World Cup Final Score to Haunt USA Women for Years

The World Cup final score will go down as a 2-2 tie, with Japan defeating the USA women in penalty kicks 3-1. But every U.S. women's soccer fans knows the World Cup didn't have to end that way. The final score should have been 3-0 or 4-0, or at least 1-0 or 2-1, in favor of the U.S. However, it didn't turn out that way because of missed opportunities, mistakes, and some ironic twists of fate against the Americans.

The U.S. got to the championship in spite of being outplayed in its last two games, yet late rallies were enough anyway. But this time around, Japan was outplayed for much of the entire finale, yet two late rallies were enough for the Japanese to win it all.

The Americans could have wrapped it up in the first half, but let a couple of sure-fire opportunities slip away. But when Alex Morgan finally broke through in the 69th minute, it looked like it wouldn't matter. Yet a defensive breakdown allowed Japan to even the score in the 81st minute in spite of everything.

Even then, it was probably fitting, since this World Cup couldn't end with anything but extra time and some last-second heroics. Of course, Abby Wambach was at the center, with a header in the 104th minute that seemed destined to be the exclamation point. Instead, Japan surged one last time, capping it off with a 117th minute corner kick by leading scorer Homare Sawa.

All of a sudden, destiny turned against the USA even though the stage looked set for another historic shootout win like in the 1999 finale and in the 2011 quarterfinals. But although the Americans never missed a penalty kick in those two victories, they missed the first three in this shootout and never recovered.

Everything that worked for America in the past worked against Team USA in this case, as it was not the comeback team of the moment or the one that defied the odds. That belonged to Japan, as it had impossible rallies against a heavy favorite, just as the USA pulled off a week earlier over Brazil. France might have appreciated the irony as well after it lost in the semifinals to the U.S., despite outplaying them for much of that game until the end.

It was the USA women's turn to win a World Cup game in every avenue but the final score -- in the one game that mattered more than anything. This kind of loss will haunt the team more than a loss in the quarterfinals or semifinals would have, as those headline-making rallies only served to make its own collapse even worse.

How long will the World Cup near-miss hang over the United States? The answer seems to be four years, at the least, as the next chance for redemption won' t come until the 2015 Cup in Canada.

Sources

Yahoo Sports- "Missed chances haunt U.S. in final loss"