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Today the women's national teams from the US and Japan squared off in the Women's World Cup final in Germany. The US scored the first goal in the game about midway through the second half, only to have Japan score an equalizer a few minutes later to send the game in overtime. The US scored again late in the first of two overtime periods, but Japan refused to give up, and scored another equalizer with only a couple minutes left in the game. After that, they managed to stave off another US attack when a red card awarded to a Japanese player gave the US a free kick directly in front of the Japanese goal. While the US had dominated play up to that point, the same couldn't be said for the following penalty kick shoot-out, with Japan winning the shoot-out and the trophy 3-1. As disappointing as this result is to the US, it must be said that Japan earned this victory.