(Inserting some spoiler text here, so that people won’t be spoiled just by mousing over the thread title)
la la la
la la la
la la la
OK.
OH MY GOD I can’t believe we won that game. What a nailbiter. Yikes. The score could have easily been 5-0 Brazil at the end of regulation. But I thought it was a good result, even for Brazil – they’ve won their first medal ever, and they’ve proven they can play with (and, most likely, better than) the big boys. And it’s not like they actually got the ball into the net but had it called back or something. They just couldn’t score, except that once. (And what an amazing effort that cross was.)
Anyhow, a well deserved victory for the US women. Tarpley’s goal, in particular, was absolutely stunning.
I didn’t see the game (stupid first day of work), but I did hear an interesting thing on NPR about the game this morning. They were talking about how in Brazil, soccer is considered a men’s sport and it’s only recently that women playing soccer is becoming accepted. Apparently a woman playing soccer like 10 years ago was automatically considered a lesbian. Even now the coach said that parents come to him and ask him to try and dissuade their daughters from playing soccer, and instead to pick up something like volleyball. The coach tried to feminize the game a little by cutting the sleeves off the uniforms. So it was an ever bigger deal for the women to be in the finals, especially considering the men didn’t even make it in the Olympics.
I thought the US team was showing their age. Brazil was so fast, and used that speed to some amazing runs. Very talented, young players – look forward to seeing them in the future. But how great was it to see the US win on a set piece? In the past, the US has been the one team you didn’t want to give up a corner to, because they were so good on set pieces. I haven’t seen that very much in the Olympics, except for that sweet winning goal.
I would have liked to see a bit more assertive ref-ing (sp?). A few yellow cards could have cut down the huge number of fouls. Not to mention the dives. Holy cow, did anyone see the replay on that free-kick Brazil got called by the line ref in OT? The US players weren’t within a foot of her! I have to wonder what was up with the ref change due to “heat exhaustion”. I read the Swedish press online, but didn’t see any discussion of it (the first ref was Swedish).
Thanks for starting this thread, Max. Given the piss-poor turnout at yesterday’s event, it’s nice to hear that others really were watching the game and getting excited.
Great game! I agree with the OP, the Brazillian ladies were probably the better team. Scurry had a couple of great saves, and the two (!) late shots off the left post must have killed the Brazillian fans! Man, but they were great to watch – the foot work and speed was amazing. They must have all been playing against their brothers since they were 2 years old!
Great game, and great end to some wonderful careers.
Interestingly, I would argue that the US was probably the better team in the last gold medal game which they lost (in a heartbreaker) to Norway, and was also likely better than Germany last year in the world cup semifinal.
