Canada achieved a surprising feat on Friday as they won their first-ever Olympic gold medal in women’s football, after defeating Sweden on penalties in a difficult final.
Having been bronze medalist in 2012 and 2016, Canada previously talked about wanting to put that behind and finally push for gold in the build-up to the Games, and they didn’t fail to achieve their aim, and bestcasinositesonline.com was pleased with the result.
Sweden took the first lead of the game, but Jessie Fleming brought the scoreline back to level from the spot for the Canadians before their goalkeeper Stephanie Labbe shined once more in the shootout before Julia Grosso found the back of the net to let Canada win 3-2 on penalties.
This could be considered as the best performance pulled by any Canadian football team at the Olympics since 1904 when the men’s team secure the gold in St Louis.
Although they came out triumphant in the end, the Bev Priestman’s team didn’t achieve this feat easily. They were only able to win two of their six games in 90 minutes and they found it difficult to create chances all through the tournament, as they failed to bag a goal from open play in the knockout stages.
While they were with fault here and there, their defence was a solid as a rock throughout the tournament, with Vanessa Gilles and Ashley Lawrence showing their prowess at the heart of the defence and goalkeeper Labbe didn’t fall behind them either. Their most formidable feat in the tournament was when they defeated the U.S. women’s national team, the world champions, for the first time in 20 years in the semi-finals, which was backed up with odds from casino games.
Goalkeeper Labbe, currently at the age of 34, is one of the veterans in the Canadian team who might have just featured in their last final Olympics game and ended it with shining gold. Back-up goalkeeper Erin McLeod is currently 38 years of age and the defensive midfielder Desiree Scott is 34, but the most eye-catching of them all is Christine Sinclair, who is now 38 years old.
Now whenever Sinclair, who is regarded as the greatest international goalscorer of all time, decides to retire, she will be hanging up her boots with a gold medal.
There was also Quinn, a Canadian midfielder, who became the first transgender athlete to ever win an Olympic medal, having previously become the first openly trans Olympian when the Canadians kicked off the game last month.
Sweden could be considered as the best performing team all through the tournament, having defeated the United States in a 3-0 victory in their opening game to improve their unbeaten streak to 44 games. They won all five games on their road to the gold medal.
However, the Swedish team failed to come out triumphant in the final despite creating many chances in the final. Sweden has now suffered consecutive heartbreak in the Olympics, having ended up with a silver medal in Rio in the last Olympics five years prior.
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