sheesh - I know it's Japan who nobody feels can score despite offensive possession but can't we give credit to them for a great goal? Great opposite field pass and a great quick shot with almost no angle to work with. (And maybe this is quibbling but Angerer was scrambling to cover nearpost and the shot went far post. Didn't it or am I dreaming?)
Apparently FIFA doesn't make it a priority in the WWC to have refs from outside the confederations of the two teams playing. At least not in later games. There's been discussion of this in the Referee forum. Unlike the men's World Cups where it does seem a priority. But some recent posts in the Ref forum show that it doesn't hold true for the women. By the way, Kari Seitz will be refereeing the 3rd place game. I haven't seen an announcement on who's refereeing the championship game. In the ref's forum, it seems they're leaning towards Dagmar Damkova or Bibiana Steinhaus.
I found this article interesting about the substitutions in the match: http://www.fifa.com/womensworldcup/news/newsid=1475072/index.html Quote to note: "As coach Sundhage herself said, her Plan B couldn’t have worked out better: “I made some mistakes today but my assistants are amazing and they told me how to move the midfield around. They deserve all the credit.”" I am curious about what she considers to be the mistakes she made. Which assistant(s) is she referring to?