EXCRUCIATING & BEAUTIFUL
Penalties send women on emotional roller-coaster on the way to gold
There is no more heartbreaking way to lose a soccer game than on penalties. And there is no more thrilling way to win one.
The Canadian women's national team found themselves on both ends of the spectrum, repeatedly, in a matter of moments. They were up, they were down, they were doomed. It was excruciating and terrifying and beautiful all at once. It was the human drama of sport, distilled down to some kicks from 12 yards out.
But in the end those kicks fell their way, and a ball bashed off the left foot of Julia Grosso, and then the hand of Swedish goalkeeper Hedvig Lindahl, was the difference between defeat and the biggest victory in Canadian soccer history.
“I'm completely overwhelmed,” said Christine Sinclair, the captain who watched the penalty shootout with her teammates, having been substituted late for fresh legs. “We don't make it easy on ourselves.”
Sinclair watched as Stephanie Labbé saved two Sweden attempts, and Swedish captain Caroline Seger sailed a would-be match winner over the crossbar, and then Sinclair pulled off her substitute's penny as Grosso stepped up with the gold medal on her boot. When the kick glanced into the net, she and her teammates sprinted toward Grosso, eyes wide, arms out, shouting for all they were worth. A 1-1 game that was won 3-2 on penalty kicks. The first ever soccer gold for Canada. The first gold in any team sport in the Summer Olympics for the country.
“Honestly, when I first started playing with the national team, we were losing 9-0 to the United States,” said Sinclair, 38. “And that was, like, normal.
“And to be a part of this group, standing at the top of the podium? Honestly, I never thought
I'd be a part of that.”
With the victory at International Stadium Yokohama, which stretched into the late hours of a sweltering night after the last-minute venue and time switch of the game to avoid blistering midday Tokyo heat, Canada managed the rare feat of winning three straight knockout games without a goal from open play. They beat Brazil in a shootout after a nil-nil draw in the quarters, beat the United States in the semifinals on a Jessie Fleming penalty conversion, and made it to a shootout against Sweden on the back of another penalty take from Fleming — this one after Sinclair drew the foul in the box.
Labbé, the goalkeeper with two shootout wins in the medal round now on her resume, did not hold back when she was asked what it felt like.
“It feels f---ing great,” she said, a huge smile on her face.
Labbé, 34, from Edmonton, was a bundle of energy during the shootout, grinning and jumping around and just generally trying to unnerve the Swedish kickers.
There were long stretches of the game where it did not seem like Labbé would have the chance to perform her shootout heroics. Sweden dominated most of the first half, with a 10-3 advantage on shots and Canada unable to put a single shot on target. Sweden, silver medallists at Rio 2016, were dictating the play and Canada was just hanging on, looking like a team that might have a bit of a hangover from finally beating the United States for the first time in 20 years.
They were going to upgrade the two consecutive Olympic bronze medals to something better than that, but all it had taken to get to this point seemed to have taken a toll.
But not unlike that game against the Americans, Canada created a scoring chance out of seemingly nothing, this time a ball out to Allysha Chapman on the left flank in the 65th minute, and then a pass into Sinclair in front of goal. It wasn't a clear opportunity for the captain, but Swedish defender Amanda Ilestedt bundled through the back of her leg, taking her down. After a short review, the penalty was given, and again Fleming, the 23-year-old from London, was on target, ripping a shot low and left to beat Lindahl.
Both teams had chances to score again before full-time, and then Sweden took over in the extra periods, again driving the bulk of the play. Each team again had chances to put it away in the dying moments, with Jordyn Huitema, who had come on for Sinclair, hammering a header wide and then Sweden's Lina Hurtig flicking a header just beyond Labbé's post. But despite a 24-14 edge in shots for the Swedes over 120 minutes, they could not get that second goal.
Then it was Labbé time. And, eventually, Grosso time.
“This is a surreal feeling,” the 20-year-old from Vancouver would say afterward. “I honestly have no words.”
Of the shot, she said: “I just stayed calm and collected,” adding that she didn't want to think about what it meant at that point, because she didn't want the nerves that would come with it. “I just took a breath and shot it into the corner,” she said. Sinclair she had removed the penny, ready to run and celebrate, because she had an inkling that Grosso would end it.
“You just felt it with Julia,” Sinclair said. “She's calm, she's cool.”
When Sinclair spoke with reporters after the game, she had a ball tucked under her arm. Was that the game ball? She said that FIFA had given it to her, but she had also grabbed one off the field after the shootout.
“Now I have two,” she said. And a gold medal. A fine night's work.
... To be a part of this group, standing at the top of the podium? Honestly, I never thought I'd be a part of that.