Women's World Cup Update: Germany Defeats Norway, Advances to final

Women's World Cup Defending Champions Germany plowed through its semifinal match against Norway 3-0 to advance to the title match. However, according to FIFA's website, the match was not that easy for the Germans "with the Scandinavians running their rivals close for much of the game until quick-fire goals from Kerstin Stegemann and Martina Mueller in the last 20 minutes put the game beyond their reach."

Both teams played very well for the first 40 minutes, but Norway's luck ran out after the match's first goal was scored for Germany through an own goal by Norway's Trine Ronning at the 42nd minute. However, with a whole half of soccer to play, Norway was still in reach to win it, but about 30 minutes into the second half, Norway's luck started to spiral downward as Germany scored two goals at the 72nd and 75th minutes keeping any chance of a win out of reach. Even though she did not score any goals during the match, Germany's Birgit Prinz was named player of the match due to her outstanding assists in both of the last two goals.

While Germany goes on to play in the title match, Norway will play the loser of the second semifinal between the United States and Brazil for a chance at third place (see bracket here).

The Brazil-USA match will be played tomorrow at China's Hangzhou Stadium. A match between these two teams has been highly anticipated since the start of the tournament being that they are two of the best women's national teams in the world aside from Germany. Even though the United States holds two World Cup titles, Brazil, who has not yet won any World Cup titles, currently has a scret weapon within Marta, the tournament's current leading scorer, playing for its team. This player was feared by many teams before the World Cup began. Click here for match preview.