Women’s World Cup: U.S. defeats France, 3-1, and reaches final

Women’s World Cup: U.S. defeats France, 3-1, and reaches final – latimes.com

The United States swept into the final of the sixth Women’s World Cup with a convincing 3-1 victory over France in the semifinal on Wednesday in Moenchengladbach, Germany.

The Americans will play either Sweden or Japan in Sunday’s final in Frankfurt.

Goals by Lauren Cheney, Abby Wambach and Alex Morgan were more than enough to overcome a talented French team that did more of the attacking but could not turn those offensive forays into goals.

Sonia Bompastor scored the lone goal for France, briefly tying the game in the second half before the U.S. reasserted itself.

Trailing, 1-0, at the half, France Coach Bruno Bini made one change to begin the second 45 minutes, taking off forward Marie-Laure Delie and replacing her with Eugenie Le Sommer.

The French team applied increasing offensive pressure and was rewarded 10 minutes into the half when Bompastor scored to level matters at 1-1.

It was more of a hard pass than a shot by Bompastor, but the ball flashed past teammate Gaetane Thiney and went in off the post. U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo, perhaps distracted by Thiney’s run, could not get near it.

France had scored eight goals in its previous four games, with seven of them being scored in the second half. The U.S., in other words, knew what was coming….