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BEYOND 'buffy':

On July 21, Sarah Michelle Gellar is heading back to a place where she'll surely be welcomed with open arms: Comic-Con International in San Diego. Although the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" alum will have major cachet at an event that celebrates everything geeky, she's appearing there not because of her past TV show but because of her next one: a new CW fall series called "Ringer" in which she plays twin sisters with serious issues and dark secrets. Clearly, the network hopes that her Comic-Con appearance will generate enough buzz to entice her old fans to tune in — after all, it's not like her other work has been that noteworthy. In fact, although Gellar won a Daytime Emmy (for "All My Children") even before she arrived in Sunnydale, many of her choices since "Buffy" have been questionable, to say the least. Here's a look at her career highs and lows. — Television Without Pity android tablet

Mac OS X Lion: This Is Not the Future We Were Hoping For

It breaks my heart to say this, but Mac OSX Lion's interface feels like a failure. Its stated mission was to simplify the operating system, to unify it with the clean experience of iOS. That didn't happen.

If it weren't for the fast, rock-solid Unix, graphics and networking cores, Lion would be Apple's very own Vista.

The path to a simpler future
When Steve Jobs first introduced Lion, he set a bold goal: to take what has made the iPad and the iPhone so successful and bring it to the desktop. There's nothing wrong with that. The simplification of the computer experience—which actually gives more power to the users by allowing them to focus on their work instead of screwing around with their machine to make it do what they want—has been the Holy Grail of computers since the 80s.

It happened then, when we switched from the command line to the graphical desktop. (For the complete history of this evolution, read this). But in the last three decades computers have again become too complicated for a lot of people. The rest of us put up with it because we've gone through years of conditioning, but most people don't know any conventions and shortcuts accumulated over two decades—the layers upon layers of user interface, patched one on top of another.



That's why the iPad and the iPhone have been so amazing. They were clean slates that kicked all those conventions to the curb. The result is a simple, powerful environment. It's awesome. It is the future.

Lion is the wrong step into that future. By trying to please everyone, the OS X team has produced an incongruent user interface pastiche that won't satisfy the consumers seeking simplicity nor the professional users in search of OCD control. Apple hasn't really targeted a specific population. Or provided varying levels of user control--a super-simple modal interface for normal people and pro-level classic window interface for nerds. That's what Microsoft is trying to do with Windows 8. Ironically, if Apple had taken a page out of Microsoft's book in this case, it would have been a step in the right direction.

Lots of good intentions
The first time I started Lion I was expecting Launchpad to take over the screen, like the iPad. Apple touted it as the new way to launch your apps. The combined theory of Lion-iOS-iCloud is good, almost magic: Launchpad to access your apps, apps to access your documents which, eventually, would all be in the cloud and accessible from all your devices. Eliminating the physical desktop metaphor completely, the same way Gmail has eliminated the need to have mail folders. With current instant-search technology, there's no need for anal folder organization. Advanced users and other masochists would still have access to their Finders for the time being, of course, just like Microsoft is doing with Windows 8.

That could have made a lot of sense for everyone involved. But what Apple did doesn't compute: Launchpad is supposedly the way to access all your apps, but who wants to click once on the dock's Launchpad icon, launch that interface, and then select your app when you can just open the app from the Finder itself? It's an extra click (or two or three). It's added complexity; it's superfluous.

Mission Chaos
That's one part of Lion's multiple personality problem. Mission Control along with Full Screen apps is another. Mission Control is touted by Apple as the perfect merger of Exposé and Spaces. Beloved by advanced users, Exposé and Spaces are great productivity tools in Leopard. The first allows you to quickly select apps and windows. Spaces helps pro users organize work environments, by grouping different app windows all floating on different desktops.

The way they mixed it (check the video for a better understanding) may work for advanced users, but it is way too complicated for consumers. It feels like a broken bridge between the modal world and the windowed world.

Full sizeBy default, there's a Dashboard Space, where all widgets live, like in the current Mac OS X. Then there is a Desktop Space, where the windowed apps exist. Again, this is like in Leopard. In Lion there could be multiple desktops grouping different apps, all set by the user. And finally, there is Full Screen App Space, which results in multiple spaces too, one per app taking over the whole screen. iPhoto, Preview and many system apps can run full screen at this point.

