The US were yesterday basking in the glow of their tenacious gold medal victory over Brazil in a memorable final that did much to showcase the growing spectacle of women’s soccer.
Midfielder Carli Lloyd provided the winning goal for the defending Olympic champions with a rasping angled drive in the 96th minute to leave the Brazilians in tears and acclaim from the capacity crowd at the Workers’ Stadium.
USA coach Pia Sundhage, a pioneer of women’s soccer who played 22 years with Sweden, said the final was the perfect advertisement for women’s soccer.
“Coaching in the final yesterday it was so good for my heart that so many people are engaged in women’s soccer,” she said yesterday.
“If you looked at the quality of the game and the excitement, it had everything, extra time, that game was not only good for the USA, but it was good for women’s soccer overall,” she said. “Women’s football is improving all the time and it’s getting tighter and tighter, so now you have a handful of teams that can win the Olympics and the World Cup and that’s really good for women’s soccer overall.”
The Americans celebrated long into the early hours yesterday after weathering the all-star Brazilian attack, featuring the indomitable Marta and topscoring Cristiane.
Brazil were super confident that they had the measure of the Americans after also losing out in extra time in the Athens final four years ago, but the devastated looks on their faces at the medal ceremony betrayed how acute the losing experience was yet again.
The Americans, especially their goalkeeper Hope Solo and defensive back four, stymied Brazil’s attempts to break through in a match of unrelenting intensity and drama.
“We sensed they were getting frustrated,” right-back Heather Mitts said. “Things are going to happen, we are going to get beat every once in a while by these guys, they are just way too good, but we knew that we couldn’t get down on ourselves and I think that confidence throughout all our games got us to where we are now.”
■BRAZIL WIN BRONZE
AFP, SHANGHAI
Brazil beat Belgium 3-0 in the playoff for the bronze medal in the men’s competition yesterday.
Nigeria and Argentina will battle it out for gold today.
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