Having gained five of the seven versions between them, USA and Germany are firmly established because the maximum a hit countries in FIFA Women’s World Cup records. But returned in 2003, there was no doubt which of this heavyweight duo held top billing. The Americans had been, in the end, -time winners, holders and hosts, having stepped in to degree the match once more following the SARS outbreak in China. They had an all-star team proposing the likes of Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly, Brandi Chastain and an excellent teen through the name of Abby Wambach. Germany, on the other hand, had fallen quick in every in their previous 3 World Cup campaigns. There changed into, but, to be a dazzling power shift, and it happened in Portland on 5 October 2003.
While few in the crowd had anticipated it to be easy for the US – it had taken the bizarre intention in five to see off the Germans four years in advance – no-one anticipated the comprehensive three-zero defeat that followed. Defender Kate Markgraf, reflecting years later, made the apparent-speaking admission that the Stars & Stripes “got our asses kicked”. “The entire recreation we got manhandled,” she said. “They were destroying us, gambling proper around us.” So advanced were the European champions that US superstar Julie Foudy, writing for ESPN, remembered “feeling like the Germans had a 12th player”. This become a recollection shared by using Hamm, the Americans’ star player, who said it was the best time in her career that she experienced this kind of sensation. “At one factor, I even started out counting their players,” the USA talisman recalled. “They have been sending such a lot of players via. I spent a lot time gambling defence.” Germany went directly to win the trophy by beating Sweden within the Final, and 4 years later they could grow to be the primary and, up to now, handiest team to maintain the Women’s World Cup. For the US, and the rest of girls’s football, the gauntlet have been laid down. Did you already know? This semi-final turned into a tactical triumph for Tina Theune-Meyer, and the Germany teach’s charming preparatory notes characteristic within the FIFA World Football Museum’s USA 2003 show off.
