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2019 Women's World Cup Final - Stade de Lyon - Lyon
	vs
USA - United States (The Stars & Stripes) U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) [Concacaf]		NED - Netherlands (Orajeleeuwinnen) Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbalbond (KVNB) [UEFA]
#1 | F1 | F Winner | 6-0-0 5th Final ('91, '99, '11, '15) F1: Beat Thailand 13-0 F3: Beat Chile 3-0 F5: Beat Sweden 2-0 R16: Beat Spain 2-1 QF: Beat France 2-1 SF: Beat England 2-1		#8 | E4 | E Winner | 6-0-0 1st Final E2: Beat New Zealand 1-0 E4: Beat Cameroon 3-1 E6: Beat Canada 2-1 R16: Beat Japan 2-1 QF: Beat Italy 2-0 SF: Beat Sweden 1-0 (aet)

THE USA VYING FOR FOURTH TITLE, NEWBIE ORANGE LIONESSES IN THE WAY
Final is 8 am Sunday PDT; Sweden takes 3rd Place

PALO ALTO, CA (smt) -- Both finalists are a perfect 6-0-0 but there is one clear favorite, and that is the 1F-United States.  On paper, both teams have won their groups, both have only allowed 3 goals, and both have at least 8 different scorers (USA with 9).  But the USA is anywhere from a 2:1 to 5:1 favorite in the final led by a pair of 5+ goal scorers, Alex Morgan (6) and Megan Rapinoe (both have even missed a match) and on a roll where they have just lost once in their past 44 matches.  NED are the defending EURO champions and have won 12 straight major tourney matches but were outplayed by JPN in the R16 and disappeared in big patches vSWE in the SF and are only making their first Final in just their second try.

NED has been held scoreless in the first half four times whereas the USA has scored in the first 13 minutes all six matches.   If you ignore USA's first layup match, USA has scored just once in the 75' or later (75' vESP on a PK) while NED has scored six times, including two in stoppage time, once in the 90', and once in Extra Time.  Four were game-winners.  USA has never lost when scoring first (36-0-4 albeit lost in PSO to JPN in '11 Final) so NED's defense is going to have to be strong especially in the first half.  After scoring the first goal, USA has allowed a team to tie within 9 minutes twice.  After scoring the first goal, NED has allowed a team to tie 3 times, two within six minutes (JPN scored 26 min later).

If NED can pull off the huge upset of USA, they will hold both the UEFA EURO title and Women's World Cup title.  Europe is no stranger to this as Norway won the double in '93 UERO/'95 WWC and Germany twice '01 EURO/'03 WWC and '05 EURO/'07 WWC.  Germany actually had a string of five consecutive major titles:  '01 EURO/'03 WWC/'05 EURO/'07 WWC/'09 EURO.    USA can also get their 3rd double after winning the '18 Concacaf Women's Championship (previously, WWC Qualificaiton and Gold Cup):  '91 CWC/'91 WWC and '14 CWC/'15 WWC.   A win would give them their fourth straight title ('14 CWC/'15 WWC/'18 CWC/'19 WWC).  Japan did not win the double in '11 but did win the AFC Women's Asian Cup in '14. 

To add to this, if the USA wins the WWC, the men's USA team has a chance to win the Concacaf Gold Cup later that evening (6 pm PDT), potentially having USA win two major tournaments on the same day.  It won't be easy as USMNT faces archnemesis Mexico.   Oh, and because FIFA doesn't care about women's soccer, they added a third major tournament final to the mix, with the men's CONMEBOL Copa America final featuring Brazil and Peru at 1 pm PDT.  The men's CAF Africa Cup of Nations, now in the Round of 16 matches, at least doesn't have their Final until July 19.  Concacaf claiming the final being scheduled on July 7 was a "clerical error" is hysterical.  Concacaf probably didn't even know there was a WWC going on. 

2F-Sweden came out on fire and scored two goals in the first 22 minutes but 1D-England came back scoring twice in two minutes to tie it.  Or not.  VAR ruled ENG's Ellen White had a handball as the ball bounced up high and negated her 7th goal.  In back-to-back matches, White has had a goal disallowed due to VAR (again, both technically correct but ruins the spirit of the game) and White will fall short of the Golden Boot (Morgan with 6 goals has more assists, the tiebreaker).  Her 6 goals is more impressive considering she didn't take any of ENG's four PKs which could've added to her total and had scored in 5 straight matches (not playing teams like THA).  That VAR review seemed to slow things down and the match ended 2-1 thanks to SWE's Nilla Fischer's goal mouth save heading off a point blank shot in the 89'.  SWE wins their 3rd Bronze medal (tied with USA) and ENG doesn't match their 3rd place finish in '15 prompting the ENG coach Phil Neville to call it a "nonsense game".  Of course, after you lost.

I told you FIFA listens if there's a profit to be made.  Though just words, FIFA president Gianni Infantino wants to increase to WWC to 32 teams (ugh, more 13-0 blowouts), a FIFA Club World Cup (ugh, more Lyon trophies), doubling prize money (uh, what about quadruple?), and double the investment to $1B (considering all the corruption, not growing this pot too fast is probably prudent to make sure it is actually spent efficiently and where it can actually help).  The one intriguing thing (besides FIFA apparently has $2.7B in reserves!) is the Women's World League.  When you have teams in the WWC who can't find teams to play (ARG played a bunch of U.S. college teams in April, JAM only played 5 matches in 2019, CMR only 3 matches vs Nations (7 vs small club teams)), this could be a way to get struggling nations regular competitive matches and if it works like UEFA's Nations League, competitive matches within your skill level ("leagues").  This is also a good way to keep the momentum going leading up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and fills the gap between 2020 and 2023.   Speaking about money talks...

Officially, though it's been posted on the standings each day, is the prize breakdown of the $440 pot:

1st Place  : $220
2nd Place  : $110
3rd Place  : $ 70
4th Place  : $ 40

And here are the final scenarios for money:

The total goals tiebreaker will come into play if NED wins to determine who finishes 3rd and who finishes 4th.  With the ENGvSWE match producing 3 goals in normal time, Tom J would need 4 goals scored in the USAvNED match to win the tiebreaker (plus a NED win).  With 3 goals in the first 31', it looked like a goalfest but the last 69 minutes produced no more goals. 

USA x 2!  USA x 2!...
Scott