Montreal, July 1 (IANS) Carli Lloyd scored one goal and set up the other as the US beat Germany 2-0 to reach the FIFA Women’s World Cup final here.
Lloyd put the Americans ahead in the 69th minute from the spot in the semifinal. They were awarded the penalty kick after German defender Annike Krahn fell Alex Morgan at the edge of the area on Tuesday, reports Xinhua.
Germany head coach Silvia Neid was left disappointed by the referee’s penalty decision.
“I felt very sad about that. It decided the match. Clearly it’s outside of the area, you can see it on TV, but you have to live with it. I could not change it,” she said.
Lloyd’s goal came nine minutes after Germany’s Celia Sasic, the tournament’s leading scorer, missed a penalty kick of her own, pushing the ball outside the left goalpost. That seemed to put brakes on a German comeback and gave a new life to the Americans.
“If you miss a penalty and then have a penalty scored against you, it could be hard for you to come back into the game,” Neid said.
The 32-year-old Lloyd, who headed in the sole goal in their win over China in the quarter-finals, delivered a superb pass for Kelley O’Hara whose shot sealed the win for the US in the 84th minute. US head coach Jill Ellis, who was under fire from the American media for her side’s under-performance, declined to comment on the officials.
“It was an unbelievable duel between two tremendous teams,” she said.
Germany put on a forgettable performance and their finishing was incredibly poor as only one of their 15 shots was on target.
“We were not dangerous enough, the team has given all they could and unfortunately that’s not enough,” said Neid.