Alyssa Naeher saved three penalty attempts and converted one herself as the United States beat Canada in a shootout for a hard-fought victory at rain-soaked Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego on Wednesday night to set up a showdown with Brazil in the Concacaf W Gold. Final Cup.
Heavy rain before kickoff left the field covered in standing water, making the movement of the ball, if it rolled at all, extremely unpredictable in the semifinal matchup between the two North American soccer rivals, who traded goals on time regulatory and then extra. time when the match ended 2-2 before the penalty shootout.
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“I'm very proud of the team tonight in such tough conditions against a really tough opponent,” Naeher said after the match. “We'll enjoy this win tonight, rest, recover and prepare for Brazil and try to be ready to go out there, execute and build on this performance.”
The game began despite the conditions, and Jaedyn Shaw took advantage of a back pass from the Canada defense that missed goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan due to the flooded surface to open the scoring for the United States in the 20th minute.
With that goal, Shaw became the first American player to score in each of her first four starts and also raised her total number of goals scored in the W Gold Cup to four.
The squeegees were taken out at the break when the rain let up. A Concacaf spokesperson told ESPN: “It is solely at the discretion of the referee whether the field is safe and playable.”
Although the conditions on the field improved slightly compared to the first half, neither team was able to mount any kind of organized attack on goal after the break until Canada's Ashley Lawrence collected a ball on the right flank and floated in a perfect cross. that Jordyn Huitema headed past Naeher and sent the game to overtime.
In the first period of overtime, Rose Lavelle headed a header into Canada's penalty area, and Sophia Smith was there to pounce, calmly launching a first shot past Sheridan for what appeared to be the winning goal.
But Naeher collided with Vanessa Gilles toward the end of overtime and, after looking at the courtside monitor, the referee awarded Canada a penalty, which Adriana León converted to send the game to a shootout.
Smith, Lindsey Horan and Naeher converted their spot kicks, and when Naeher saved the third, it sealed a 3-1 shootout victory for the Americans.
The victory improved the USWNT's record in qualifying matches against Canada to 12-1-1, with the Americans' only loss coming in the semifinals of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The United States now plays Brazil, which beat Mexico 3-0 on Wednesday, in the final on Sunday at Snapdragon Stadium.
With Brazil's victory, the United States was denied a revenge match against Mexico, which pulled off the biggest upset of the group stage by defeating the Americans 2-0. It was just the second time the United States had lost to its southern neighbors in 43 meetings.
Interim coach Twila Kilgore's team bounced back from that loss with a 3-0 victory over Colombia in the quarterfinals. Canada, which scored 13 goals in its group without conceding, beat Costa Rica 1-0 in overtime in its quarterfinal match.
It was Canada's first major tournament without captain Christine Sinclair, who retired from the national team last year as men's and women's soccer's all-time leading scorer with 190 career goals.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this article.