This is not a bad idea per se. When you work only with Full Screen Apps it all makes perfect sense. It's very easy and smooth to move from one app to the other swiping your three or four fingers left or right. Your mind switches tasks as you move from app to app. I mostly work with Photoshop, my tabbed browser, iMovie/FCP and Mail. Add iPhoto for my personal 70,000-photo album and iTunes for about 12,000 songs. It'd be very convenient for me to switch through full screen versions of these apps. I like the simplicity and the clarity it brings.

But when you add Desktop Spaces and the Dashboard Space, it all becomes a mêlée of windows, desktops, squares, Dashboard widgets and icons. When you get into Mission Control by swiping three fingers up, you get a new clusterfuck that is added to the traditional windowed clusterfuck we have now. Click on one of the windows or spaces or whatever to go to it. Does it work? Yes. Is it more confusing for consumers than Exposé or Spaces? Yes. It's more complicated because it tries to mix control of all these different entities in one single place. The mix doesn't work.

Allegedly, as all third-party apps include the full screen mode that Apple is advocating, a android tablet would become a home for small single-window apps like iChat or Twitter (or at that time, it may be better to move all of those to the Dashboard Space and get it over with). Advanced users would be able to run all their apps in the Desktop Spaces if they wanted so. Normal users would be able to run all their apps in full screen mode, simplifying their lives. Like with Launchpad, full screen apps should be the default mode of apps, unless specified in the System Preferences.

For consumers, that would result in a pure, gloriously simple modal environment like the iPad. The pros would still have their clusterfuck.


The inconsistency problem
This mix and match of concepts brings a lot more problems. Take this example: when you are in a full screen app, there's no easy way to open a new app. You either have to swipe your way back to a Desktop space and launch your app from the Dock or the Finder or Launchpad. Or you swipe your three fingers up to access Mission Control and launch your app from the Dock or click on Launchpad in the Dock and find your app there. Or you can access the Command + Tab menu and access Launchpad from there. Or you can find your app in the Spotlight widget on the top menu of the full screen app.

These multiple points of access would make the head of any consumer explode, while advanced users would probably go for a quick third-party launcher like Alfred, something that would allow them to quickly open any app or document from anywhere.

That's not the only headache that this mix of multiple concepts introduce. There's the issue of inconsistency in gestures. Never mind the introduction of Natural Scrolling, which basically reverses the way you have scrolled all your life to match the way the iPad does it (your brain will adapt to it in a few minutes--but you can always turn it off). The problem is that gestures are not consistent between applications.

Full sizeYou swipe left and right with three fingers to move through spaces, but when you are in Launchpad, you do a similar backpack by using two fingers only. One doesn't work. That's because Launchpad is an application, so it uses the two-finger page-swapping gesture. But it feels wrong because your brain is wired to the way you swap spaces. In Safari, the two-finger swapping makes you travel in your history. In Preview, it makes you go through pages. Which kind of makes sense, but it doesn't.

There's a problem there, which is likely going to affect other apps. It feels like the wenger backpack is non-consistent and it's certainly not as intuitive as the iPhone or the iPad, perhaps because the touch element doesn't exist. One tip: If you are going to get Lion, get a Magic Trackpad.

The ugly failure of the physical metaphor
Another iOS aspect that has worked its way into Mac OS X Lion is the graphical emulation of physical surfaces. Now there's gross faux wood panelling in Photo Booth. The Address Book is a real world hardbound address book. iCal is a bloody pseudo-calendar made of paper and leather.

Full sizeThe question is: Why is Apple reproducing things that are obsolete already? Do people still use calendars made of leather and paper? Do people use agendas? Seriously, does anyone under 18 even know what these are?

I understand that the iOS guidelines call for physical surfaces to invite touch, but that's because there's a screen to touch. And, let's face it, we are not in 2008 anymore. Everyone knows how to touch a screen. And I can't touch my iMac screen and make it do anything, anyway.

