OLYMPICS

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The U.S. women’s soccer team beats Australia for the bronze medal.

KASHIMA, Japan — It could not, even at the end, even when they were nearly across the line, be easy. Not this year.

The United States women’s soccer team came to Japan in search of gold. It is the prize the team always expects, the one it always believes it deserves.

This time, though, the opponents were better, the connections weren’t there, and neither were the results. Until Thursday, when they needed one last win, one last stand, in the bronze medal game to make something out of what could have been nothing.

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AUS flag
Australia
Women’s Bronze Medal Match
Final
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USA flag
United States
Sam Kerr (17’)

Caitlin Foord (54’)

Emily Gielnik (90’)

Megan Rapinoe (8’)

Megan Rapinoe (21’)

Carli Lloyd (45’ +1)

Carli Lloyd (51’)

The medal arrived in due course, delivered with a 4-3 victory powered by two of the team’s oldest players, Megan Rapinoe and Carli Lloyd, who both scored two goals in what might have been their final game in a major tournament.

“It’s obviously not the type of medal we wanted,” Rapinoe had said. But she made sure they got it anyway.

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The Americans had expected to win gold in this tournament, but they said they would play hard for bronze.
The Americans had expected to win gold in this tournament, but they said they would play hard for bronze.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times
Even at the end, it did not go easily. Australia proved to be a determined opponent and made the United States fight to the last minute, scoring twice in the final 40 minutes after falling behind by 4-1. The Americans even played the final four minutes with 10 players, out of substitutes and having watched Alex Morgan limp off after a collision.

But the job got done.

“You can’t win them all,” Lloyd had said after a semifinal defeat had ended her team’s hope for another Olympic championship. “This was my eighth tournament, and they’ve all had a different story line. They’ve all started and finished in a different fashion. Some have been pretty, some have been ugly, some we’ve just scraped by. This one we didn’t get by.”

— Andrew Das
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/08/04/sports/olympics-results-tokyo-medals?name=styln-olympics®ion=TOP_BANNER&block=storyline_menu_recirc&action=click&pgtype=LegacyCollection&variant=show&is_new=false#the-us-womens-soccer-team-beats-australia-for-the-bronze-medal