USA’s Misery is Japan’s Joy.
It happened to the U.S. women with three minutes left in the second overtime of the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup championship game in Germany.
Leading 2-1, the Americans were killing the final minutes before celebrating a world championship. Then came a corner kick for Japan. A touch, a flick and it was in the back of the net.
Victory turned into a tie, and the ensuing penalty kick shootout turned into a nightmare.
A week earlier against Brazil the Americans had snatched victory from defeat with a dramatic overtime goal off the head of Abby Wambach in the 122nd minute to tie the game at 2-2. In the deciding penalty kick shootout the Americans were a perfect 5-5.
Against Japan the first three shooters failed to score. Maybe it was nerves, or perhaps just the magnitude of the moment, but in a blink of the eye the dream was gone and hearts were broken.
Getting to the championship had been a troubled journey for the U.S., which secured the 16th and final berth in the World Cup last fall with two 1-0 play-in wins over Italy after losing in CONCACAF qualifying to Mexico.
Then a loss to Sweden in the Algarve Cup early in the year, followed by a loss to England in London. Neither Mexico or England had ever before beaten the U.S. women.
A 2-1 loss to Sweden in the third and final group game advanced the Americans as the #2 team from group play to play Brazil.
In the semifinals the U.S. had to go into overtime before another header from Wambach gave the U.S. a 2-1 win. The week-long run was magical as the Americans raced to escape the Summer of 1999, the last time the U.S. had won a Women’s World Cup.
While the Americans were writing a compelling story that captured the interest and imaginations of millions back home and around the world, Japan was writing an even better one.
No one predicted that Japan would be in the final. After all, they had never once won a second-round World Cup game.. The U.S. had beaten Japan three times this year, including a pair of 2-0 shutouts in May.
Driven by the images of destruction from an earthquake and a tsunami that devastated Japan earlier this year, the Japanese team put together an amazing run of their own, upsetting host Germany (1-0), the #2 team in the world, in the quarterfinals, and Sweden (?-?), ranked #3, in the semifinals.
The USA went into the tournament ranked #1 in the world, so it was fourth-ranked Japan that raised the championship trophy as the Americans watched along with the 48,817 that filled the stadium in Frankfort. Japan had beaten all three teams ranked ahead of them, and in a blink of an eye a national nightmare had turned into a dream,
“Evidently, it wasn’t meant to be,” Wambach said after the final. “We worked so hard, we believed in each other through everything. I’m very proud of our team. Congratulations to Japan. Their country is very, very proud of them.”
In the final the U.S. team fell victim to a weakness that has plagued this team. Numerous good opportunities to score were not put away. They dominated play, but could not score and at halftime the game was even 0-0.
They would score two in the second half, the first by Alex Morgan and the second on another Wambach header, and while they led with the clock ticking down, the game actually had been frittered away in the first half when opportunities had not been finished.
When asked after the game to explain what happened, U.S. coach Pia Sundhage spoke of the missed opportunities. Holding two fingers close together she said, “it’s a final and there is a small difference between winning and losing.”
Sundhage, who had been criticized coming into the World Cup for being hesitant to make player changes and stuck in the same system of play, made a number of critical decisions throughout the tournament, most with positive outcomes.
Morgan, the team’s youngest player who came into the game at halftime, gave the U.S. a 1-0 lead that held up until the 81st minute when a defensive breakdown of not clearing a ball from in front of the U.S. goal resulted in Japan equalizing at 1-1.
Wambach’s fourth goal of the tournament, off a cross from Morgan gave the U.S. its second lead 2-1 in the first overtime period.
Wambach’s four goals pushed her all-time career record to 122. She also tied Michelle Akers’ record for World Cup goals at 12.
Before the World Cup Wambach had said that she felt that her career would be incomplete without winning a World Cup. She did all she could to make that happen.
The quarterfinal win over Brazil came a dozen years to the day that another American team won a shootout to beat China for the USA’s second and last World Cup title. Four years and the 2015 Women’s World Cup seems like a lifetime away.
But most of this U.S. team are young, and likely will still be playing in 2015. Captain Christie Rampone, the only remaining member of the 1999 team, will surely retire after the 2012 Olympics in London. Midfielder Shannon Boxx will likely retire as well.
There is a chance that Wambach, now 31, will get another chance. Goalkeeper Hope Solo is 29 and in the prime of her career.
There are some who will say that parity has closed the gap in women’s international soccer. Certainly the gap between the U.S., Germany and the rest of the world has narrowed.
But perhaps it was karma. Or perhaps it was fate!
“Maybe their country needed them to win more than our country needed us to win,” Wambach said philosophically.
In the end the dream became reality! Japan is the FIFA Women’s World Cup champion.