Canadian Gold in Toyko!
Canadian Women's National Soccer Team Delivers a Thrilling Olympic Gold-Medal Victory Versus Sweden
The Canadian National Women's Soccer Team's incredible Olympic run in Tokyo is now complete with a gold-medal victory.
After back-to-back bronze medals at the last two Olympic Games, Team Canada defeated Sweden by the final score of 3-2 on penalty kicks in a thrilling finish to win the gold medal at the 2020 Games.
The end result was a huge surprise, and some say, a shocker.
This marks Canada's first-ever women's soccer gold medal and its first major international soccer tournament victory, defeating favourite Sweden in a dramatic penalty-kick shootout. The championship game was also the first-ever penalty-kick shootout in a women's Olympic soccer gold medal match.
Canada goalkeeper Stephanie Labbe came up huge once again with two dramatic saves in the shootout, setting up 20-year-old Julia Grosso for the final moment of glory. She scored the final spot kick that clinched it for Canada. This was the second shootout win by Canada in the tournament after it knocked out Brazil in the quarterfinals on extra kicks following a 0-0 draw in regulation.
This was a memorable tournament for the Canadian Team, which finished undefeated (3-0-3), only allowing four goals in six matches. Manager Bev Priestman certainly deserves credit for injecting confidence into the squad and expertly managing the team through a grueling tournament schedule.
Canadian soccer legend Christine Sinclair, who has scored more international goals than any man or woman, finally won her first gold medal – at the age of 38. She led the Canadian women to two soccer bronze medals at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics.
Way to go, Team Canada! What a golden performance!
Photo Credit: Reuters / Lisi Niesner
