The United States women’s soccer team got their revenge over Japan yesterday at the FIFA Women’s World Cup in a 5-2 victory to claim the Women’s World Cup championship. It’s the USWNT’s third title and their first since 1999. The win came in a rematch of the 2011 final, which Japan won in a penalty shootout.

The Americans hit the ground running by jumping to a lead in the early minutes. Carli Lloyd stole the show in Vancouver from the get go by scoring her first goal in the 3rd minute. She then added her second in the 5th minute and had already completed the hat trick in the 16th minute. Lauren Holiday added one goal in between Lloyd’s 2nd and 3rd tallies, giving the USA a commanding 4-0 lead before the game was even 17 minutes old.

Japan, who was blindsided by the American assault at the beginning of the match, ended Hope Solo’s four game shutout streak with a 27th minute goal by Yuki Ogimi. Although a Julie Johnson own goal in the 52nd minute made things a little more interesting at 4-2, Tobin Heath put the game back out of reach to put the Americans ahead 5-2 in the 54th minute.

With the game in hand, United States manager Jill Ellis gave stars Abby Wambach and Christie Rampone a fitting sendoff in what is most likely to be their final FIFA Women’s World Cup match. The final whistle blew at BC Place and the celebration began for the Americans, as the ghosts of the 1999 team disappeared and the team made history for themselves to win the world championship.

Mired under the scandal that has rocked the organization, FIFA president Sepp Blatter did not make the trip to Canada to present the Women’s World Cup trophy. Nonetheless, Wambach and the rest of the American team lifted it up in jubilation in front of a crowd that was filled with US supporters who made the short journey north of the border.

The 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup may have had the same two participants in the final, but the progression of the tournament marked new faces in women’s soccer. With countries like England and Columbia having success in the tournament, the women’s game looks to grow even more and gives the hope for more opportunities for women in sport in their nations. And with the Americans starting off slow but improving as the tournament went on, the leaders of growing the sport were able to add their third title in a way that inspired a nation. All in all, it was a tournament that through all the controversy at FIFA and with the field turf ended up becoming a huge success for both women’s sport and soccer alike.

In a game many expected to head into overtime, a costly mistake by England’s Laura Bassett resulted in a 2-1 Japan win.

Japan Defeats England

In a fairly even matchup, the defending World Cup champs were taking on England, the clear underdogs appearing in their first semifinal in World Cup play.

Now, Japan did control the possession time, but England outshot them throughout the match — 15(2)-7(2). On top of this, there was not that much offense in the first half — or throughout the game — with the first two goals coming on penalty kicks. A yellow card to Claire Rafferty resulted in Aya Miyama’s score and a penalty in Japan’s box led to Fara Williams kicking the equalizer before halftime.

And the offense did not get better in the second half, but England continued to put on the pressure. Despite only four shots, they had an opportunity where Jill Scott pushed a header just wide.

However, the real heartbreaker happened in stoppage time. Japan, who was attempting one last onslaught before the end of regulation, decided to kick a ball into England’s box. The ball came reasonably close to defender Laura Bassett, who tried to kick it over the crossbar. Instead, it went over goalkeeper Karen Bardsley’s head, hit the crossbar and deflected in.

Bassett was visibly shaken up after the match,  with her teammates consoling her. However, coach Mark Sampson had nothing but praise for the defender and the team in general.

“The way Laura Bassett played today and in this tournament, she has epitomized all the values English football fans want to see in that white jersey when you’ve got three lions on your chest — pride, passion, never say die, and play for the team,” Sampson stated after the game. “Okay, she’s hurting now. Tomorrow morning, she’ll wake up. She’ll have 22 teammates give her a hug, tell her how proud we are of her and we’ll all do the same for the whole group.”

In their best match of the tournament, the USWNT showed that they are the real deal, defeating Germany, the hottest team in the World Cup, 2-0.

USWNT Defeats Germany

There have been plenty of question marks with the U.S. Women’s National Team. In pool play, they did not look sharp. Offensively, they have too many great players to be held to zero points by Sweden. And defensively, they looked good, but have had key mental lapses, which was evident in their first match against Australia. However, everything changed last night, when the USWNT showed that they are the real deal, defeating the favorite, Germany, in spectacular fashion.

Ultimately, they proved that their defense was not just a fluke, as USWNT shut down the best offense in the tournament to record their fifth consecutive shutout: Germany has scored 20 goals throughout the World Cup. The defense and Hope Solo, who got her 89th career shutout in international play last night, have kept opponents to zero points for 513 consecutive minutes, which is a team record in the World Cup.

But the offense also played an incredible game, with two early chances by Alex Morgan and Julie Johnston that Germany goalie Nadine Angerer beautifully saved. However, the real momentum shifter happened in the 59th minute, when Johnston received a yellow card for yanking Alexandra Popp down in the box. This resulted in a penalty kick by Celia Sasic, which she pushed wide despite faking out Solo.

Sasic would go on to regret missing the kick — the first time Germany has missed one in World Cup history — as Annike Khran fouled Alex Morgan at the 67th minute, which gave the U.S. a penalty kick. And the nerves did not get to Carli Lloyd, as she safely faked out Angerer and put the ball in the back of the net.

The USWNT closed out the match 15 minutes later, when Lloyd made a fantastic move deep in Germany’s territory and got the ball to Kelley O’Hara, who tapped it in. There was simply nothing that Angerer could do, as O’Hara scored her first goal in international play.

