USA vs. Germany in Women's World Cup Semifinal Featuring Top Teams in the World

Alex Morgan
Alex Morgan

U.S. Women’s National Team vs. Germany
2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup – Semifinal
Olympic Stadium; Montreal, Canada
June 30, 2015 

WWC SEMIFINAL BRINGS TOGETHER TOP RANKED TEAMS IN THE WORLD: The U.S. Women’s National Team will contest a semifinal match for the seventh time in its history of Women’s World Cup play (the only country to achieve that feat) when it takes on Germany on Tuesday, June 30, 2015 at Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Canada, at the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. The match will be broadcast live on FOX and NBC Universo at 7 p.m. ET (6 p.m. CT). Fans can follow all the action on Twitter @ussoccer_wnt and @ussoccer_esp, and follow the team along its journey on Instagram and on Snapchat (ussoccer_wnt). The USA and Germany will play the first of two semifinal matches, as Japan meets England on July 1 in Edmonton, with the USA earning its way into the final four with a 1-0 victory against China PR on June 26 in Ottawa.

FANS CREATE HOME FIELD ATMOSPHERE ABROAD: The U.S. WNT played in front of three sold-out crowds during its Women’s World Cup Send-Off Series and the vast majority of the more than 31,000 at Winnipeg Stadium on June 8 and more than 32,000 on June 12 were also solidly decked out in red, white and blue. The match against Nigeria at BC Place in Vancouver proved to be no different as the crowd of 52,193 fans, mostly of whom were backing the stars and stripes, was the fourth largest to attend a WNT match outside the U.S. Once again, fan support was prominent during the Round of 16 match, and although the crowd was smaller in the mammoth Commonwealth Stadium, a large number of the 19,000 fans that showed up for USA vs. Colombia were decked out in U.S. gear yet again on a Monday night. The quarterfinal against China PR was sold out, and the attendance for the epic USA vs. Germany showdown promises to be another huge pro-USA display as the teams are set to meet in the stadium that has the largest capacity at this year’s tournament with more than 66,000 seats. The U.S. average in World Cup matches so far is 33,550.

U.S. ROSTER NOTES:

