Team USA soccer is worth gold again!
For the first time since 2012, the United States won a gold medal by beating a strong Brazilian team 1-0 thanks to a goal from Mallory Swanson in the 57th minute.
The winning goal came from an assist by Korbin Albert, who played the ball to the attackers, who had gotten behind the Brazilian defense.
There were no players from the team that won the gold medal in Paris on Saturday in the selection.
Sophia Smith didn’t touch the ball and therefore had a chance of being offside, but Swanson was offside, allowing her to tap the ball into the net with relative ease.
Mallory Swanson scored the winning goal in the 57th minute against Brazil
Team USA won its first gold medal in women’s soccer since 2012 in London
Brazil has failed to score a single goal in the Olympic final against the United States twice so far, the last time being in 2008. It is the only time in history that Brazil has failed to win a single goal.
There were a couple of goals in both halves of injury time as American goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher made a great save to keep the Brazilians from counterattacking.
The final is also likely to be the last major tournament for Brazilian football legend Marta, who came on as a substitute in the second half.
This was the first major tournament for Emma Hayes, who led the US women.
Hayes won the Women’s Super League title in her final season as manager of English club Chelsea before moving to America.
Team USA was disappointingly eliminated in the round of 16 of last summer’s World Cup
In Hayes’ first 10 games as coach of the U.S. women’s national team, the Yanks went undefeated and held eight teams to clean sheets.
Swanson was forced to miss the 2023 World Championships due to a serious knee injury, but got some compensation on Saturday by leading Team USA to victory.
This is the fifth Olympic gold medal for a US women’s team in the eighth time the competition has been held at the Summer Olympics.
The U.S. women had been in every gold medal match until 2016, but missed the final two matches before Saturday’s victory.
The Olympic victory comes a year after American soccer fans were disappointed when the team was eliminated in the round of 16 of the World Cup by Sweden on penalties.
That performance led to the dismissal of Vlatko Andonovski, who replaced two-time world champion coach Jill Ellis.