Women's Football News

The USA qualified for the final on Saturday the 10th of August at 17:00. Reaching the semi-finals is a huge achievement, but reaching the final is splendid for Emma Hayes and her team. We’ve seen the USA vs Germany before in the group stage. The USWNT obliterated Horst Hrubesch and the Germans. The semi-final started differently. The teams did not take too much risk in the first half, but in the second half the game was on. Read our Match Report USA vs Germany. 

USA vs Germany meet again in the Semi-Finals

The first minutes of the match are for the USWNT. Within the first 8 minutes the USA had three attempts on goal: Davidson Tierna, Rose Lavelle and Sophia Smith took their chances. Germany is without captain Alexandra Popp and their best player in the attacking line: Lea Schüller. Popp’s guidance is missed from minute one. Germany creates very few chances and even the counters go nowhere. Whatever does reach the box is cleared by USA defense easily. 

It’s captain Lindsay Horan that gets behind the ball for a free kick. She hits one of her own players near the wall, Rose Lavelle. The ball makes its way to Trinity Rodman who always can create something from nothing. German defense had to give away a corner after Rodman tried to get the cross in front of the goal. Lavelle takes the corner kick, but it results in nothing. 

Rough start for Germany

The USA keeps control over the match. It almost seems like the Germans are a player short. There are always USWNT players free to pass to, they create their own space and look for opportunities. Germany needs to utilize the counters and they did so very well in the 16^th minute. Jule Brand won a corner-kick for her team, but Naeher got her fists to it before any Germany player could do something. Eventually Hegering fouled Crystal Dunn on her way to win the ball back and the danger was over. 

Germany turned up the heat after the USA dominated the first 18 minutes. A throw in led to a corner-kick, given away by Emily Fox. Naeher tipped it away from her goal and it landed near Hegering who could not get her feet to the ball. Germany took control of the ball again. The USA put pressure high on the pitch, nearly bringing Berger in trouble. 

Jule Brand created her own chance for Germany. The USWNT players expected her to pass, leaving enough space for Brand to continue into the box from the left. Her shot was saved by Naeher, who was very lucky that her own defenders got to the ball first. Germany is definitely growing into the game at this point. 

The end of the first half did not lead to any goals. Many goals were committed, especially by Jule Brand and Hegering, who received a yellow card. Emma Hayes and Horst Hrubesh had a lot to discuss during the break. 

What do you tell your players in the break?

The second half starts with chances for both sides. A very entertaining start for football fans. Germany’s Jule Brand and Rose Lavelle are the ones creating dangerous situations. The last time these two met, Germany lost 4-1, so we could say they learned from that. 

Germany is slightly stronger that the USA, Gwinn tried for goal from distance but her shot went wide, other crosses into the box were defended well by Girma so the stand is still 0-0 after nearly an hour of play. 

A foul on USA’s superstar Trinity Rodman delays the play. Emma Hayes just wanted to make some substitutions but waits for Rodman. The head coach gets the okay and Lynn Williams can come on for Rose Lavelle. Rodman is one of those players whenever she has the ball, something happens. You can find her defending the goal, setting up an attack or scoring. Brilliant player. 

The most exciting moment happens when Mallory Swanson gets a phenomenal ball from Girma. She gets passed Berger and has a shot at an open goal, but two German defenders are there as well. Her shot hits the side net or maybe even the woodwork. But as fans we all thought it was a definite goal. We found out later that Swanson was offside. 

At this point the players are getting tired. They have been playing game after game with a small squad. Both head coaches did not rotate many players. Passes are not as good, players are easily hurt and running turns into walking. Anyomi gets down with bad cramps and Naeher helps her stretch. German physios rush onto the field to check out what is going on with her. With the temperatures nearly reaching 30 degrees Celsius its tough for the football players. 

Match Report USA vs Germany – Are we headed for extra time?

In the quarterfinals nearly every match went to extra time, exept for Brazil vs France. Portilho saved everyone from the misery of extra time by scoring the one and only goal. With 75 mintues on the clock, plenty of opportunities but barely any shots on target, we wonder: are we headed for extra time?

Within a span of three minutes the USWNT captain, Sophia Smith and Trinity Rodman attempted at goal. Lindsay Horan gets her head to the ball in the box and aims for target. Berger is paying attention and makes the save. As the goalkeeper did with the attempt from Rodman. 

The lack of precision in the last passes of both teams continues to be the problem with the goal scoring. Eventually the ball goes in the net by Swanson but she was very clearly off side, so we go again. Tired players means more spaces and lots of bad passes being intercepted. 

The USA led the attack in the final minutes of the official time. They tried everything, got really close but Berger was the hero of the German squad. 5 minutes were added on before we officially go to extr atime. The added time did not bring any spectacular football. The USWNT kept delivering their crosses in the box but German defense was everywhere to clear the ball quick. 

5 matches in 12 days

With travel that is. But we head to extra-time. This means two more halves of 15 minutes each. It’s the USA within 5 minutes with the 1-0. Sophia Smith profits from the miscommunication between Berger and Rauch. It’s smith’s third goal of the tournament. 

Her goal earned the USWNT a ticket to the final, but for our Match Report USA vs Germany: first they have to survive another 15 minutes against Germany. If the Germans equalize it will likely head to penalty kicks.  Germany struggled to create chances. The very few they had did not reach anyone in the box. You could see a little bit of hesitation. If you give the USA to much space they double the lead before you know it and then it’s really over. 

Every corner-kick the team sends everyone forward, taing more and more risk. The USWNT changed their tactic to defending only. Even the three up top had to fall back for this. Leaving almost nothing for Germany to score the equalizer. Defending like this can go either way. If the box is consistently attacked, one ball might go in. 

Germany earned a free kick in a great spot. Jule Brand was fouled by Sophia Smith right at the edge of the box. Naeher set her wall in the right position and Bühl got behind the ball with Gwinn. Bühl’s free kick was in the wall, she did receive the ball straight back and launched it in box. The attempt was saved by Naeher. Right after that Sophia Smith went for Berger again but the goalkeeper acted accordingly this time. Giving away a free kick but not the 2-0. 

The USA qualified for the final

Who will they face? We will know after Brazil vs Spain finished their match. They start at 21:00 CEST. Spain beat Brazil during the last meeting in the group stage. It was not an easy duel for them. Marta’s red card left Brazil with 10 and that’s when Spain took over. Everything can stll happen in that semi-final at the Paris 2024 Olympics.