  • Since allowing a goal against Australia in its opening match on June 8 in the 27th minute, the U.S. has shut down opponents for 423 straight minutes.
  • The USA has allowed 13 shots on goal over the 450 minutes of action so far and allowed just one against Sweden and two against Nigeria, Colombia and China. Germany is averaging 12 shots on goal per game, after playing matches vs. Thailand, Ivory Coast and Norway in group play, and Sweden and France in the knockout rounds.
  • Five U.S. players have played all 450 minutes of the tournament so far: defenders Julie Johnston, Meghan Klingenberg and Becky Sauerbrunn, midfielder Carli Lloyd and goalkeeper Hope Solo.
  • The U.S. WNT has now advanced to the semifinals of every Women’s World Cup it has participated in (1991, 1995, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015). The USA is the only country to achieve this feat.
  • Carli Lloyd scored her second goal of this year’s Women’s World Cup against China. Lloyd now has four goals in 2015 and 65 for her career. She has scored a total of three World Cup goals, one in 2011 and two in 2015.
  • Alex Morgan scored her first goal in this year’s Women’s World Cup against Colombia. Morgan now has three goals in 2015 and 52 international goals in her career. She has scored a total of three World Cup goals after scoring twice in 2011.
  • Before her start against Nigeria in the final group match, Morgan had only played 25 minutes in the tournament, coming off the bench against Australia and Sweden for 12 and 13 minutes, respectively, before playing 65 minutes against Nigeria. After playing 90 minutes vs. Colombia and 80 against China, she has now played a total of 260 minutes.
  • Morgan Brian, Klingenberg, Johnston, Sydney Leroux and Christen Press all made their World Cup debuts against Australia on June 8. All played against Sweden on June 12 as well, with Brian getting her first start. Klingenberg, Johnston and Leroux all saw action against Nigeria on June 16, while Brian, Klingenberg, Johnston and Press saw action against Colombia on June 22. Against China, Brian made her second start of the tournament, Klingenberg and Johnston made their fifth start, while Press saw action in her fourth game of this World Cup.
  • Press and Leroux also recorded their first World Cup points on June 8, with Press scoring a goal and Leroux an assist. Johnston recorded her first World Cup point against China on June 26 when she assisted on Lloyd’s goal. It was Johnston’s first career assist with the WNT.
  • So far, 19 of the 20 field players on the World Cup roster have seen action in the tournament.
  • Amy Rodriguez made her first appearance of the tournament on June 12 against Sweden, and her first start of the tournament on June 26 against China. Defender Lori Chalupny made her first appearance of the 2015 World Cup when she came in for Ali Krieger in the second half against Colombia on June 22. It was the seventh World Cup appearance of her career.
  • Heather O’Reilly played the last 10 minutes of the game against China on June 26 after coming in as a sub for Alex Morgan. It was O’Reilly’s 12th World Cup appearance of her career.
  • Kelley O’Hara made her debut in this year’s tournament when she started against China PR. It was O’Hara’s first career start in a World Cup match. She had only played one game before, 18 minutes as a substitute in 2011 vs. Sweden.
  • Shannon Boxx and Christie Rampone made their first appearance of the tournament against Nigeria on June 16. Rampone became the oldest player to appear in a World Cup match at 39 years 11 months and 23 days. This is Boxx’s fourth World Cup and Rampone’s fifth.
  • In its last 15 games, the U.S. has surrendered just five goals and has scored 27. Its only defeat of the year came on the first match, a 2-0 loss to France on Feb. 8, 2015, in Lorient, France.
  • Forward Abby Wambach leads the U.S. with six goals in 2015.
  • Chalupny scored against New Zealand in her hometown of St. Louis on April 4, marking it her first goal for the USA since she scored against the Republic of Ireland on Sept. 20, 2008. She scored her second goal of the year against Mexico on May 17, just 45 seconds after coming into the match as a second half sub.
  • Klingenberg scored her second National Team goal on a long-range blast against New Zealand. Her first goal was a similar long-range effort that came against Haiti on Oct. 8, during Women’s World Cup qualifying tournament last year.
  • Johnston has three goals in 2015, all coming in consecutive games. Her three goals were all from set pieces and all assisted by Holiday.
  • Eleven different players have scored for the USA in 2015: Morgan, Wambach, Rodriguez, Press, Johnston, Klingenberg, Rapinoe, Brian, Chalupny, Leroux and Lloyd.
  • U.S. captain Rampone is currently the second most-capped player in U.S. and world history with 307 appearances.
  • Rampone earned her 300th cap against with Mexico on Oct. 24, 2014, and her 307 games are the most of any active player in the world behind only former teammate Kristine Lilly.
  • Defender Becky Sauerbrunn is the only player on the roster to start every game for the USA. She has played the most minutes (1329) of anyone on the team.
  • Holiday leads all U.S. players on the rosters in assists with five in 2015. Holiday was the 2014 U.S. Soccer Female Athlete of the Year.
  • Brian, the USA’s youngest player at age 22, was the 2014 U.S. Soccer Young Female Athlete of the Year. She was also named the 2013 and 2014 Hermann Trophy winner while playing for the University of Virginia.
  • While Wambach is the USA’s top scorer on the roster with 183 goals, Lloyd is next with 65 career international goals and Morgan has 52. Heather O’Reilly has scored 41.
  • Christen Press’ four-goal performance against Argentina in Brazil last December was the ninth such game in U.S. history and second of 2014 after Wambach scored four times against Costa Rica in the final of the CONCACAF Women’s Championship. It was the first-career hat trick for Press.
  • All nine NWSL clubs are represented on the Women’s World Cup roster.

IN THE RECORD BOOKS:

