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Carli Lloyd scored the only goal for the United States. (CHRIS ADUAMA/ aduama.com) |
“It was an exciting game, you could hear it in the crowd’s reaction,” said Sundhage. “The way we played in the second half was very good and we created a lot of chances. This is the environment that really matters when you have the word “final” attached to it and being pushed to penalty kicks it’s one of the best things that could happen to the U.S. team in this tournament. You can’t match the feeling in practice of taking penalty kicks in a game like this, and it could happen in the Olympics. But I am very happy for the team as there were so many good things out there tonight.”
The USA outshot Canada 24-10 during the match but ran into a red-hot goalkeeper in Erin McLeod, who played a Herculean game for her country. She made 10 total saves, including at least a half-dozen spectacular goal-saving stops
But in the end, it was Barnhart who ended up being the hero, diving to her left to push away Brittany Timko’s penalty kick on Canada’s seventh attempt of the shootout.
In the 107th minute of the first overtime period, Canadian forward Kara Lang chopped down Lloyd on a hard tackle from behind about 28 yards from the net just left of the penalty arc, earning a yellow card for the challenge. Stung by the tackle, Lloyd stayed on the turf for a few moments before rising and pulling off a moment of brilliance.
Lloyd sent her hard, dipping shot over the wall and into the lower left corner on a bounce, finally finding a way past McLeod, then celebrated with a sprint to the bench area where she was engulfed by her teammates.
It seemed the goal would be enough to seal the win, but Canada got an improbable equalizer just three minutes from the end of overtime. The Canadians earned a corner kick which was floated in from the left side to Melissa Tancredi, who jumped in a pack of players and nodded the ball home from close range. It was Canada’s only shot on goal in the whole second half and overtime, but good enough to send the game to penalties.
The U.S. got penalty kick goals from Lloyd, Angela Hucles, Christine Rampone, Abby Wambach, Leslie Osborne and Heather O’Reilly.
Canadian captain Christine Sinclair converted her spot kick, as did Tancred, Clare Rustad, Kara Lang and Rhian Wilkinson. That set the stage for Timko’s kick with score 6-5. Timko hit her shot solid, but too close to Barnhart, who slapped the ball away, setting off a wild celebration from the U.S. players.
“I had got my full hand on Sinclair’s shot, but wasn’t able to deflect it over the goal as I was going right and she hit it straight up the middle,” said Barnhart. “I read a few of them wrong and went the wrong way, but on Timko’s I had a feeling she was going left and kind of read her. She didn’t hit it that well so I was able to make the save.”
U.S. WOMEN'S NATIONAL TEAM GAME REPORT:
Scoring Summary:
USA – Carli Lloyd (unassisted) 107th
CAN – Melissa Tancredi (n/a) 116th
Lineups:
USA: 24-Nicole Barnhart; 2-Rachel Buehler, 3-Christie Rampone – Capt., 15-Kate Markgraf, 17-Lori Chalupny; 12-Leslie Osborne, 11-Carli Lloyd, 5-Lindsay Tarpley (9-Heather O’Reilly, 62), 10-Kacey White (16-Angela Hucles, 76); 6-Natasha Kai (20-Abby Wambach, 46), 19-Amy Rodriguez.
CAN: 18-Erin McLeod; 9-Candace Chapman, 10-Martina Franko, 11-Randee Hermus (5-Robyn Gayle, 46), 4-Clare Rustad, 8-Diana Matheson (19-Alexandra Marton, 100), 16-Jonelle Filigno (17-Brittany Timko, 70), 7-Rhian Wilkinson, 12-Christine Sinclair, 14-Melissa Tancredi, 15-Kara Lang.
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