Congratulations to the Japanese for winning the
Women's World Cup

 

They deserved to win. Unfortunately the USA women gave it away in the first 10-12 minutes.

 

Not that I am bitter...

The US women outplayed the Japanese all day. Even when the Japanese women possessed the ball it was usually in front of their own goal. We played on their side of the field all day. We had several shots that bounced off the goalposts early on, but we hardly gave it away in the first 10-12 minutes.

The Japanese were lucky to score their first goal. Our one defender was kicking the ball out of the box when it hit our other defender and landed right at the feet of their forward.

At the end of the game the US was pressing. On the third shot on goal the Japanese defender was down on the ground, and the shot hit her in the forearm and careemed out of bounds at the end line. I can see why this would not be a handball in the box, but it should have been our corner kick, not a goal kick for the Japanese.

The penalty kicks were ridiculous. The Japanese had a 5 foot tall goalie, that if we shot for the upper corners, she would not be able to stop the kick even if she guessed the right side. We kicked two down low that she blocked and one over the goal before finally nailing the ball in an upper corner.

The game left me

 

How many times did the Americans bounce the ball off the goal post in the first 10 minutes of the game? Had they just got one of them in there would not have even been an overtime, let alone penalty shots. To me, that's where they gave the game away.