  • Carli Lloyd became the 10th woman in U.S. history to reach 200 caps during the quarterfinal match against China PR on June 26. She is the fourth player on this World Cup roster to reach that mark. Christie Rampone, Abby Wambach and Heather O’Reilly are the other three. She also became the third player in U.S. history to score in her 200th appearance. Wambach and O’Reilly are the other two.
  • Hope Solo recorded her 88th career shutout against China. It was the fourth straight World Cup clean sheet for the USA, and Solo’s ninth in World Cup play, the second most by a U.S. goalkeeper and most in World Cup play behind Brianna Scurry (10).
  • Solo also earned her 175th cap against China. She is now the leader for caps by a goalkeeper in U.S. history. Briana Scurry earned 173 caps in her career (1994-2008).
  • Solo has the most starts by a WNT goalkeeper with 169. Solo is also in 10th place on the WNT’s all-time starts list and behind ninth place Carli Lloyd, who has 172.
  • Solo reached134 goalkeeper wins when the USA defeated China 1-0 on June 26. With the win, Solo became the all-time leader in wins for a goalkeeper in U.S. history. Brian Scurry had 133 during her career (1994-2008).
  • With her first goal of the game against Australia on June 8, U.S. midfielder Megan Rapinoe became the 13th U.S. female player to score 30 goals and tally 30 assists. She currently has 31 goals and 33 assists. Her brace against Australia were her first tallies of 2015.
  • Rapinoe became the 31st American female player to reach the century mark in caps, achieving that feat against New Zealand on April 4. She currently has 106 caps. Lori Chalupny became the 32nd player against Ireland on May 10.
  • With three goals against Argentina on Dec. 18 of last year, Carli Lloyd upped her career total to 61 and moved into sole possession of seventh place on the U.S. WNT’s all-time goal scoring list, passing Shannon MacMillan who scored 60 goals in her career. Lloyd, now with 65 goals, is the highest-scoring player in U.S. history who has played exclusively as a midfielder.
  • Heather O’Reilly is the ninth player to hit 200 caps in U.S. history after reaching the milestone against Korea DPR on March 12, 2014. Now with 220, she is seventh on the USA’s all-time list. Abby Wambach (247) and Christie Rampone (307) are the only active players ahead of her.
  • O’Reilly is the second-youngest player to hit 200 caps for the USA. Lilly was 28 years, 9 months and 15 days old when she earned cap No. 200 on May 7, 2000. O’Reilly was 29 years, 2 months and 10 days old when she earned her 200th cap.
  • O’Reilly is currently sixth all-time in assists with 52 and is 13th all-time in goals with 41.
  • In addition to breaking Mia Hamm’s world scoring record, Wambach’s June 20, 2013, performance against the Korea Republic also made her the USA’s all-time leader in multiple-goal games with 39 for her career. She has since added six more and now sits at 45. She has 37 two-goal games, five hat tricks, two four-goal games and one five-goal game.
  • Sydney Leroux is tied with April Heinrichs in 14th place on the all-time U.S. WNT goal-scoring list with 35 goals.
  • With her game-winning goal against England on Feb. 13, Alex Morgan became the 10th player in U.S. history to score 50 or more goals. She now has 52.

2015 FIFA WOMEN’S WORLD CUP NOTES:

  • After scoring three times against Australia in its opening match of the 2015 FIFA WWC, the USA became the second country to reach and then surpass the century mark of World Cup goals scored. The USA currently has scored 105 WWC goals. Christen Press had the honor of scoring the 100th goal in U.S. Women’s World Cup history. Germany scored 10 goals in its opener on June 7 to hit 101 and become the first team to pass 100. The Germans currently have 111 goals after scoring 20 so far in this tournament.
  • The draw with Sweden was the first scoreless draw in U.S. history during group play in a World Cup. It was the second overall scoreless draw for the USA in a World Cup (0-0 against China in the 1999 WWC Final).
  • The USA is making its seventh appearance in a FIFA Women’s World Cup and is one of seven countries to appear in all seven editions of the tournament, the others being Brazil, Germany, Japan, Nigeria, Norway and Sweden. Only the USA, Germany and Japan remain in contention for this year’s tournament title.
  • The U.S. is the only country to have reached semifinals of every FIFA Women’s World Cup. The USA won in 1991 and 1999.
  • The U.S. WNT has now won its group in the World Cup every year except 2011, when it finished second to Sweden.
  • The 90,185 spectators on hand at the Rose Bowl for the USA’s victory against China PR in the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup represent the largest attendance in the tournament’s history. The largest venue at the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup is Olympic Stadium, which seats 66,308.
  • With her first-half goal against Nigeria, Abby Wambach moved into a tie with Germany’s Birgit Prinz for 2nd all-time with 14 World Cup goals. Brazil’s Marta is the leader with 15 goals, including one in this tournament. With Brazil out of this tournament, Wambach has a chance to tie Marta or break the record in Canada.
  • Wambach has scored in every World Cup group stage in which she has played (2003, 2007, 2011, 2015). She has scored seven goals, tallying three in final group stage matches.
  • Nine players on the current USA roster have scored in a Women’s World Cup tournament: Wambach, Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, Carli Lloyd, Lauren Holiday, Heather O’Reilly, Lori Chalupny, Shannon Boxx, and Christen Press.
  • The U.S. WNT is 32-4-5 all-time in the Women’s World Cup, outscoring its opponents 105-33 in 41 games. The 32 wins and 41 games played are FIFA Women’s World Cup records.
  • The USA’s most lopsided victory in the tournament was a 7-0 win against Chinese Taipei in 1991.
  • Michelle Akers’ five goals against Chinese Taipei are the most in a single match in tournament history.
  • The U.S. holds two other individual records with Kristine Lilly playing a record 30 games in five World Cups and goalkeeper Briana Scurry earning a record 10 shutouts. 

