Rough road to a date with destiny

FRANKFURT, Germany - The bumpy, windy road got the Americans right where they wanted to go all along.

Eight months after having to win a playoff just to get to Germany, the Americans face Japan in the Women's World Cup final on Sunday. A win would be the ultimate finish to their improbable journey, making the United States the first three-time champions and delighting a country of newfound fans.

"I believe all the way we'll find a way," Carli Lloyd said Saturday after the team's last training session.

For a long time, the Americans were about the only ones who believed that.

The Americans have dominated the women's game for the better part of two decades. But they arrived at the World Cup looking, well, kind of average. They were stunned in regional qualifying in November against Mexico, a team that hadn't managed a win in its first 25 tries against its neighbor to the north, and had to beat Italy in a two-game playoff for the very last spot in the Cup.

They opened the year with a loss to Sweden, then fell to England for the first time in 22 years. Then, after easy wins in their first two games in Germany, the Americans lost to Sweden again, their first loss ever in World Cup group play.

"In the past, we'd always won everything," captain Christie Rampone said. "Those losses made our team what it is today. We need each other and you feel that, from the locker room to the time we step on the field."

Never was that faith in each other more evident than in their quarterfinal against Brazil. On the verge of making their earliest exit ever from a major tournament, Abby Wambach's magnificent, leaping header in the 122d minute tied the game and sparked one of the most riveting finishes ever in a World Cup game.

The Americans beat Brazil in a penalty shootout and, just like that, the folks back home were hooked.

Hollywood celebrities, fellow pro athletes, and people who don't care about any sport, let alone soccer, have adopted the players. The Brazil match drew the third-highest ratings ever for a Women's World Cup game.

While part of the U.S. appeal is its success here, it's the team's spunk that has really charmed fans, a can-do attitude uniquely - proudly - American.

This might not be the best team the U.S. has ever had, but none will try harder.

"We are disappointed in the kind of soccer we played in the last few games. It's just not the kind of soccer we want to play," Wambach said. "Against Japan, we want to do and play the way we've been training."

Japan will have something to say about that, of course.

The Nadeshiko have never beaten the Americans and have been outscored by a whopping 77-13. They have three losses this year alone to the U.S. team. This also is Japan's first final at a major tournament, having lost to the U.S. team in the semifinals at the Beijing Olympics.

But Japan is a far better team than the one the Americans saw in May, having upset pre-tournament favorite Germany in the quarterfinals and Sweden in the semifinals.

Japan also has powerful motivation, knowing it has provided some emotional relief for a nation still reeling from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. The team displays a banner reading "To our Friends Around the World - Thank You for Your Support."

But the Americans remain confident, just as they were through every pothole and dip in their bumpy road.

"Nothing worries me right now," coach Pia Sundhage said. "You have to enjoy the moment. Look at the road we've taken. If I get worried, I just have to look back at that road."

Sweden tops France for third. Marie Hammarstrom scored in the 82d minute to give 10-woman Sweden a 2-1 victory over France in the third-place game at the Women's World Cup in Sinsheim, Germany.

After Josefine Oqvist was sent off in the 68th for hitting Sonia Bompastor in the chest, Sweden won a corner kick that was cleared off the near post. But the ball caromed out to Hammarstrom, who touched it once, faking out a defender, and then a second time before letting fly with a thunderous left-footed blast for her first World Cup goal.

N. Korea blames deer gland. North Korea officials blamed traditional musk-deer-gland medicine used after a lightning strike for five positive tests for steroids at the Women's World Cup, the biggest soccer doping scandal at a major tournament in 17 years.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter said Saturday that after two players were caught during the tournament this month, the world soccer governing body took the unprecedented step of testing the rest of the North Korean squad and found three more positive results.

A North Korean delegation told Blatter and the head of FIFA's medical committee on Saturday that the steroids were accidentally taken with traditional Chinese medicines based on the deer glands.

"The North Korean officials said they didn't use it to improve performance. They said they had a serious lightning accident with several players injured and they gave it as therapy," said Michel D'Hooghe, chief of FIFA's medical committee.

The case will be taken up by FIFA's disciplinary committee. Players face a ban of up to two years.