Germany's captain, Birgit Prinz (nine), walks away as Brazil's players celebrate defeating Germany 4-1 in their women's semi-final match in Shanghai yesterday. - AP

SHANGHAI, China (AP):

CRISTIANE SCORED twice to lead Brazil to a 4-1 win over Germany yesterday to reach the Olympic women's football final for the second time in a row. After Birgit Prinz had given world champions Germany a 10th-minute lead to become the first player to score in all four Olympics since the introduction of women's football at the 1996 Atlanta Games. The Brazilians hit back with goals from Cristiane, Formiga and Marta. Germany had not conceded in 10 previous games in major championships.

In Thursday's final in Beijing, Brazil will play defending champion United States, who beat Japan 4-2 in the other match yesterday.

Four years ago, Brazil lost to the Americans in the final.

Cristiane's goals took her tally to five for the competition and Marta, who now has three, had a hand in two more.

"But I wouldn't say it is a two-woman show," coach Jorge Barcellos said. "Everyone played very well. For example, Formiga, who was injured during the World Cup, but she made a lot of contribution to the team. And there's our captain Tania. She made a lot of opportunities. All the players played really well.

"At the start, the team was a little bit tense and I didn't know why. Perhaps it was because they met Germany in the group stage. But they changed their position ,which enabled the pace of the game to come and after that it went pretty well."

Germany coach Silvia Neid, who led the team to its World Cup final triumph over Brazil in Shanghai last year, said her team was confident of victory after going ahead.

"We kind of feel that we had it in our hands. We led 1-0 and missed some other chances to score the second goal," she said. "After that, we didn't work well in front of our defence, and we surrendered the equalising goal at a bad time."

In Beijing, Angela Hucles scored a goal in each half to lead the US to victory over Japan and another Olympic final against Brazil.

It will be the fourth straight Olympic final for the US. The Americans have played in the Olympic gold medal match every time since women's football debuted at the 1996 Atlanta Games, missing the title only in 2000 in Sydney after a loss to Norway.

The US had to rally from an early deficit yesterday after Japan's Shinobu Ohno opened the scoring in the 16th minute, but Hucles netted the equaliser from the six-metre line in the 41st and Lori Chalupny put the Americans ahead, just three minutes later, after beating two defenders inside the area in the 44th.

Heather O'Reilly added to the lead with a long-range shot in the 70th and Hucles closed the scoring for the US in the 80th with a crossing shot that caught Japan goalkeeper Miho Fukumoto by surprise.

Japan got on the board again with Eriko Arakawa in second-half injury time.

"We were focused on getting that first goal, on getting one at a time," Chalupny said. "We were never nervous. It felt like we were getting opportunities and we were going to get a chance to come back."