FIFA Women's World Cup Final ;U.S. Loses to Japan on Penalty Kicks ...‎

Japan's Homare Sawa leads the celebration after scoring the tying goal late in extra time against the U.S. Japan won the penalty kick, 3-1, to capture the title.FIFA Women's World Cup Final ;U.S. Loses to Japan on Penalty Kicks

Japan won the Women's World Cup for the first time on Sunday, stunning the United States in a penalty kick shootout after the team played a pulsating 2-2 tie in Frankfort, Germany.

Japan won its first Women's World Cup title Sunday in a triumph built on hope and renewal, lifting a stricken country and somehow finding a way to win a match that the United States dominated for long stretches but could not control.

"This is obviously going to hurt for a while," said U.S. forward Abby Wambach, whose only hole in her glittering career is the World Cup title.

The United States, the top-ranked team in the world, played its best game of the tournament but struggled to convert its many chances into a tangible advantage. The Americans did not take a lead until Alex Morgan scored on a breakaway in the 69th minute. But a defensive mistake allowed Japan's Aya Miyama to pounce on a loose ball and tie the score with less than 10 minutes left in regulation.

The Americans' top scorer, Abby Wambach, appeared to score the winning goal just before the end of the first extra period, nodding in a cross from Morgan from point-blank range -- her fourth goal in four games. But Japan's captain, Homare Sawa, flicked in a shot off a corner kick in the 117th minute. The goal seemed to symbolize the never-say-die attitute of the Japanese team, which had gained strength from its countrymen -- and vice versa -- in representing a country still recovering from a devastating earthquake earlier this year.

The shootout went badly for the United States from the start. Shannon Boxx's attempt was saved, Carli Lloyd's sailed over the bar, and Tobin Heath had hers saved as well.

Sawa, playing in her fifth World Cup, won the Golden Ball as the tournament's top player and the Golden Boot as its top scorer.

Japan, meanwhile, coolly connected on three of its first four. When the 20-year-old defender Saki Kumagai fired hers over the diving American goalkeeper Hope Solo, she and her nation rejoiced as one.

"We couldn't put away our chances," U.S. Coach Pia Sundhage said. "It's a final -- there's a small difference between winning and losing."

Said Wambach: "Evidently it wasn't meant to be."

Friday Night Lights, free and lovely

Friday Night Lights is an American television series adapted by Peter Berg, Brian Grazer and David Nevins from a book and film of the same name. During the first three seasons, the series details events surrounding the Dillon Panthers, a high school football team based in fictional Dillon, Texas, with particular focus given to team coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) and his family. In the fourth season, Taylor becomes coach of the Lions at East Dillon High School, set in the poorer side of Dillon with a larger African American population.
Even though I consumed every episode of "Friday Night Lights'" fifth and final season on DirecTV well before this evening's "official" series finale on NBC, I'd still convinced myself that this day would never come. New episodes would somehow produce themselves, even without network support or ratings or advertising behind them,

then DirecTV, is trying to put together a second movie with the principal cast of the series, which would pick up where the show left off. Here is more on the project, which would be produced by Universal Pictures, the studio behind the first movie, and Imagine, which co-produced both the movie and the TV series.

The book became a film in 2004, directed by Peter Berg, who then produced the TV version starring actor Kyle Chandler as football coach Eric Taylor. Although the show already had its series finale on DirecTV last year, tonight the final episode, “Always,” will air on NBC, this time a little sweeter than the previous.

Apparently there's actually some validity to this and a film could be in the works. SlashFilm points out that TV Line dug a bit deeper and found out that "it's no pipe dream. Berg, who directed the original feature and shepherded the NBC series with exec producer Jason Katims, is working behind the scenes to make it a reality." Interesting.

Apparently there's actually some validity to this and a film could be in the works. SlashFilm points out that TV Line dug a bit deeper and found out that "it's no pipe dream. Berg, who directed the original feature and shepherded the NBC series with exec producer Jason Katims, is working behind the scenes to make it a reality." Interesting.

It’s an extended episode, with a 90-minute running time. And I’ll be tweeting through my tears throughout; please feel free to follow along on the Celebritology Twitter feed as you watch. A recap of the episode will be posted in Celebritology later this evening, after the episode ends

As a network series, “Friday Night Lights” operated under certain constraints and the result was not only an exquisite bit of anthropology — life in a small, working-class Texas town – but a show in which beloved characters became intimates in our own lives. The series is over now, and I can genuinely say, I’m sorry that I won’t be able to see how these lives further unfold — how Tami and Eric make out in the Northeast, how Tim and Tyra do as a married couple, how Becky and Luke manage his time in the military, how Billy and Mindy will manage with twins.