US Women trash France; Germany is next

The US Women came to play. Just like Saturday's Denmark beating, the red, white and blue women dominated this game. In just the third minute, Kristine Lilly sailed a shot in from the top of the penalty box that just grazed the underside of the top crossbar on its way to net.

That was the lone goal of the first 45-minutes. At the start of the second half, France threaten, but could not convert. Then the goals started raining. In three minutes, the US would find themselves up by 3. In the 52nd Aly Wagner beat the keeper on a one-on-one setup by Heather O'Reilly. In the 54th, Lindsay Tarpley got a great little pass from Lilly to setup the third goal.

The French would not surrender as they managed to cut the lead to 2 in the 65th when Hoda Lettaf took a long pass and fired it past Hope Solo. This was the first goal scored on the US Women during the run of play in 1,442 minutes.

However, any hope of a French renaissance was put to rest in the 70th minute when Sandrine Soubeyrand earned her second yellow card, thus getting a red and being sent off. Soubeyrand's first yellow was in the 55th when she reentered the pitch from an injury without ref approval. Her second was for dragging down a player who had a clear path on goal. Being down by 2 with only 10 players against a strong US side is not a place a team wants to find itself.

Sure enough, the US took over total control from then on, including getting a fourth goal in the 78th minute thanks to Natasha Kai (pictured). Kai shot was knocked away by the French keeper, but Kai stayed with it. She collected her own rebound and sank it into the goal. This marks Kai's second goal for the US side in only her second match. Not sure of the numbers, but I think that's a damn good average.

With the win, the US now gets to face Germany in the Championship on Wednesday. The game will begin at 11:30am EST.

US 4 - 1 France