Off to the Finals!

It is set in stone and the two teams onto the Olympic Women's Soccer Finals are Japan and the USA! It was a very intense day of soccer which began with Japan playing France. Japan, who are currently the reigning world champions beat France 2-1. Japan got both of their goals from set pieces and France was able to get a goal in the last 15-20mins of the game. It wasn't enough though, as the final whistle blew, sending Japan off to the Olympic gold match.  

Now the USA vs. Canada game was a really different story. Nothing like the Japan vs. France game. IT WAS A NAIL BITING ON THE EDGE OF YOUR SEAT GAME! INTENSE! USA were the favorites to go onto the final, but Christine Sinclair, the Canadian captain scored the opening goal at the 22' mark. Time kept ticking, but the USA brought it back with a Megan Rapinoe corner, which went into the goal directly. May not have been a pretty goal, but it's a goal none the less. The game is now tied, but Canada comes back with another goal from Sinclair which gives Canada the lead again. BUT the USA, a team that doesn't give up, came back again with a goal bouncing off the pole from Rapinoe. It's tied 2-2. No the game isn't over yet. Canada responded AGAIN with ANOTHER GOAL (a header) from SINCLAIR who was assisted by a corner kick, giving her a hat-trick and putting Canada in the lead AGAIN. As time was going, the Canadian goal keeper got called out on time wasting, which is a very rare call. This gave the USA an indirect free kick which then lead to a penalty kick because of a hand ball in the box. Wambach slotted the goal to the left side of the goal tying up the game 3-3. Overtime it went. 

Another 30mins of intense soccer continued on and it looked as if it were going to go into PKs. BUT OUT OF NO WHERE, during three minutes of stoppage time, a beautiful cross from O'Rielly met with Alex Morgan's head and went straight into the Canadian's goal. Morgan has been criticized for not scoring many goals during the Olympics, but I'm pretty sure that shut the critics up. She came up and probably scored the most important goal of her career so far and the Olympic games. And that ended it. The USA won 4-3 after 120mins of soccer. The Canadians played well, but they didn't get the result that they wanted (of course). So it's Japan vs. USA for the gold medal match and France vs. Canada for the bronze medal match. It's like a redo of the World Cup for the USA (almost). For the Canada vs. France match, whoever loses that game, it's going to be real tough because it's literally all that hard work for no medal. 

AGAIN GO USA, USA, USA. That game will be played on Thursday, August 8th at 7:45pm London Time. Sadly I will be back in school for that match, so I'm going to have to wait to get home to see who won that game. But still USA, USA, USA.