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Harry Awurumibe, Live in France
USA star striker, Megan Rapinoe and teammates celebrating a goal in the previous game. Will the American do same today?
In few hours now women will go to war at Lyon Olympic Stadium as the United States of America (USA) takes on surprise finalists, Netherlands in the final of the 8th FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Defending champions of the cup, Team USA are veterans in the game and have been at this stage several times and have triumphed three times in 1991, 1999, 2015 and now gunning for an encore in Lyon, the French city that has a history of supporting women’s football to the highest level.
With an experienced Head coach, Jill Ellis who led the team to win the 2015 trophy in Canada and a load of talented players in goalkeeper Allysa Naeher and super stars like Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, Christen Press, Tobin Heath, Kelly O’Ohara, Lindsey Horan and Becky Saurerbrunn among others, the USA is as good as lifting the trophy again today in Lyon.
However, the Dutch will not play the second fiddle to the Yankees as the Americans are called. They have in their fold good players who can stand up to be counted when the chips are down. They will also draw the inspiration that they are the reigning European champions and will like to show their opponents that big names do not play football.
The Dutch will rely on their reliable goalie Sari ven Veenendaal and defenders, Dominique Bloodworth and Danielle van de Donk as well as forward J. Groenen who scored the goal that got the Dutch to the final.
To get the final, USA has been in bullish mood and even made history in their very first group match by humiliating debutantes Thailand 13-0, dumped Chile 3-0 and beat Sweden 2-3. In the elimination stages, USA defeated Spain 2-1 in the Round of 16, dispatched host country France 2-1 in the quarter final and humbled England 2-1 in semi final in Lyon to set up the epic encounter with the underdogs today.
On their own, Netherlands started off in a rather humble way by beating New Zealand 1-0 and wallop Cameroon 3-1 and Canada 2-1. Netherlands beat Japan 2-1 in Round of 16, defeated Italy 2-0 in the quarter final and pip Sweden by a lone in the semi final tie to reach their first cup final in history.
Interestingly, it will be a clash of two women football Head Coaches- Jill Ellis of USA and Sarina Wiegman of Netherlands going Head to Head today in Lyon and the coach whose technical and tactical knowhow will fetch the trophy would have made a bold statement that what a man can do a woman cn do even better.
Let the fireworks begin in Lyon