The United State of America defeated host France 2-1 to set up an intriguing date with the 3 Lionesses of English(who defeated Norway 3-0) in the semifinals of FIFA Women's World Cup. The Les Bleues dream of a 1st Women World cup on home soil was dashed by the defending champion.
It was an entertaining end-to-end match on Friday night in Paris, with the USA getting off to a dream start when Megan Rapinoe scored just under 5 minutes of play, a free kick from the left edge of France penalty area eluded everybody in the box and found the far bottom corner for the USA opener. The goal rattled the host but kudos to them, they didn't go down without a fight. Despite the action, either goalkeeper was merely troubled as the USA went into the break with the slim lead.
The 2nd-half began with the USA wanting to seal the victory and their early 2nd-half pressure paid off few 5 minutes past the hour mark, Rapinoe completed her double on the night, United State's 2nd with a swift counter. Morgan releases Heath on the right and her cut back was fired into the net by Rapinoe, she's now levelled on 5 goals with her teammate Alex Morgan, England's Ellen White and Australia's Sam Kerr as the tournament's leading scorers. France kept on pressing for a way back into the match and they got a goal back in the 81st minute through towering defender Wendie Renard's header via a freekick. However, they failed to complete the comeback as the USA's tough nut proved too hard to crack for the Les Bleues. 2-1 it finished for the defending champion who has now reached the last 4 of every women's world cup since the inception in 1991(8 successive semifinals).
ENGLAND vs the USA:
Just as the France-USA was tagged the final before the final, England-USA is another matchup worthy of the final. The last 5 meetings between the 2 teams have seen the USA recorded a better win advantage with 3 wins over England's solitary victory, however, the quality difference between the 2 Nations is fast closing as both teams played out an entertaining 2 all draw in an international tournament(SheBelieves Cup) last March, nevertheless, the odd still slightly favours the world number 1 and defending champion USA over her 3rd ranked opponent England.
Both teams are on a good world cup form running from the last tournament in Canada 2015, while the USA is 10 straight win, England is on 6, and while the USA had conceded 2 goals in the current tournament so far, England had fared better with their defensive discipline conceded just 1 goal.
It is a tough one to call, I might just opt to sit on the fence on this one, the more tactical team should win. whatever the outcome of this tie, we are sure in for a scintillating matchup come Tuesday.
Thanks, for your time and support.
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