Women's Football / / 27 September 2007 / Leave a comment

Perfecseun previews the second semi-final at the Women's World Cup

USA vs Brazil

The first semifinal was turned in a mini procession by the Germans after the Norwegians helped them to get started with an own goal. The 3-0 victory for Germany does not tell the story as Norway did most of the work for them, with 2 deflected goals and a bad defensiveblunder. But, the second semifinal should be a lot trickier even though Brazil has only ever beaten the United States in senior competitions once in 27 matches. That kind of statistics is not inspiring to anyone looking to be opposing the USA.

Brazil will hope to put the misfortunes of past encounters with the USA behind them to push for their first ever World Cup finals at the women´s level. They reached the semifinals only once before in USA 1999 when the elegant Sissi helped them to a 3rd place finish. Now they have the best female football player of the world in Marta and she will hope her skills and goal-scoring knack will lift them one step away from the holy grail of women´s football.

Flair and flowing passes have defined the Auriverde´s game so far. They are the only team to finish the group stage with 9 points and conceded no goals, a feat they share with Germany. Brazil have looked a class better than most of the challengers to the Big 2 - USA and Germany. It is befitting that they beat the best in the world if they are to get to the final and America, ranked number 1 is their next challenge.

Australia pushed Brazil all the way in the quarterfinals and it is the skill and depth in talent that saw Brazil survive that scare to score 2 goals in 15 mins, one in the injury time of match to secure a 3-2 victory. It is suffice to say that scoring is not the problem for Brazil and they can find goals from anywhere on the pitch or even the bench, with 6 different goalscorers of which 2 are vying for the top goal scorers award - Marta and Cristiane, with 5 and 4 goals respectively.

The USA are amazingly still in this tournament even though they have shown the world their weaknesses time and time again. England should have given them a better test, but a 15 mins period of confusion saw the europeans give up 3 goals which virtually handed America an easy passage to the semifinals. This is the 5th appearance in the last 4 for the North American champions, and they have lifted the cup 2twice already. Even with all the accolades and dominance of the game, there is still room for exploitation by any team hungry enough for the glory. If Brazil can master Abby Wambach, the USA´s top scorer with 4 goals and the only player to have scored more than 1 goal for the Americans in this tournament, then the job is half way done. The Stars and Stripes rely heavily on Wambach it seems as only 4 other players have contributed to the scoring with 1 goal apiece.

This match will be about scoring and as the Brazillians play an open game from end to end which can leave them wide open to be taken advantage of but then their finishing has been one of the best in the tournament. It is no longer a developing Auriverde team that is taking the field against the Americans, it is a team ready to shakeup the ranks of the dominating powers in the last couple of decades in women´s football.

Suggested Bet: Lay the USA to win the match @ 2.4 and back over 2.5 goals @ 1.96

Tags: Perfecseun, USA football, Women's World Cup