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The story was beyond her grasp, but the United States women’s football team is not leaving Tokyo empty-handed.
In what was potentially their national team’s swan song, Carli Lloyd and Megan Rapinoe made sure that they did. The two senior statesmen each scored twice, propelling the United States to a bronze medal with a 4-3 win over Australia that was not as close as the end result indicated.
It was arguably America’s best performance at the Summer Olympics, an aggressive and complete victory that was different from its struggles for most of the Games. The USWNT hoped to become the first team to win a World Cup title with a gold medal, but that dream ended in a 1-0 semi-final loss to Canada in which they dominated their opponent, 13-3.
The disappointment of this game did not have a negative impact on the Americans. Rapinoe, 36, struck first, from a direct corner – an Olympico at the Olympics – in the eighth minute. She scored another goal in the 21st minute with a soft volley on a missed Aussie clearance.
Lloyd, a 39-year-old former Rutgers and USWNT’s longest-serving Olympian, sent the United States into the locker room on a good foot during the first half stoppage. She scored again – her 10th career Olympic goal, her record in the United States – six minutes after intermission. Caitlin Foord, Sam Kerr and Emily Gielnik scored for Australia, with Gielnik’s explosion in the 90th minute creating a four-minute timeout for the USWNT, but the Americans shut it down.
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It was a bittersweet final for the United States, the top ranked team in the world. The Olympics got off to a bad start, with a dismal 3-0 loss to Sweden, ending a 44-game winning streak. There was a scoreless draw in the group stage against Australia and a shootout victory over the Netherlands in the quarter-finals, before the loss to Canada.
Their time in Japan ended on a positive note, however, with the kind of performance expected of them more frequently at these Games.
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