MELBOURNE, Australia — For 27 agonizing seconds, Alyssa Naeher thought she’d kept it out.
For 27 agonizing seconds here at the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, she was a World Cup hero, and American dreams were alive.
She’d palmed away a penalty, then lunged to scrape it off a goal-line, and for 27 seconds, she wagged her finger, and grabbed that precious ball, and “No,” she told referee Stéphanie Frappart, it hadn’t fully crossed that perilous line.
But then she heard a whistle. She stared, eyes wide, mouth agape, intensity unflinching, as Frappart gestured and waved her arms, furthering confusion.