The ref has certainly been BUSY, giving out lots of cards. But they’ve all seemed generally reasonable. What are people complaining about?
Anyhow… on to the dreaded PKs!
Not sure. Without video it’s hard to tell most of the time.
Wambach not starting for the US. Good idea or bad idea?
Germany over France on PKs. I’m bummed about this; the French were overall better. But they missed their chances when they had them…
ETA. I thought overall the ref did fine.
It’s back to disliking a German national football team once again.
Has to be good news for the US (if we beat China) that the GER-FRA game was so exhausting. Although we need to step it up a LOT to match that level of play.
Unfortunately, France were the best option to take them out. Unless China or the USA have a gear we haven’t seen, Germany will make the final match.
Germany weren’t dirty nasty cheaters or anything. I just thought France were better and should have put the game away when they had the chance. Pity these two sides only met in the quarter finals.
Agreed all the way around. I really thought France had Germany. They had the chances and did a great job producing opportunities.
Now it’s time to see what the Americans can do without Holliday and Rapinoe.
Germany have had 2 competitive international loses going back to 2008. They played France perfectly; absorbing pressure and letting France tire themselves out. I dont ubnderstand how anyone could say they were better. Was George Forman better than Mohammed Aliu in The Rumble in the Jungle? The only thing that matters is the final score.
So far it’s turned out OK, though I do wonder if she might have put away some of those balls in the first half. China either isn’t very good or the US is just that dominant today. They’ve been in China’s end almost the whole game and Solo has never been threatened.
The only thing that matters is the final score, but that doesn’t mean that the final score always tells which team was better.
Didn’t watch the game so I don’t know if it did in this occasion or not.
I think Argentina deserved that win.
US beats China comfortably, albeit 1-0. Still having problems actually finding the back of the net, but we dominated in basically every category. China never seriously threatened a goal, which is pretty impressive.
Now to cheer for the Aussies to upset Japan, and then, I guess I just don’t really care about Canada vs. England. Two perfectly pleasant countries.
I HATE 1-0 games. But at least much of the second half was played in the China half.
Why? The low overall goal count? I really enjoyed China-US - it was fast paced and probably the best US game so far. True, they had about 10,000 missed goals, but they won in the end. Germany-France was annoying just because it went to penalties.
Id rather play Japan than Australia. The Aussies want revenge and will be better motivated to play against us.
Because the stress kills me. 
Was anyone else laughing at the whole “my game is fair play” thing? How many FIFA officials are under indictment right now?
Not sure about that. I’m cheering for Australia because my wife is Australian
In general, I thought the US had their best game in so much as smart hustle is concerned than in many years.
If they continue that & add in the two carded players, well, on any given day… I was impressed with how well they did without those players.
France was great but pull out speedy and Semone or that other one that can see & think and they are toast. Depend on them far too much IMO.
Though the Referee in the US vs China game was far better than the Germany vs France one. They both were way better than the one in US vs Colombia game IMO.
You are a smart man ;). I just feel the Aussies will have something to prove against us. Im just hoping this will be a good game.