Next, U.S.A will play either Japan or England on Sunday, with the winner being crowned the World Cup champion.

Following the USWNT’s 2-0 victory over Colombia, Abby Wambach vented her frustration about head referee Stephanie Frappart, who was fairly eager to hand out yellow cards.

“It seemed like she was purposefully giving those yellows to the players she knew were sitting on yellows,” Wambach said. “I don’t know if it was just a psychological thing. Who knows?”

Abby Wambach Apologizes

Well, in the wake of possible disciplinary actions, she has backed away from her comments and has apologized.

“We’re all trying to do our very best and that’s what I feel bad about… I don’t know what she was thinking and nobody can,” Abby told FOX Sports. “She’s doing the best she can and, for me, I have the utmost respect for the referees who are refereeing these games… No way did I intend to offend her and my biggest apologies if it was offensive in any way.”

It is understandable why Wambach was upset about the two yellow cards, as they were delivered to Megan Rapinoe and Lauren Holiday. Both players already had previous cards and will now have to sit out tomorrow’s quarterfinal matchup against China. Still, organizations get a little feisty when it comes to criticizing refs, especially when Abby blatantly accused Frappart of purposefully sabotaging the USWNT.

At the same time, Wambach was not the only person to negatively comment on Frappart. “It was disappointing,” said Tobin Heath. “I think anybody watching the game would have been a little bit surprised at some of the things that were called.”

Neither player plans to appeal their suspension and they will be available in the semifinal match — if the U.S. beats China — against either France or Germany.

With the first round of elimination matches over, the World Cup is just a few weeks away from being finished. And while this might sadden soccer fans, most have to admit that this has been an exciting tournament, filled with awe-inspiring play and heartbreak.

Mizuho Sakaguchi Scores Best Goal Of World Cup

But perhaps what stands out the most was last night’s amazing shot by Japan’s Mizuho Sakaguchi. In the final elimination game of the round of 16, the defending world champions were taking on the Netherlands. And with Japan already leading 1-0 — Saori Ariyoshi scored off of Netherlands’ failure to clear a rebound — Aya Miyama sent a heel pass to Mana Iwabuchi, whose dummying set up a gorgeous goal by Mizuho Sakaguchi. Simply, a beautifully drawn up play that coaches dream of executing.

In uSports’ opinion, there have been plenty of great goals over the last week, but the whole play was amazing enough to say that this is our current favorite.

In the end, the Sakaguchi goal was the deciding factor, as the outshot Netherlands made one last effort to come back from a 2-0 deficit. Kirsten van de Ven would score off a weak header, making the game 2-1 during extra time. However, Japan was able to survive the offensive onslaught and close out the match.

Next, Japan faces Australia in the quarterfinals on June 27 at 4 pm EST.

The 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada will kick off the final group stage games today. Things are looking wide open for teams to advance to the knockout stages, with not much distance separating many of the teams in the competition. In fact, only the Ivory Coast and Ecuador are mathematically eliminated out of the 24 teams, while only defending champion Japan and Brazil have assured they will move on to the next stage.

Things will get tricky with the 3rd place tiebreakers. Each group’s top two finishers will advance to the knockout stage, but so will four of the 3rd place finishers. Those spots will be allocated to those 3rd place finishers with the most points, followed by goal differential and the number of goals scored. With the competition very tight, we might not know the 16 teams in the knockout stage until the final whistle of the group stage on Wednesday.

Here’s how the tables look heading into the final matches:

Group A

1. Canada 1-1-0 (4 points, +1 goal differential)
2. China 1-0-1 (3 pts, 0)
3. Netherlands 1-0-1 (3 pts, 0)
4. New Zealand 0-1-1 (1 pt, -1)

Canada plays The Netherlands and China plays New Zealand on Monday.

Group B

1. Germany 1-1-0 (4 pts, +10)
2. Norway 1-1-0 (4 pts, +4)
3. Thailand 1-0-1 (3 pts, -3)
4. Ivory Coast 0-0-2 (0 pts, -11)

Germany plays Thailand and Norway plays the Ivory Coast on Monday.

Group C

1. Japan 2-0-0 (6 pts, +2)
2. Switzerland 1-0-1 (3 pts, +8)
3. Cameroon 1-0-1 (3 pts, +5)
4. Ecuador 0-0-2 (0 pts, -15)

Japan plays Ecuador and Switzerland plays Cameroon on Tuesday.

Group D

1. United States 1-1-0 (4 pts, +2)
2. Australia 1-0-1 (3 pts, 0)
3. Sweden 0-2-0 (2 pts, 0)
4. Nigeria 0-1-1 (1 pt, -2)

The United States play Nigeria and Australia plays Sweden on Tuesday.

Group E

1. Brazil 2-0-0 (6 pts, +3)
2. Costa Rica 0-2-0 (2 pts, 0)
3. Spain 0-1-1 (1 pt, -1)
4. South Korea 0-1-1 (1 pt, -2)

Brazil plays Costa Rica and Spain plays South Korea on Wednesday.

Group F

1. Colombia 1-1-0 (4 pts, +2)
2. England 1-0-1 (3 pts, 0)
3. France 1-0-1 (3 pts, -1)
4. Mexico 0-1-1 (1 pt, -1)

Colombia plays England and France plays Mexico on Wednesday.