There has not been an edition of the Women's World Cup – since the first in 1991 – in which the United States has not been on the podium. After two golds, three bronzes and a silver – in 2011 they were close to winning the title but lost on penalties to Japan in particular – the best team in history finally regained its throne in Canada.
In a new edition, Indeed, with 24 teams in the group stage, the best two from each team and the best three overall qualifiedJill Ellis went from less to more. On the way, they were eliminated by Colombia (2-0) in the round of 16; Against China (0-1) in the quarter-finals; Against Germany (2-0) in the semi-finals; It defeated the champion of the last edition, Japan, in the final (5-2).
The title was decided in the first minutes, because By the 15th minute, the North American team had already won 4-0With a trio from Carli Lloyd.
Japan's coach Sasaki made some changes in an attempt to stop the “bleeding” and was able to reduce the difference by two goals. One by Nagasato and the other by Ertz. Heath put the icing on the cake immediately after the Japanese team's second goal and the scoreboard never moved again. The United States finally regained its throne after 16 years.
Controversy
Despite advances in format and use of technology in matches – an automatic goal detection system was used for the first time -, Some matches were played on artificial turf fieldsThis sparked a lot of controversy because of the seriousness of the injury that was present.
If anyone was particularly hurt by losing the 2011 final in Germany in such a difficult way, it was him Carli Lloyd. The New Jersey midfielder, who scored the goals that gave the United States gold medals at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, was He missed the penalty in the penalty shootout that decided the World Cup in Germany for Japan. In the 2015 final, with the same teams as in the previous match, he scored a hat-trick in fifteen minutes and won the tournament's Golden Ball.
