Tens of thousands cheered in Montreal Olympic stadium as eleven Americans shut out the best damn women's soccer team in the world, to advance to the World Cup Final on Sunday. Millions more shouted for glee or were glum in front of TV screens around the world.
Team USA, led by out coach Jill Ellis, defeated Germany 2-0 Tuesday. The last time the indomitable Germans lost a World Cup by two goals was 1995, and as ESPN reported, that defeat coincided with a 3.8 earthquake.
This time the earth was shaking in Canada as the team with a lesbian coach and three out players joined forces to confound the Germans. The U.S. team's new "4-2-3-1" lineup on the field -- a tactical arrangement that pushed out player Abby Wambach into a substitute position for the second game in a row -- gave the Americans an alignment advantage that was proven effective by the final score.
"It's not just about throwing out the best athletic players and putting them in whatever positions," Wambach told ESPN. "It's about tactics, it's about formations, it's about how we're going to play against a certain team."
And the turning point for Germany's team was a shocker. Germany had never missed a penalty kick in the Women's World Cup before Celia Sasic's shot sailed wide Tuesday.
Sasic sent the spot kick far from the post as American gold-winning goaltender Hope Solo dove in the opposite direction.
"After they missed their penalty kick, it felt like we couldn't lose," Klingenberg said.
On Sunday, the American women face either England, or Japan, in Vancouver, beginning at 7pm EDT.
Cyd Zeigler of OutSports reports Japan has no players who are out, German had only one -- Nadine Angerer -- but England has 2 out players on its team, Lianne Sanderson and Casey Stoney.
That's one fewer than the U.S. team's out roster of Wambach, Ali Krieger and Megan Rapinoe. These five, along with Ellis, areamongthe17 women in the world who competed for this year's World Cup who, according to OutSports, are out as lesbian, bisexual or, "otherwise."
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