Welcome to the final, Team USA. Credit: Maja Hitij/Getty Images
Welcome to the final, Team USA.
Welcome to the final, Team USA. Maja Hitij/Getty Images

The U.S. won 2-1 against England on Tuesday. They sent the Brits packing and are headed to the finals, where they’ll play whoever wins on Wednesday, either the Netherlands or Sweden. I pinky-swear that I’m not going to subject you to any Revolutionary War jokes.

This game felt like a fucking war though, damn.

There were yellow cards! And red cards! A VAR goal call-back! A controversial call that resulted in a penalty! A blocked penalty! Flopping! Injuries! You name it.

Before the game started, people noticed that Megan Rapinoe, the star of the last two games and the thorn in Trump’s side, wasn’t warming up. She was listed as a sub. U.S. soccer offered no explanations. I’m crossing my fingers that it’s not an injury. I was also bummed to see her benched (even if it’s for her own sake!!) because of this beautiful essay her girlfriend, the Seattle Storm’s Sue Bird, just published about Rapinoe.

Speaking of injuries, Rose Lavelle, who spent the game dominating in the middle and gifting perfect passes, went down with an injury. Rose allegedly said something about her hamstring when she was on the ground. Let’s hope that clears up in time for Sunday’s final.

UPDATE for both:

Lavelle is one of my newfound favorite players who’s shone through during this tournament. She’s so soft on the ball. She keeps it close to her feet and is unassumingly dangerous. I also like how she wears her socks high, above her knees because it makes her look like she’s wearing kneepads. In the England game, Lavelle made a crucial decision that resulted in the first goal of the game (another under 12-minute score for the U.S.):

The ball from Tobin Heath looks like it’s meant for Lavelle, and it very well could have been, but instead, she dummies it—fakes like she’s going to receive that pass and lets it by for Kelly O’Hara to take and serve into Christen Press for a goal. Lavelle is a wholly unselfish player and my second favorite dribbler to watch behind Heath (you just can’t beat her jaunty pace and calculated cuts).

For Alex Morgan’s 30th birthday, she scored herself a goal. It’s the sixth of the tournament paired with three assists, which puts her in the running for the Golden Boot (the award given to the leading goalscorer in the World Cup). She also became the first-ever player to score a goal in a World Cup on their birthday. So that’s cool.

She sipped some tea to celebrate.

Meanwhile, England made a record for themselves, too.

It was a tough match for England, which was neck and neck with the U.S. The English Lionesses countered the U.S. goal with one of their own and had two other dangerous opportunities—one of them even became a goal, but only for a second before VAR determined the scorer was offside.

Then, a foul-I-didn’t-think-was-a-foul in the box turned into a penalty kick for the Brits. They had missed their previous two penalties. They missed this one, too. The English became the first team to miss three consecutive penalty kick opportunities in a World Cup.

Look at this save, though. The ball doesn’t fucking lie:

It was an intense and physical game. Heath also came out with an injury. Both Lindsey Horan and Becky Sauerbrunn received yellow cards on the U.S. team. On England, Millie Bright got two yellows and was ejected from the game. Nikita Parris also received a yellow.

It was one of the more exciting games to watch. However, I had to spend the first half watching at my desk before scrambling to find somewhere showing the game. I wound up at Rancho Bravo. It was pretty nice.

See you all on Sunday at 8 a.m.

Until then, here’s another Alyssa Naeher save to tide you over:

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