usa-germany

(This comes from my World Cup blog.)

Everything I write here, I cribbed from others. I have nothing new. But this blog serves as my memory, if nothing else, so ...

There are two ways to look at this match (of course I know there are more than two, but bear with me).  When Julie Johnston committed a foul in the box for a German penalty, it was heartbreaking for a player who has been as good as anyone in the tournament. But the U.S. was actually lucky, because the referee awarded a penalty and a yellow card, when it should have been a red card. If the U.S. had to play the final half-an-hour short-handed, the result might well have been different. Then, when Alex Morgan drew a penalty at the other end of the field, the penalty call was missed ... she was outside the box. The two most crucial referee decisions of the match both went against the Germans.

On the other hand, there's this: the Germans missed their penalty, the Americans made theirs.

And, in the words of the immortal Norberto Longo, dos palabras: Torsten Frings.

Meanwhile, it was a match that "lived up to the hype". The U.S. did everything except score in the first half, in the second half the Germans were much more lively, and the last 30 minutes had everything.