Megan Rapinoe and Carli Lloyd have led USA to the bronze medal at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 with a 4-3 win over Australia at Ibaraki Kashima Stadium.
It was a nervy and tense finish to the match for both Australia and the USA as the Matildas tried to find the goal that would take it to extra time. The United States wanted to hold onto their bronze medal, with their last-ditch defending proving to be enough to clinch a spot on the podium.
“Obviously it started really tough for us,” USA coach Vlatko Andonovski said of their opening loss to Sweden. “To finish the tournament with the game we did, I’m proud of the team, I’m proud of the players.
“We sat in a room together [earlier this week] and we talked about a lot of things, watched a lot videos and we all agreed we were going to get out of this together. All of us together had to pull to come out and win a medal.”
Heading home with heads held high 🇺🇸⚽️ pic.twitter.com/uu0NxZLVfh
— U.S. Women's National Soccer Team (@USWNT) August 5, 2021
Rapinoe opened the scoring after whipping the ball into the goal from a corner. Australia soon found a reply through the ever-reliable Sam Kerr after a Caitlin Foord pass found the Australian captain to level the scores at 1-1.
The goal from Kerr also saw her become the Matildas all-time leading goal scorer.
But the Rapinoe show wasn’t over just quite yet as the winger latched onto the ball after a defensive error to volley it home for the USA to re-take the lead.
As the game began to settle into a rhythm after a rush of goals, the United States showed just why they’re World Cup champions with a masterclass goal through Lloyd to give her side a comfortable 3-1 lead heading into halftime.
The USA picked up where they left off after the break, with Lloyd taking advantage of another defensive lapse from Australia to score her second of the day and her 10th Olympic goal overall.
Foord was able to bring the scores back to 4-2 with a header before Kerr almost levelled with her shot hitting the post.
Australia were throwing everything into both their defensive and attacking efforts as they hunted down Team USA’s lead. It paid off with a late and stunning consolation goal from Emily Gielnik but it wasn’t enough to steal the bronze from the United States.
“This one means a lot,” Rapinoe said in the mixed zone after the match. “The way we responded today, the way we’ve stuck together…it means a lot.
“Obviously we haven’t played our best football through this tournament, it just hasn’t clicked but there isn’t a magic bullet. You just got to come out and put the performance out there.”
Lloyd, speaking in a press conference, believed the win came down to the USA’s mentality – something the team has had for a long time but just wasn’t showing earlier in the tournament.
“We may look like the most talented team on paper…but as we all know talent doesn’t win you championships,” Lloyd explained.
“And without the mentality, the heart, the grit, the fight, we wont win anything. I think it was important that people heard that this third-place game, that we were fighting for, was just as important if we were in a gold medal match. The way we came out and played, that was the USA mentality.”
The women’s football gold medal match will take place between Canada and Sweden tomorrow (6 August) 9 p.m. JST at International Stadium Yokohama.