It may be the subject for another article, but this emulation of old stuff feels like a juvenile gimmick, much like the old gummy-drop Aqua interface feels old and dated now. In this regard, perhaps Apple software people should have taken a page from Jon Ive and his cronies: Simplify the interface, get rid of the things that don't add any information to the user, all the useless adornments. I'd have loved to see a user interface that echoed Apple's own hardware and use of typography.

The right stuff
It's not all bad. They got rid of the swissgear backpack scrollbars and--when they are not doing gimmicky real-world object emulation--the graphical aspects of the user interface are simpler and unified. More sober than ever before.

The use of animation is also gorgeous, and full of meaning. The sharing interface of AirDrop works great. It's simple, it makes sense, it works. There's nothing superflous there. In Mail, the animation used to show threads works well. It helps the user to understand what's going on ("oh, it's expanding!"). I would love to see more simplification of the graphics and more use of animation to convey information.

There are lots of other little things, like iChat and its unified contact list, a much needed fix that third party chats apps already had. The accounts and contact information is also unified in a iOS-like kind of way. Those things feel good. As do things like saving the status of application and the automatic versioning of documents, which saves your data automatically and allows you to go back in time to reverse edits on a document-per-document basis. These little things will be reason enough for many to upgrade to Lion.

I don't need Lion, and you probably don't need it either
But overall, it doesn't feel like a must-have upgrade to me.

I love Mac OS X. I've used it since the very first and painful developer preview, back in September 2000. I love iOS too, because its modal nature simplifies powerful computing, and, at the same time, empowers normal people. I hoped Mac OS X Lion was going to merge both perfectly. Sadly, from a user interface point of view, it has failed to achieve that. And by failing at this task, it has made a mess of what was previously totally acceptable.

Borders, unable to find white knight, to liquidate

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Borders Group Inc, the second-largest U.S. bookstore chain, said it has canceled an upcoming bankruptcy auction and will close its doors for good.

The company said in a statement Monday it was unable to find a buyer willing to keep it in operation and will sell itself to a group of liquidators led by Hilco Merchant Resources.

Borders' roughly 400 remaining stores will close, and nearly 11,000 jobs will be lost, aandroid tabletording to the backpack.

"We are saddened by this development," Borders President Mike Edwards said in the statement. "We were all working hard toward a different outcome, but the headwinds we have been facing for quite some time ... have brought us to where we are now."

Borders was unable to overcome competition from larger rival Barnes & Noble Inc and from Amazon.com Inc, which began to dominate book retail when the industry shifted largely online. Borders, for which online sales represented only a small fraction of revenue, never caught up to its rivals' e-reader sales, namely Amazon's Kindle and Barnes & Noble's android tablet.

Borders had hoped to sell itself to buyout firm Najafi Cos, which owns the Book-of-the-Month Club. While Najafi was willing to pay $215 million in cash and take on another $220 million in liabilities to acquire the assets, the deal fell apart last week after creditors objected to terms that would have allowed Najafi to liquidate after completing the sale.

Earlier Monday, Reuters reported that swissgear backpack Inc, the nation's third-largest bookstore chain, was in talks to acquire a small number of Borders stores, citing sources close to Borders' bankruptcy. Representatives for Borders did not address the report when contacted by Reuters, and the company's statement did not say whether formal talks had taken place.

A CHANGING INDUSTRY

Founded in 1971 by Tom and Louis Borders in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Borders had just 21 stores when it was purchased in 1992 by Kmart. By 1997, its store count had ballooned to 203, and the company was setting its sights even higher with plans to expand to 1,000 locations.

But a money-losing e-commerce website and mounting competition from online retailers forced Borders to try unsuandroid tabletessfully to sell itself in 2008.

The company finally declared bankruptcy in February 2011 after delaying payments to landlords and publishers. It conducted going-out-of-business sales at about 200 of the 642 stores it operated prior to bankruptcy.

While competitors responded to consumers' growing preference for online business and electronic device-based entertainment, Borders remained mainly a brick-and-mortar operation.

"They were like the dinosaur that saw the ice coming but didn't think it was going to hit them," Schuyler Carroll, a bankruptcy attorney at Perkins Coie LLP, told Reuters Monday.