BY THE NUMBERS, WWC EDITION:

2                Number of players in U.S. history to be named to Women’s World Cup rosters for

                  non-consecutive tournaments: Brandi Chastain (1991, 1999) and Lori Chalupny (2007, 2015)

2                Number of players who have played in six Women’s World Cups. Formiga of Brazil (1995-2015) and Homare Sawa of Japan (1995-2015) have played in this World Cup, making it six Women’s World Cup tournaments for each of them.

3                Number of players to have played in five Women’s World Cups: Christie Rampone (1997-present), Kristine Lilly of the USA (1991-2007) and Birgit Prinz of Germany (1995-2011). Bente Nordby of Norway (1991-2007) was on five Women’s World Cup rosters but played in four tournaments.

6                Players on the roster who hail from California. Four are from New Jersey, two are from Georgia and two are from St. Louis, Mo.

7                Number of games it will take to win the 2015 Women’s World Cup, up from six in the previous six editions of the tournament.

8                U.S. players on their first Women’s World Cup roster: Ashlyn Harris, Alyssa Naeher, Whitney Engen, Julie Johnston, Meghan Klingenberg, Morgan Brian, Sydney Leroux and Christen Press.

9                Number of clean sheets U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo has recorded in World Cups.

9                Number of players on the U.S. roster who have scored in a WWC tournament.

9                Former FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup champions on the 2015 WWC roster: Harris, Heather O’Reilly and Lori Chalupny (2002); Leroux, Alex Morgan, Klingenberg and Naeher (2008); Johnston and Brian (2012).

11              Number of players, out of 13, who played in the 2012 Olympic gold medal game who made this WWC roster.

14              Goals by Abby Wambach in Women’s World Cup play, a U.S. record.

15              Players on the roster that have played for the USA in a FIFA Women’s World Cup at the youth level.

17              Caps for Johnston, the least of any of the field player on the WWC team. (She had nine when she was named to the WWC roster).

22              Age of Brian, the youngest player on the WWC roster. Johnston is 23.

23              Women’s World Cup matches played by Wambach, the most on the 2015 WWC roster. Rampone has played in 18 Women’s World Cup games while Boxx has 16. Other players in double figures in Women’s World Cup matches are Carli Lloyd (16), Hope Solo (15) and O’Reilly (12).

23              Number of players on Women’s World Cup rosters, up from 21 for the 2011 tournament.

24              Number of nations that are participating, for the first time, in the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, up from 16 that participated in the previous four editions. The 1991 and 1995 Women’s World Cups featured 12 teams.

28              Average age of the USA’s WWC roster

33              Goals allowed by the U.S. Women in WWC play.

34              Total Women’s World Cup goals scored by the USA’s WWC roster.

40              Age of Rampone, the oldest player on the WWC roster. Boxx is 38.

41              Number of matches played by the USA in the WWC (32-4-5), most by any team.

105            Goals scored by the U.S. Women in WWC play.

105            Average caps per player on the WWC roster.

192            Number of Women’s World Cup matches combined played by the WWC roster.

BATTLE OF THE TWO STARS: The USA (1991 and 1999) and Germany (2003 and 2007) have each won the FIFA Women’s World Cup twice and are currently ranked as the top two teams in the world. Germany is coming off a thrilling 5-4 penalty kick shootout victory against France, while the USA defeated China PR 1-0 to advance to the semifinals. Germany has outscored opponents 20-3 in this year’s World Cup, while the USA has shutout its opponents for 423 straight minutes. The USA and Germany have met on three previous occasions in World Cup play (1991 semifinal, 1999 quarterfinal and 2003 semifinal), with the winner of each game going on to win the tournament title that year.