Women's soccer displays a strong will to go back on the "normal" track as two hottest dark horses were shown the door out.
The DPR Korea and England lost 3-0 to their formidable rivals Saturday in their World Cup quarfinal encounters.
World No. 1 the United States suffered a slow start against the strong-minded England but finally proved their quality by scoring the triple within a quarter in the second half in Tianjin.
Earlier in Wuhan, defending champions Germany roared into the semi-finals with a hard-fought 3-0 win over DPR Korea.
DPR Korea have qualified for the knocking-out phrase through the toughest group after tying the U.S. 2-2, beating five-time African champions Nigeria 2-0 and losing only to the 2003 runners-up Sweden 2-1.
England also had a good performance in the group stage by edging Asia's new force Japan to advance after winning a valuable point on Germany.
However, their surprising run in the tournament was suddenly snapped on Saturday, with the DPR Koreans walking away with a best-ever result of making the knockout stage for the first time and England only tying their mark in history.
After the quarterfinal victory, Germany will fly to Tianjin and wait for their last-four rivals which to be decided by the Norway-China match in Wuhan on Sunday, and the United States play the winners between Brazil and Australia.
In the most eye-catching first duel of the quarter-finals, the stalwart Germans played all out to tame the World Cup dark horse, which also showed its amazing skills and strength despite conceding three goals.
German coach Silvia Neid attributed the crucial victory to the solid defence, saying that the Germans left little space for the DPR Korea's strikers.
"DPR Korea is a strong team. They proved their strength through surviving the Group of Death. Beating such a tough opponent will definitely increase our confidence to defend the title," Neid said.
DPR Korea coach Kim Kwang Min admitted that Germany is stronger than his team in stamina and physiques in particular.
German midfielder Kerstin Garefrekes broke the deadlock on 44 minutes when she dribbled past a defender and barged into the box, sending a brilliant left-foot curling shot to the far top corner of the net.
Garefrekes' partner in the midfield Renate Lingor made it 2-0 in the 67th minute when she worked a neat one-two with forward Sandra Smisek before curling a superb right-foot shot into the top corner.
Defender Annike Krahn sealed the 3-0 win on 72 minutes, mysteriously thighing in a corner kick from midfielder Melanie Behringer.
Later in the evening, twice champions the United States tasted a bitter sweet of going through from hell to heaven here on Saturday as the world No. 1 women's team played a 20-minute good game in the second half to knock out the 12-ranked England with an arguable 3-0 win.
Abby Wambach headed in a Krisstine Lilly's corner with just two minutes after the break to earn the United States a 1-0 lead, which had been hard to imagine through their sluggish performance in the first half.
The goal kicked off the scoring waves of the Americans, as midfield veteran Shannon Boxx got a nice control of the ball after her teammate stole it halfway from the England's building up run and drove home a superb long shot from 33 meters away in the 57 minute.
Just three minutes later, Lilly performed a perfect individual show, running the ball from midfield into the penalty box and beating England goalie Rachel Brown with a dazzling pass to goal.
The scoring line remained goalless at break, however, as the United States struggled in finding efficient methods to break apiece England's solid defense while failing to block effectively against the rivals' aggressive attacks.
Source: Xinhua
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