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"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;MONTREAL \u2014 Maybe it\u2019s because Tom Hanks is such a superfan of the U.S. women\u2019s national team, the kind who likes posting pictures of himself in a Heather O\u2019Reilly jersey, but on Tuesday it was hard not to smile and imagine the character Hanks played in *A League of Their Own* announcing to everyone: &lt;em&gt;There\u2019s no crying in soccer!&lt;/em&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But there is, of course, and the tears and emotion and passion are what makes this sport\u2014and let\u2019s go ahead and say it, this U.S. team\u2014so great. So yes, there was U.S. defender Julie Johnston crying on the field after enduring \u201Ca defender\u2019s worst nightmare,\u201D as she put it afterward: Committing a penalty that gave Germany the chance to take the lead from the spot in the 60th minute of the Women\u2019s World Cup semifinals.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The 23-year-old Johnston had been a revelation in Canada, the U.S.\u2019s most consistent performer all tournament long until that moment when she took down Alexandra Popp in the box (and should have earned a red card instead of a yellow; more on that later). But then, one by one, Johnston\u2019s teammates came over to rally behind her. None made more of an impression than her centerback partner, Becky Sauerbrunn.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CBecky\u2019s my backbone,\u201D a smiling Johnston said. \u201CShe keeps me sane. She\u2019s a warrior. I just always want to play well for her and the back line. Seeing her look at me and smile rather than the opposite way made me take a deep breath and kind of reevaluate that we\u2019re still in this game. It was a lot of emotion, just to think it was a possibility that I hurt the team and it was on my shoulders.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;\u2022 HIGHLIGHTS: O'Hara makes it 2-0 | Lloyd's PK&amp;nbsp;| Sasic&amp;nbsp;misses spot kick&lt;/strong&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Soccer is a funny old game. Germany\u2019s Celia Sasic, who had been cold-blooded on her penalty against France, sprayed her spot kick wide of the goal\u2014U.S. keeper Hope Solo clearly iced her by taking plenty of time to get set\u2014and suddenly instead of playing 10-on-11 and being down a goal, the U.S. was still all square.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Only nine minutes later, Carli Lloyd, who plays like she\u2019s carrying a New Jersey-sized chip on her shoulder, showed everyone how to take a penalty, burying her kick and giving the U.S. the lead for good.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So yes, there\u2019s crying in soccer, men\u2019s and women\u2019s both, and would we have it any other way? This is what happens when the stakes are as high as they get, when you have to wait four years for proving-ground nights like this one, when you have to rely on your teammates in the ultimate team sport.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That\u2019s what this U.S. team has going for it now as it heads to the World Cup final again after Tuesday\u2019s 2-0 victory. How many other examples did we see of players supporting each other?\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There was Alex Morgan, the frustrated forward, who fought through her disappointment of missing chances in the first half to initiate one more charge on the ball, a run that ended up drawing the penalty. \u201CI felt good,\u201D Morgan said, \u201Cthat I was finally helping my team out.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There was Morgan Brian, the 22-year-old with the soccer mind of a wise elder, coming into defensive midfield and doing all the subtle work with and without the ball that allowed Lauren Holiday and Carli Lloyd to be their true selves on the field. \u201CAnyone on the bench can step up,\u201D Brian said, \u201Cand we\u2019ve seen that.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There was Megan Rapinoe, doing more dirty defensive work than anyone has seen from her before, drawing fouls galore from the Germans and getting into their heads. \u201CI guess,\u201D she said, \u201Cthey haven\u2019t played a team as physically tenacious as us.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And there was Abby Wambach, the star scorer turned supersub, coming on to milk some minutes at the end and provide a specific service for the team. \u201CI think I [lost] five years today sitting on the bench for the second half,\u201D she joked afterward. \u201CI now understand what my parents have been going through all these years. But I appreciate it. I\u2019m taking it in, and I\u2019m not upset. I accept my role. I accept that my coach trusts me to go in at the end of the game and either get a goal or hold a lead.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you were looking for a Best Supporting Actor in a Team Role, there were any number of candidates on Tuesday, from O\u2019Hara, who came on late and scored the first goal of her national team career; to Lloyd, who buried the penalty, played four different positions and assisted on O\u2019Hara\u2019s goal; to Solo and the defense, whose shutout streak has now reached a remarkable 513 minutes.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the end, you also had to commend coach Jill Ellis, who made the gutsy call&amp;nbsp;to start three central midfielders for the first time in this World Cup. With her tactical decisions, Ellis gave her team the chance to outplay Germany, the world\u2019s No. 1-ranked team, for 90 minutes.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI thought it was a brilliant move, and I told Jill that a couple days ago,\u201D said Wambach of Ellis\u2019s decision, which gave Lloyd the freedom to impact the game all over the field. \u201CBecause you live and die by these decisions as a coach. We have so much trust and faith in Carli, and Carli has so much self-confidence.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Soccer is about emotion, and it\u2019s about history and the feelings that history gives you. Maybe the soccer gods owed the U.S. a win against Germany after that night in 2002 when a Scottish referee named Hugh Dallas refused to call a penalty after Torsten Frings handled a ball on the German goal line in the World Cup quarterfinals.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And maybe there was a bit of payback on Tuesday, as Romanian referee Teodora Albon gave the U.S. a boost against Germany by not issuing Johnston the red card she deserved, then calling a penalty kick for the U.S. even though Morgan appeared to be hit just outside the penalty box.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There were tears on the field in Ulsan, South Korea, on that famous night 13 years ago. And there were tears on this field on another famous night in 2015. &lt;em&gt;There is crying in soccer&lt;/em&gt;, everyone. And at this rate you might see it again in Vancouver on Sunday, in the World Cup final.\r\n&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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