120+2!!!

The quarterfinals featured two matches for the ages.

The first was the Japanese victory over Germany. We were biting our nails as we watched that one. It is an incredible accomplishment by the Japanese women to beat the reigning world champions who were playing in front of their home crowd. After a shaky start, the Japanese women started to play very well. They kept their cool and were able to limit the effectiveness of the German forwards. They played systematic and clean, good football. A great victory in overtime!

The second was of course the US victory over Brazil. Wambach's winning goal came in injury time in the second half of overtime or in the 120th minute + 2. You do not see that very often. It was also poetic justice since a little bit earlier one of the Brazilian defender went tumbling down. She seemed to be faking an injury and was carried out on a stretcher. But as soon as she was on the stretcher it was as if divine intervention occurred. She jumped off and came running back onto the pitch as if nothing had happened. Fortunately, the ref did give her the yellow card. But that "injury" was what contributed to the injury time that resulted in Wambach's goal. So in this case, cheating did not pay off!