of the field, but those players did look quite tiny!
And then there were the fans behind us -- one Engand fan and one American Fan. Mr. English had one of those loud booming voices that droned in my head for hours after the match. Now, I'm all for supporting your team, but this guy was a running commentary telling every player on the field what they should be doing -- loudly, in my ear. As if they could hear him!? My favorite moment came when the ref called for a VAR review and he started complaining about it, not realizing that it could mean England was about to get a PK. The only thing worse than a loud and annoying fan is one who doesn't actually understand what's going on.
Then there was Ms. America, who cheered as if she were best buds and teammates with every American on the team. She had cute nicknames for every US player and she too felt that they needed coaching from the uppermost portions of the stadium.
OK, enough whining -- it was the Women's World Cup Semifinal and the USA were taking on a very tough English side. Both teams were missing key players. For the USA, Rapinoe, who was the only player to have scored any goals in the last two games, was sidelined with a hamstring injury. For England, their awesome starting keeper, Karen Bardsley, was also sidelined. Tough break for both teams.
The US got off to a pretty strong start -- perhaps their best in the knockout stage. They were moving the ball well, maintaining possession, and looking threatening. And sure enough, in what has been a hallmark of this tournament, the US struck early: in the 10th minute, Christen Press (the Rapinoe sub), headed in a beautiful cross from Kelly O'Hara, set up from a gorgeous Tobin Heath pass that Rose Lavelle dummied to let it run into the corner. It was a spectacularly beautiful build up and finish.
At that moment, it looked like it was going to be the USA team of yore -- easily handling a feisty opponent, but that was a drastic underestimate of the Lionesses (who can not love a team called the Lionesses???). Only nine minutes later, their golden-boot contender, Ellen White, executed an equally beautiful goal. Somehow she sneaked into the middle of the defense to collect a well-placed cross from Mead and send it smashing into the goal. Uh oh, perhaps England had other ideas than a romp in the park for the US ...
The game quickly became an intense back and forth, full field game. And then, after a fast-paced thirty minutes, it was Alex Morgan's turn to finish with a beautiful header, served up from outside by Lindsay Horan (reappearing in the starting lineup after having been omitted for the past two games). And it was 2-1 that the USA and England closed out the half.
The second half got even more exciting. In I believe the following order:
- England appeared to tie up the game in the 70th minute with another Ellen White goal But the Americans were saved by the VAR, when White was ruled offsides. The vast majority of the 53,000 in attendance gave a collective sigh of relief.
- The next VAR decision in the 82nd minute, was not so good for the US -- after some commotion in the US box that left Naeher (goalie) sprawled on the goal line, the VAR alerted the ref to a potential foul ... and sure enough, further review turned into a PK for England! And this is where Naeher earned her entire paycheck for the year -- she went to her right and managed to collect Steph Houghton's PK! It was still 2-1.
- I think this was more than England could handle. The game took at a turn for the more aggressive (and terrifying as England pummeled the US goal and its 5-man back line that magically happened after the offside goal-- or in the words of the NYT, " That scare [the offside no-goal] was the Bat Signal for a five-player back line.") Finally, in the 86th minute, a frustrated Millie Bright went in cleats up on Alex Morgan, earning her second yellow card, which means a red, which means an ejection (p17), and England was down to ten players.
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