WOMEN'S WORLD CUP SEMI-FINALS:LATE GOALS from Abby Wambach and Alex Morgan earned the United States a place in the women's World Cup final after they beat France 3-1 in yesterday's semi-final in Moenchengladbach.
They will face first-time finalists Japan, who came from behind to claim a 3-1 win over Sweden at the same venue
On a rainy afternoon, the Americans, who won the title in 1991 and 1999 and have never finished below third place, took an early lead when Lauren Cheney flicked in a Carli Lloyd cross in the ninth minute.
France levelled after the break with a Sonia Bompastor cross that bounced past US goalkeeper Hope Solo but two goals in three minutes from Wambach (79th) and Morgan (82nd) secured a third World Cup final appearance for the Americans.
“This is our journey, this is our dream,” Wambach said. “France are a great team. There were moments they were outplaying us but I am so proud of this team.”
Josefine Oqvist’s deflected strike gave Sweden the lead in the 10th minute of the second semi-final, but Nahomi Kawasumi levelled nine minutes later.
Japan captain Homare Sawa headed her side into the lead on the hour mark and Kawasumi completed the scoring with a fine lob four minutes later.
America and Japan meet in Frankfurt on Sunday, with Sweden and France contesting the third-place play-off in Sinsheim the day before.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)