US women top Canada in thrilling soccer semi

Associated Press

MANCHESTER, England

On the verge of missing the gold-medal game for the first time, the U.S. women’s soccer team caught a break when the referee made a call rarely seen in the sport.

Then the Americans put together a final winning surge, inspired by the familiar — a pep talk from co-captain Abby Wambach.

“I know I’ve said this before,” she said she told her teammates during extra time. “But it really does just take one moment and one chance, one moment of brilliance for somebody to do something individually spectacular.”

The moment came beyond the 90 minutes of regular time, beyond the scheduled 30 minutes of extra time. In the third and final minute of injury time, with goalkeeper Hope Solo already preparing for a penalty kick shootout, Alex Morgan looped in a 6-yard header on a long cross from Heather O’Reilly, giving the U.S. a 4-3 win over Canada in the Olympic semifinals at Old Trafford.

“I don’t have much to say because I need to wrap my head around what just happened,” Solo said. “And that’s the truth of the matter. We tend to keep things interesting.”

Next comes the game the U.S. players have been eyeing for more than a year, a rematch with Japan on Thursday at Wembley Stadium with gold on the line. The top-ranked Americans lost to Japan on penalty kicks in the World Cup final last summer, a stunning blow that became a source of motivation as the players prepared for the London Olympics.

“This is redemption for us,” midfielder Carli Lloyd said. “We know how hard it was for us after that game.”