Saturday, September 22, 2007

In a showdown of former New Jersey Wildcat players, it was the Americans who came out on top in the Quarterfinal confrontation between the United States and England. In the other Quarterfinal, it was the defending champion Germany moving on against North Korea.

QUARTERFINAL: US 3 :: 0 England

US internationals Heather O’Reilly, Lindsay Tarpley and Cat Whitehill were members of the 2005 W-League championship New Jersey Wildcats with England’s Rachel Yankey and Rachel Unitt. On Saturday, they were on opposite sides of the field as the United States blanked England, shutting down former W-League star Kelly Smith, a member of the Wildcats in 2004 with O’Reilly and Carli Lloyd.     FIFA.com Feature [+] 

             2005 Championship:  Recap [+]    Video [+] 

Former W-Leaguers did all the scoring for the US with Abby Wambach (Rochester) opening the ledger three minutes into the second half. Shannon Boxx (Boston) doubled the lead in the 57th and Kristine Lilly (Delaware) put the game away three minutes later.

The victory keeps the US mark of reaching the semifinal in every World Cup intact. The Americans have never finished worse than third in the four previous World Cups, winning the title 1991 and 1999 and finishing third in 1995 and 2003.

USSF Full Report [+]         FIFA Full Report [+] 


QUARTERFINAL: Germany 3 :: 0 North Korea

The North Koreans gave a valiant effort against the defending champions with the opening score coming just before the break in the 44th minute from Kerstin Garefrekes. Renate Lingor and Annike Krahn would add two more in the second in the 67th and 72nd minutes to put Germany through to the semifinals.

FIFA Full Report [+]