The Hilco group, which also includes Gordon Brothers Retail Partners, SB Capital Group, Tiger Capital Group and Great American Group, will begin liquidations as early as Friday, with the process to conclude sometime in September, Borders said. The bookseller will seek bankruptcy court approval of the closing procedures at a hearing Thursday in U.S. bankruptcy court in Manhattan.

Andrew Glenn, an attorney for Borders, told Reuters last week the company expected a liquidation sale to bring in between $250 million and $284 million.

DJM Realty, a unit of Gordon Brothers, will be in charge of the management and disposition of the 259 Borders leases that remain available for assignment.

"It is not every day a portfolio becomes available" with real estate as desirable as Borders, DJM said in a statement Monday. The properties should draw strong interest given the lack of real estate development and barriers to entry in key android tablet, DJM said.

PROBLEMS WIDESPREAD

For all its innovations on the digital side, Borders' main retail competitor, Barnes & Noble, remains in its own difficult straits, Carroll said.

The company put itself up for sale in August amid years of declining print book sales, saying its shares were undervalued. It is examining a $1 billion takeover offer made in May by John Malone's Liberty Media Corp.

David Strasser, an analyst at Janney Capital Markets, said liquidating Borders could make Barnes & Noble more valuable.

"This is perhaps an opportunity for a higher negotiated bid via Liberty or an entrance of another bidder," Strasser said last week in a note to clients.

But Carroll isn't so sure.

"Barnes & Noble is having its own problems," Carroll said. "I don't think one less store down the street is going to solve them."

Barnes & Noble was thought to be interested in buying a handful of Borders stores after Glenn said at a hearing last week that the company had voiced some interest in select Borders locations.

Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch said in February that certain Borders stores appeared attractive to the company, which operates more than 700 stores.

Borders' statement did not address whether Barnes & Noble had made an offer, and a Barnes & Noble spokeswoman declined to comment.

OUT OF A JOB

Edwards extended a "heartfelt thanks" to his employees in Monday's statement, saying he was "proud" of the role they've played in the lives of consumers.

Carroll said the most significant loss associated with Borders' closing is that of jobs.

"It's one more knife in an economy that really doesn't need that," he said. "And for people who may be living on the edge right now and may not be able to quickly find a new job, they may not do very well."

Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony call it quits

NEW YORK (AP) — With three failed marriages between them, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony finally seemed to find true love together when they married seven years ago. They had twin children, went on tour together, did a movie together and even planned a music-based reality show they were working on together.

But on Friday, the pair announced they were no longer together.backpack


"We have decided to end our marriage. This was a very difficult decision," the couple said in a statement by Lopez's publicist. "We have come to amicable conclusion on all matters. It is a painful time for all involved and we appreciate the respect of our privacy at this time."

It was a surprising split for one of Hollywood's most high-profile couples. They seemed inseparable: Lopez even danced in the background for her crooner husband when he performed on "American Idol," where she debuted as a judge this past season.

The pair, both of Puerto Rican heritage, married in 2004 after years of knowing each other. He was ending a marriage to former Miss Universe Dayanara Torres, while she had recently endured a high-profile breakup with Ben Affleck.

Lopez had been married twice before in brief unions to Ojani Noa and Chris Judd and had a famous romance with Sean "Diddy" Combs.android tablet


Her union with Anthony was her most enduring public relationship. The pair did a joint tour together and starred in the movie "El Cantante" in 2006.

They also had two children, twins Emme and Max. They were Lopez's first children; Anthony had a child from Torres and another from a previous relationship.

In April, the pair, both 42, announced plans for a television show together, "Q'Viva! The Chosen," with Simon Fuller, the creator of "Idol." The show was to feature the superstar couple as they traveled the world to find the best performers in Latin music, dance and other arts with the goal of creating a live extravaganza.

The show had no airdate, and it's unclear if it will continue.

Lopez released her latest album, titled "Love?" this year. Her career, which lulled in recent years, has surged since she became an "Idol" judge.

Tom Lewis, Thomas Bjorn share lead

SANDWICH, England -- Thomas Bjorn and Tom Lewis have nothing in common except for the unlikely position they shared Thursday atop the leaderboard at the British Open.

It's not just that one is twice as old.

