Australia, Sweden eliminated. We have our World Cup Final

I have to say that I was a bit unhappy about the semi-finals and would have liked things to have gone the other way. I don't know what happened to Sweden in particular because I don't think anyone out there saw them losing this game after the past two performances that they put on. Defeating USA and then Japan only to lose to a team that Japan already defeated 4-0 surprised everyone and I think the final will actually be a lot less exciting because of Sweden's elimination.

It's tough to say what went wrong there but it did go wrong and in the knockout stages things can be very unforgiving. While England was expected to go to the final and they did fulfill that destiny, Spain wasn't on very man people's shortlists for who would make it to the last game.

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Both games were heartbreakers for the teams that lost as they tend to be. But the Sweden loss was one that was sealed fast and furiously after more than 80 minutes of zero goals. When Spain put one in the back of the net at 81 minutes in, Sweden didn't take long to respond with their own a mere 7 minutes later. The Swedes were celebrating their blonde heads off and well, let's just say that enthusiasm didn't last long as Spain took less than a minute to get another goal. It was lightning quick and not at all typical of a football match. I would say that there is a chance it was the most exciting 10 minutes of the World Cup up to this moment for me.

Spain is a patient team and their possession percentage was way up there yet again as it has been in every game they have played including their 4-0 loss to Japan. This could be a factor against England in the final and it will be interesting to see if Spain is able to pull this strategy off against a team that is capable of hanging onto the ball for such long stretches of time. For me personally, this normally makes for a boring match to watch, but it does seem to be effective so if it aint broke don't fix it!

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England emerging victorious over Australia was less of a surprise for most folks but it was especially sorrowful for the home crowd which obviously was mostly supporting Australia. The Aussies didn't necessarily do anything wrong, they were just unlucky. In my opinion the best goal of the match was scored by Kerr, who is a bit of an Australian hero.

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It was an absolutely perfect strike from some distance and was out of reach of the goalkeeper. It happened so quickly that if you blinked you would miss it. That goal lit a bit of a fire inside the English players though because from that point forward the Lionesses basically controlled every aspect of the game from that point, scoring 2 more goals, the last of which was basically the nail in the coffin since there was too little time remaining for Australia to equalize.

The stats were rather dead even in this game, with Australia in particular excelling at dispossessing England in the midfield and carrying out rapid counter attacks that were exciting to see. Australia had a couple of novel chances on goal but just got a bit unlucky with the final touches on corners and crosses. Has those played out just a little differently we might have had a very different game than we did.

Striker Lauren James who has scored 3 goals for England in this World Cup did not play in the match and I was under the impression that she would be able to. I could be wrong about this. She was sent off with a red card for a very stupid foul against Nigeria and I am uncertain if this is a 1 or 2 match ban that was a result. Regardless, she is eligible to play in the final and it will be interesting to see if England decides to field her and go with 3 strikers as they have done in the past.

The final is only in a few days and I think that most odds-makers are betting on England. I don't know how to call this because Spain has been really strange in the way that they play so you never know what could happen. I am just hopeful that it ends up being an exciting final.

This Women's World Cup has been far more enjoyable for me than I expected it to be and I am really glad that I decided to adjust my schedule to accommodate the rather silly start times that we are facing here in USA. If you haven't been watching you only have two games left to watch and one of them is the one that really matters.