The United States advanced to the women's World Cup semi-finals after beating England 3-0 with two three-half goals on Saturday.

During the first half the English managed to escape without receiving goals due to their strong and aggressive defense. Two major opportunities were missed in the later stages of the first half through Abby Wambach, who is at her 100th game for the national team, and Kristine Lilly, who had a drive well tipped over by England’s goalie Brown.

But England was US’s equal only for 45 minutes as in the second half the Americans increased the pressure and produced a goal rush. Just three minutes after the referee had blown the whistle for the start of the second half, Abby Wambach scored her fourth goal of the tournament and US’s opener after heading in a corner executed by Lilly.

In the 57th minute Shannon Boxx shot past the English goal keeper from about 20 meters after dribbling through two defenders.

Lilly completed the sweep on the hour mark when a long ball bounced over Brown, leaving the experienced captain with a tap-in

"Obviously we're disappointed," said Faye White, the England captain, after the game.

"The girls fought hard but it's a strong American team. [After the goal] we had to try and get some momentum back in the game but unfortunately we couldn't do that."

It’s probably not such a heavy defeat for England as this is just the second time they qualified for the World Cup and they managed to match their run from the 1995 tournament.

On the other hand, the US have dominated women's football, winning two world titles in 1991 and 1999 and claiming their second Olympic crown three years ago in Athens. The Americans have now beaten England seven times in 10 meetings, with the last reverse coming in 1988.

The US will play either Brazil or Australia in Tianjin on Thursday.

In the other quarter-final match, the World Cup raining champions Germany crashed North Korea 3-0. The Germans advance to the semifinals on Sept. 26 in Tianjin (CBC, 7:45 a.m. ET) where they will play the winner of Sunday's quarter-final between Norway and China.