Or that Bjorn is a 40-year-old pro who wonders how much longer he can compete at the highest level, while Lewis is an amateur making his major championship debut, his best golf still to come.

---

The biggest difference are their memories of Royal St. George's.

Bjorn took a small step toward atonement with a birdie on the par-3 16th -- the hole that cost him the claret jug in 2003 when he took three shots to escape a pot bunker -- on his way to a 5-under 65 in the toughest conditions of the opening round.

He made a birdie on Thursday, and couldn't help but smile when he saw it bounce away from trouble and toward the flag.

"When I hit the shot, I thought, 'This is going to struggle.' So when it just made it over that bunker, that was just a smile of knowing that things were going my way today," Bjorn said.

Lewis ran off four straight birdies late in his round, an amazing stretch that began on the par-5 14th. That's the hole where Lewis wrapped up the British Boys Amateur Championship two years ago, the highlight of a sterling amateur record. A par on the final hole gave him a 65, the lowest ever by an amateur in the British Open, making him the first amateur to lead this championship in 43 years.  backpack

"It was a special moment for me, winning here, and to come back to where you've won is extra special," Lewis said. "I was just thrilled to be here, but to shoot 65 the first round was something I wouldn't have thought. I was just happy to get the drive off the tee at the first, and that was all that mattered."

Adding to the nerves was playing alongside Tom Watson, such a popular figure in the Lewis household that they named their oldest son after the five-time Open champion. And to think the kid only wanted to make sure he didn't embarrass himself in front of Watson.

"He could be my grandson," Watson said. "I just had to smile inside to watch him play. I didn't play particularly well myself, but I certainly was impressed by the way he played."

Equally impressive to Watson was to overhear Lewis' caddie tell him there were still 54 holes left.

But what a start.

Bjorn wasn't even in the tournament until Vijay Singh withdrew on Monday, giving the Dane another shot at Royal St. George's. When someone suggested if he would be better off not playing to avoid memories of his meltdown, Bjorn cut him off. tablet

"A couple of people asked me that question, 'Would you not just want to go home?' " Bjorn said. "This is The Open Championship. Where else do you want to be?"

Miguel Jimenez also played in the windy morning conditions and had a bogey-free 66. He was joined later in the round by former U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover and Webb Simpson.

A dozen players were at 68, a group that two major champions from last year -- PGA winner Martin Kaymer and U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell, who was 3 over through five holes until a ferocious rally.

It was vintage links golf along the Strait of Dover, where the seaside wind can be as fickle as the bounces on rolling turf of Royal St. George's. Flags that were crackling throughout the morning when Bjorn and Jimenez faced cold conditions and a spot of rain were only rippling when Lewis teed off in the afternoon, and they were drooping when the round ended.

The change was reflected in the scores.

Rory McIlroy, coming off an eight-shot victory in the U.S. Open that made the 22-year-old the centerpiece of this major, rallied from a sloppy start for a 1-over 71, and he had no complaints.

"Anywhere around even par is a good start," McIlroy said.

It didn't feel that way toward the end of a long day.

The morning half of the draw were a combined 223-over par. The afternoon half combined to go only 94-over par. There were a dozen rounds in the 60s in the morning, and 23 in the afternoon.

"Looks like the wind gods are having an afternoon tea?" came a tweet from John Daly, who was proud of his 72 in the morning.

The calmer conditions are expected for Friday morning when Lewis goes out for his second round, with the wind shifting and becoming more fierce in the afternoon. That figures to only help Lewis, Glover and those who got the late-early portion of the tee times.

Lewis figures he has other advantages.

He has been around golf all of his life -- his father once played the European Tour -- and he really feels at home on links courses. The Royal & Ancients tends to play its championships for amateurs on the seaside courses, and Lewis has played only links this summer except for one tournament.  laptop backpack

"We're used to the wind," Lewis said. "Watching it on the TV this morning, I didn't think scores would be as low as they are. But the wind dropped, and that was the opportunity to shoot a good score. And I'm thankful I did play well."

Far more impressive was Bjorn, because of the conditions and his history on this ancient turf. Players stuck their hands in the pocket to fight the chill, the wind and occasional rain. Bjorn also made his move on the 14th, making back-to-back birdies.

