Oh, Canada! Rival ends U.S. women’s bid for gold
Soccer team will play for bronze in what could be last game for its older stars.
KASHIMA, Japan — A controversial call was the difference?
To Canada, that felt like justice, nine years in the making.
To the Americans, it felt unfamiliar and devastating.
And like the end of something.
“It sucks,” said forward Megan Rapinoe, who had not lost to Canada in her 15year national team career. “It was not a great performance. That’s one of the most frustrating things.
“We just haven’t been able to find the juice that we normally do.”
Following the shocking 10 loss, the juiceless U.S. team will return to sweltering Kashima on Thursday to play Australia for bronze, hoping to escape these Olympics with at least some sort of medal after being shut out in Rio. Canada, winner of the past
two bronze medals, will have its firstever shot at gold Friday in Tokyo against Sweden.
The bronzemedal match likely will be the last significant game for a handful of key players, including Rapinoe, 36, and forward Carli Lloyd, 39. Both came off the bench in the second half, hoping to inject life into the team.
It didn’t happen. The U.S. didn’t look like the reigning world champion that strikes fear in the hearts of opponents.
At the final whistle, Lloyd crouched on the field, her head buried in her hands.
“Heartbreaking,” she said later. “It just wasn’t good enough.”
She wasn’t ready to give her retirement speech.
“We have another game to play,” Lloyd said. “That’s all I’m thinking about it. I’d like to walk away with a bronze medal, at least.”
The fourtime gold medalists and reigning World Cup champions have looked sluggish and out of sorts since arriving in Japan. Were they too old, with an average age over 30? Did Vlatko Andonovski, coaching in his first major tournament, make errors? Did he rotate lineups too much, sacrificing chemistry to conserve legs?
“That’s what you have to weigh,” Cal alum Alex Morgan said of the balance between continuity and rest.
There was an undercurrent of unhappiness among the veterans, and Andonovski seemed defensive at times. He was the one who chose to stick with the older players. He was the one dictating tactics, preparing the team,
“We kind of had a feeling they were ripe for the picking.” Christine Sinclair, Canada forward
juggling lineups. He again made wholesale changes to the lineup Monday, keeping the team out of rhythm.
The Canadian team saw an opportunity to reverse history. Despite not having beaten their southern neighbors for two decades, and bringing a 3517 record against the U.S. into the game, the Canadians were optimistic. Coach Bev Priestman said that when the teams played in February, “we got sniffs of things we thought we could exploit.”
Forward Christine Sinclair, one of only two players left from the London Olympic team that endured a stinging — and to Canada, grossly unfair — loss to the United States in a semifinal, saw her chance.
“We kind of had a feeling they were ripe for the picking,” said Sinclair, the greatest goal scorer (with 187) of either gender in international soccer history.
Brutal but true. The U.S. team was playing on a razorthin margin with no room for error. The Americans couldn’t afford for anything to go wrong.
But in the first half against Canada, something did go terribly wrong. Goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher’s performance in the quarterfinal game against the Netherlands was the reason the United States was in the semifinal game. Thirty minutes into it, Naeher went up for a ball and came down awkwardly, hyperextending her knee. She tried to stay in the game, but within moments, waved to the sideline to be taken out. She left the field in tears and later left the stadium on crutches.
Backup Adrianna Franch came into the match, just her seventh appearance for the national team. For the United States team that we’re accustomed to seeing, a backup keeper merely would have to keep it tidy around the net, and let the offense do its job.
But this isn’t the same U.S. team. The offense could not get going, save in one group game against New Zealand, which — in hindsight — was the aberration, not the breakthrough.
In the 75th minute, Menlo Park’s Tierna Davidson tangled with Deanne Rose in the box. Initially no foul was called, but a VAR review changed that. Canada was awarded a penalty kick, Jessie Fleming converted it and a sense of doom fell over the ineffectual U.S. team. Rapinoe spoke of a lack of joy, and that absence was obvious (as was a lack of possession and efficiency).
The team that had struggled for goals all tournament pushed forward but couldn’t convert. The Americans’ last best chance was a header by Lloyd that hit the crossbar.
When the whistle blew, the Canadian celebration began. Nine years ago, Sinclair scored a hat trick at Old Trafford in Manchester, England, but gamesmanship by Abby Wambach and a controversial decision by the referee robbed her of a chance to play for gold. Now 38, she stood back and watched her younger teammates celebrate — reveling in what she has carried and built.
“We’ve waited nine years for this chance,” Sinclair said.
Drenched in sweat, the Americans looked stunned. They had dreamed of making history, becoming the first team to win backtoback World Cups and an Olympic gold.
Instead, they provided more evidence of just how hard that feat is: to stay focused and cohesive and connected as another year — in this case, two — passes and everyone grows older.
Now, after the bronzemedal game, there will be a reckoning. A page turning. There will be farewells. There will be new faces. There might be hard feelings.
“Obviously, there are a few of us closer to the end than the beginning,” Rapinoe said. “We‘ve had an amazing run. It’s kind of sad, but I feel like it’s in good hands. I feel like we’ve done our job.
“But you never want to have it end.”