Two penalty kicks: German missed, Lloyd cashed in

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - For the most part, a penalty spot on a soccer field lives an unassuming existence. The players who trample upon it generally pay it no heed, and generally have no reason to.

The mark is so often ignored, in fact, that FIFA's official laws of the game - the unbreachable commandments sent down from on high by global soccer's governing body - make no specific reference to what its size should be.

But sometimes, a crime against those laws is committed in the penalty spot's neighborhood. In those moments, it becomes the star witness.

On Tuesday night, both of the penalty spots at Montreal's Olympic Stadium were placed in the white-hot spotlight of the United States' 2-0 win over No. 1-ranked Germany in the World Cup semifinals.

For all the controversy over the game's two penalty kick calls - Julie Johnston could have been ejected but wasn't, and replays showed Alex Morgan was fouled outside the 18-yard box - soccer's greatest test of nerves ultimately offered two pieces of irrefutable evidence:

American captain Carli Lloyd scored and German star striker Celia Sasic missed.

Sasic's trial came first, after Johnston felled Alexandra Popp in the 59th minute. A total of 94 seconds elapsed between when referee Teodora Albon whistled the foul and when she whistled for Sasic to proceed.

While Sasic waited, U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo - as she admitted on television afterward - engaged in a bit of gamesmanship. She walked along her end line, took a drink of water, looked around, and then finally returned to her net. The crowd of 51,171 also did its part to try to get in Sasic's head.

When her moment finally arrived, Sasic clapped her hands at her teammates, took a deep breath, stepped toward the ball . . . and pushed it wide left. She seemed to know it almost immediately, grasping her head and recoiling in horror as the ball rolled away.

It was the first missed penalty kick by a German player in Women's World Cup history.

"It was a big chance and I am very sorry for the team," Sasic told reporters afterward, adding that the distractions around her "shouldn't influence me. My job is to score the goal."

Lloyd's turn came after a 67th-minute collision involving Morgan and a few German players. The Delran native then had to wait 103 seconds, even longer than Sasic.

Almost from start to finish, Lloyd did nothing but look at the ball. Not German goalkeeper Nadine Angerer, nor any other players on either team, the crowd, the video screen, Olympic Stadium's roof, you name it.

"I don't know what was going on behind me, I don't know what the ref was saying, I don't know what the goalkeeper was doing," Lloyd said.

Her focus didn't end until the ball was sailing past Angerer, who went the wrong way and could only look back as the shot flew by.