Women's World Cup - Sweden vs. Australia

Frau A and I had already seen a game of the Women's World Cup (group stage).  But when friends from Dallas came to visit, we got tickets for the next weekend too.  Again in Augsburg, again Sweden, but this time against Australia.

It was easy to reach the stadium on trams that ran every few minutes from the city center -- and clearly marked!

It was another hot, sunny day with blue skies (our seats were in the shade, otherwise we might have roasted).

A lot of German fans supported Sweden, but the awesome Australian fans definitely made themselves known!  (They're all smiles with the headgear and blow-up kangaroo.)

We also noticed a lot of girls' soccer teams that came in a group.  Great to see the sport building a large base.

With these teams, we suspected the game would be physical, and it was.  At least three yellow cards were handed out, and every ball was strongly contested. 

Sweden built a quick 2-0 lead, but Frau A caught the incredible Aussie score in a series of fast photographs.
It was a precision shot at distance (both the goal and the photos, actually).  Fantastic stuff!

In the last photo above, the black splotch is the person in front of us standing to cheer.

However, after that, the Swedish keeper constantly went airborne to protect the net.  She had to, because Australia had nine corner kicks vs. Sweden's three.

The Australian goalie made a tight save here, to the disappointment of the Swedish attacker.

The Australian defense made an error passing back to the goalie and Sweden capitalized.  3-1.

After this mistake, Australia never really threatened anything, and the Swedes won handily.  This is their victory dance that became popular as the went undefeated in the group stage.

We really lucked out -- two beautiful days with two fun games.  But we had tickets to one more...