And then came the par-3 16th.

It was his first time on that hole in competition since that dreadful Sunday afternoon in 2003. Eight years later, the difference was the day of the week -- and what was riding on it. Just like then, he had a two-shot lead in the British Open. His tee shot had him concerned as it drifted in the blustery wind toward one of the seven bunkers guarding the green.

The ball barely cleared a bunker, hopped onto the green and trundled toward the hole.  swiss gear backpack

"That gives you the trust and belief that sometimes things can turn out your way, and it does that in links golf," Bjorn said. "We all know what its' like -- a bounce here or there and then it goes either wrong or right. And today it went my way."

But he was dismissive when it was suggested that hole -- and this course -- owes him something.

"This hole owes nobody anything," Bjorn said. "No hole in golf does, and no golf course does. I played that Open and I played fantastic the whole week. I tried to hit the right shot every single time, and I didn't hit the right shot on 16. That happens in golf. That's the nature of this game. You've just got to deal with them things."

He has coped as well as can be expected, even if no one believes him. Bjorn had a tough time when he returned to the British Open the following year at Royal Troon, then moved on. A year later, in the 2005 PGA Championship at Baltusrol, he was tied for the lead and poised for a playoff until Phil Mickelson birdied the final hole to win. That at least told Bjorn he could still contend.  android tablet

Thursday was another reminder, although he is not sure how long it will last.

That holds true for Lewis, the English amateur who is advancing quicker than he could imagine. He poured in a 20-foot birdie putt on the 17th for his last birdie, and was so locked into what he was doing that he didn't take time to glance at the yellow scoreboard atop the grandstand, or even wait for Watson to walk first onto the 18th green, a tradition reserved for the most respected players in the game.

Either way, they were cheering for Tom.

DRESDEN, Germany (AP)

