Backheel Breakfast: The United States women are in the World Cup final

The United States women fired their coach less than 18 months ago, have played unattractive soccer since and posted bad results against teams they were supposed to be far superior to. And on Tuesday, they outplayed world No. 1 ranked team Germany in the World Cup semifinal, meaning they’ll play in their second straight final on Sunday.

Yes, the USWNT got a bit lucky, but don’t think too much about that. They earned their win.

The Americans will play the winner of Wednesday’s game between Japan and England, meaning we could see a rematch of the 2011 final. However, England are a pretty tough team to score on, and their defense has already guided them to two big upsets. But sadly, despite their great run, they’re still having to more or less beg people to care. Of the quarterfinalists, England stick out like a sore thumb as a team that got this far despite their fanbase, not partially because of their support.

Know who else doesn’t support women’s football? Sepp Blatter! He won’t be at the final.

Liverpool have announced the signing of Nathaniel Clyne. (Liverpool FC)

Bayern Munich have finally freed Douglas Costa from Ukraine. (FC Bayern)

FC Porto have snapped up Gianelli Imbula from Marseille. (FC Porto)

Stock up on canned goods and bottled water because Abou Diaby has left Arsenal. (Arsenal FC)

Your goal of the day comes from Angel Di Maria, set up by an absurd Lionel Messi run. (r/soccer)

West Ham aren’t even sending their real manager to Europa League qualifying. (Guardian)

Frankfurt made a nice pickup on Tuesday, inking Luc Castaignos. (Bundesliga)

Leander Schaerlaeckens on the very slow, but clear, death of sexist coverage of the USWNT. (Vice)

David Cartlidge on Sporting Gijon’s fantastic academy and climb back to the Primera. (In Bed With Maradona)

Vadim Furmanov on the prevalence and unavoidable reality of match fixing in Ukraine. (Futbolgrad)

The section in which nothing should be taken seriously. It’s rumor season, so this section will be expanded, and as the summer rolls on, it will probably be bigger than the actual news section.

It looks like Stoke have had a bid accepted for Xherdan Shaqiri. Wait ... what? (Football Italia)

It’s a big day for Stoke news -- they might get Ghana midfielder Emmanuel Badu on the cheap. (Star)

Barcelona officials have traveled to meet with Juventus for Paul Pogba. (AS)

Falcao looks very likely to be unveiled as a Chelsea player soon. (Guardian)

Manchester United will only up their bid for Sergio Ramos, who they unsettled, if Madrid up their bid for David De Gea. Maybe Ed Woodward isn’t an idiot after all. (Mirror)

It looks like Crystal Palace will pay £10m to reunite Yohan Cabaye with Alan Pardew. (Guardian)

Atleti’s Arda Turan is expected to announce his new club on Friday. (Manchester Evening News)

Here’s what we learned from the USWNT-Germany match.

Argentina just absolutely pulverized Paraguay.

Sweden won their first ever Euro U-21s on penalties. (BBC)

WWC: Japan vs. England (7 p.m.) - Can England do it again?

Friendly: Honduras vs. Mexico (9:30 p.m.) - Watch Mexico struggle and elevate the hopes of USMNT fans.