By Scott French, Senior Editor in Portland, Ore.
The United States and Germany, clearly the two best teams in the fourth Women's World Cup, meet up Sunday at PGE Park in Portland in a semifinal that has the markings of a championship match.
The Americans, who physically dominated top-level foes to reach the final four, can expect to be challenged by a German team that is setting standards for technical and combination play with the best attacking side in the tournament.
Critical for the United States will be preventing Germany from building attacks in midfield. The Germans have played a 4-5-1 formation with Maren Meinert and deeper-lying Bettina Wiegmann the key creative players.
Big, skillful forward Birgit Prinz, like Meinert and Wiegmann a veteran of WUSA wars, is the tournament's top scorer with six goals; Coach Tina Theune-Meyer also positions her on the left flank with another player — Martina Mueller in the semifinal win over Russia — occupying the spot up front.
The Germans have a solid backline led by Ariane Hingst, can play through the middle or up the flanks, and are unparalleled in midfield, especially with Meinert, Wiegmann and long-shot specialist Renate Lingor.
Joy Fawcett and the U.S. backline, superb through the first four games, will have little room for error. How well midfielders Shannon Boxx and Julie Foudy can prevent Germany from combining in midfield may be the determining factor.
Germany has not faced a striker as physically dominant as Abby Wambach, who has emerged as one of six strong candidates for the Golden Ball (MVP) award — along with Prinz, Meinert, Fawcett, Mia Hamm and Swedish forward Victoria Svensson.
It will rest primarily with Hingst and fellow central defender Sandra Minnert — Wambach's and Hamm's teammate with WUSA champion Washington — to neutralize the big striker, whose combination of strength, skill and speed enables Hamm to weave her magic.
Steffi Jones, another Freedom standout, has the physical tools to deal with Wambach, but she was lost for the tournament after suffering a torn right anterior cruciate ligament in the Group C finale against Argentina and has returned home to Frankfurt.
The Americans have scored 10 of their 12 goals on set pieces, most off service from Hamm's right foot, as Wambach, Boxx and Cindy Parlow are dominant in the air. A physical match determined on aerial battles favors the United States; a flowing match gives the edge to Germany, which has netted the majority of its 20 goals on ground-based combination play.
USA vs. GERMANY (Oct. 5 at PGE Park, Portland, Ore.)
Women's World Cup semifinal Kickoff: 4:30 p.m. PT. TV: ESPN2, TeleFutura (live).
Projected Starting Lineups: USA — Scurry, Pearce, Fawcett, Reddick, Sobrero, Foudy, Boxx, Lilly, Parlow, Wambach, Hamm. Germany — Rottenberg, Stegemann, Hingst, Stegemann, Minnert, Gottschlich, Wiegmann, Lingor, Garefrekes, Meinert, Prinz, Mueller.
USA 1 SCURRY Briana, 2 BIVENS Kylie, 3 PEARCE Christie, 4 REDDICK Cat, 5 ROBERTS Tiffany, 6 CHASTAIN Brandi, 7 BOXX Shannon, 8 MACMILLAN Shannon, 9 HAMM Mia, 10 WAGNER Aly, 11 FOUDY Julie, 12 PARLOW Cindy, 13 LILLY Kristine, 14 FAWCETT Joy, 15 SOBRERO Kate, 16 MILBRETT Tiffeny, 17 SLATON Danielle, 18 MULLINIX Siri, 19 HUCLES Angela, 20 WAMBACH Abby.
GERMANY 1 ROTTENBERG Silke, 2 STEGEMANN Kerstin, 3 BRESONIK Linda (injured), 4 KUENZER Nia, 5 JONES Steffi (injured), 6 LINGOR Renate, 7 WUNDERLICH Pia, 8 SMISEK Sandra, 9 PRINZ Birgit, 10 WIEGMANN Bettina, 11 MUELLER Martina, 12 FUSS Sonja, 13 MINNERT Sandra, 14 MEINERT Maren, 15 ANGERER Nadine, 16 ODEBRECHT Viola, 17 HINGST Ariane, 18 GAREFREKES Kerstin, 19 GOTTSCHLICH Stefanie, 20 POHLERS Conny.
Sunday's other semifinal Canada vs. Sweden at PGE Park (Portland, Ore.), 7:30 p.m. PT (ESPN2, TeleFutura, live)