Running low on hope and almost out of time, the Americans were surely beat, about to make their earliest exit from the Women's World Cup.
And then, with one of the most thrilling goals in U.S. history, they weren't.
Showing a dramatic burst sure to captivate the folks back home, the Americans packed an entire World Cup's worth of theatrics into a 15-minute span by beating Brazil 5-3 on penalty kicks after a 2-2 tie Sunday night.
"Phenomenal," US coach Pia Sundhage said. "Somebody's writing this book. It speaks to the American attitude."  travel backpack
Abby Wambach tied it with a magnificent, leaping header in the 122nd minute, and Hope Solo denied the Brazilians - again - in one of the most riveting games in the history of the World Cup, men's or women's.
''There is something special about this group. That energy, that vibe,'' Solo said. ''Even in overtime, you felt something was going to happen.''
The United States advanced to Wednesday's semifinals against France, which eliminated England on penalty kicks Saturday. And while the Americans will have to win twice more to win the final, they are the only one of the favorites left after two-time defending champ Germany was stunned by Japan on Saturday night.
The US victory came 12 years to the day the Americans' last caught their country's attention in a big way with their penalty-kick shootout victory over China at the Rose Bowl that gave them their second World Cup title. This one created enough of a buzz that highlights were shown on the Jumbotron at Yankee Stadium, drawing big cheers.
For Brazil, it is yet another disappointment at a major tournament. And this one is sure to sting more than any others because Marta had it won for the Brazilians, scoring her second goal of the game in the second minute of overtime for the 2-1 lead. But Erika stalled when she went down on a tackle, and the delay added three minutes of stoppage time to the game. laptop backpack
That was all the time Wambach and the Americans needed, after pushing themselves to limit while playing a woman short after Rachel Buehler's 66th-minute ejection.
''Not for one second,'' Wambach said when asked if she ever felt the Americans were beat. ''I kept saying, all it takes is one chance. I kept holding up one finger to the girls.''
Two minutes into stoppage time, Megan Rapinoe blasted a left-footed cross from 30 yards out on the left side that Andreia didn't come close to getting her hands on. Wambach, one of the best players in the world in the air, made contact and with one furious whip of her head, buried it in the near side of the net from about five yards.
''I took a touch and smoked it,'' Rapinoe said. ''I don't think I've ever hit a cross with my left foot that well. And then that beast in the air got ahold of it.''
Wambach let out a primal scream and slid into the corner, pumping her fists and quickly mobbed by teammates. No goal had ever been scored that deep into a World Cup game. android tablet
''Everything seemed to be on the safe side, but it wasn't,'' Brazil coach Kleiton Lima said. ''Unfortunately there was the goal.''
The Americans, shooting first, made their three penalty kicks only to have Cristiane and Marta easily match them. But then it was Daiane's turn - the same Daiane who'd given the US a 1-0 lead with an own goal in the second minute of the game. She took a hard shot, but Solo stretched out and batted it away. Though the US still had to make two more, the celebration was already starting.
After Rapinoe blistered the net with a blast and Ali Krieger converted hers, the Americans raced onto the field, their joy only matched by that of the pro-American crowd of 25,598. Wambach tackled Solo and Sundhage even broke out her air guitar when AC/DC's ''You Shook Me All Night Long'' began to play.
Shake the tournament, the Americans did.
''It is a special moment for me and for this team,'' Solo said.
Four years ago, Solo touched off a firestorm after the Americans were humiliated 4-0 in the semifinals by Brazil, criticizing then-coach Greg Ryan's decision to bench her. She has lost only one game since, being particularly tough on Brazil. She's now 5-0, including a 1-0 shutout in overtime in the 2008 Olympic final.
It's redemption for the rest of the Americans, too, who have been roundly criticized and questioned for their uncharacteristically inconsistent play in recent months. After going more than two years without a loss, they've been beaten four times since November.
''It's like a storybook,'' Wambach said.
While the Americans partied, Marta and the Brazilians watched in silence. Cristiane repeatedly wiped away tears during postgame interviews. Despite a star-filled roster led by Marta, the FIFA player of the year five times running, Brazil has never won a major tournament. It lost to the Americans in the two Olympic gold-medal games, and to Germany in the 2007 World Cup final.
''They fought, they did everything,'' coach Kleiton Lima said. ''They threw their hearts into it and, of course, they were really sad.''
The U.S. has now eliminated Brazil at five of the last seven major tournaments. The lone consolation was that Marta's goals, the 13th and 14th of her career, tied her with Birgit Prinz atop the all-time World Cup scoring list. The Americans also have won their last five meetings against Brazil.
None, however, was more memorable than this.
Brazil spotted the US the lead in the second minute with an own goal by Daiane, who misdirected a clearance, then spent the next 63 trying furiously for the equalizer - and getting increasingly frustrated with every minute they didn't get it.
When they finally did, it was clouded in controversy.
Marta made a dangerous run into the box in the 65th, beating two US defenders and coming practically nose to nose with Solo before Buehler tracked back and dragged her down. Australian referee Jacqui Melksham not only ruled it a penalty but a red card as well. Cristiane, who already scored one goal off a penalty, took the kick. Solo made a perfect read and smacked it away, pumping her fists as Lloyd ran toward her to grab her in a bearhug.
But Melksham ordered the penalty retaken - and gave Solo a yellow card, ruling the American had left her line or a teammate encroached the penalty area before the kick was taken. Replays clearly showed Solo was on her line.
''I have no idea,'' Solo said. ''It is what it is.''
As the crowd jeered, Marta stepped up for the retake, staring down her old foe. Solo cost Marta and the Brazilians the gold medal in Beijing, stopping a point-blank blast from Marta in the 72nd minute of the Olympic final. This time, however, Marta got the best of the US 'keeper, burying the ball to pull the Brazilians even.
As she walked away from the spot, Marta slapped her right arm.
Fired up, the Americans repeatedly pushed forward over the last 20 minutes but couldn't get a decent shot. The closest they came was a blast from Rapinoe in second-half stoppage time, but it was from long range and it was never a real threat to Andreia.
Marta seemed to put the game out of reach in the 92nd minute - though replays seemed to show that Maurine, the player who fed her the ball, was offside.
But the Americans, criticized after losing four games in the last eight months, have talked repeatedly about their resilience. On this day, it was on full display.
''We're just fighting for each other out there,'' said captain Christie Rampone, the last player left from the 1999 squad. ''We were totally believing the whole time.''