Sports
Women’s World Cup: USA emerge champions for the fourth time
The United States of America (USA) have retained the FIFA Women’s World Cup after beating Netherlands 2-0 in the final in Lyon, France on Sunday.
The defending champions have now won the competition four times out of the eight editions since the inception in 1991.
After a goalless first half, Megan Rapinoe’s penalty and Rose Lavelle’s fine run and finish gave USA the victory in the second half.
The European champions Netherlands were reaching the final of the showpiece in only their second outing.
Rapinoe’s goal helped her win the Golden Boot as she finishing with six goals and three assists, while she also took the Golden Ball award for the tournament’s best player.
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Team-mate Alex Morgan also scored six and provided three assists in France, but Rapinoe took the award on minutes per goal (428 to 490).
The Golden Glove, Golden Boot and Silver Boot winners.
Victory for the USA saw their coach Jill Ellis become the first coach to lift the trophy twice.
“This is an amazing group of players – they showed fantastic resilience.
“They put their hearts and souls into this journey, I cannot thank them enough. I could barely speak immediately after the game but I told them they had made history and to enjoy it,” Ellis said.
The Golden Ball and Bronze Ball winners.
England’s Lucy Bronze finished runner-up to Rapinoe, earning the Silver Ball award.
England finished fourth after losing to Sweden in the third-place play-off on Saturday.
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