Megan Rapinoe and Carli Lloyd both scored twice as the United States claimed consolation bronze with a thrilling 4-3 win over Australia in the Olympic women’s football tournament on Thursday. Rapinoe, who refused to speculate about her international future after a semi-final loss to Canada, scored a straight goal from Kashima’s corner before Sam Kerr equalized, making her Australia’s all-time leading scorer.
Rapinoe struck again and Lloyd drilled a third for the Americans just before half-time on his 312th international appearance – second only to Christine Lillee, whose 354 caps are the most in the history of the game.
The 39-year-old Lloyd added a fourth in the second half after a more questionable Australian defence, with Matildas making a brilliant comeback despite goals from Caitlin Ford and Emily Gilnick.
“It’s amazing. It’s not necessarily what we wanted, we always have the standard to win every game and win every championship, but honestly it matters a lot,” said Rapinoe, who won Olympic gold in 2012 Was.
Coach Vlatko Andonovsky recalled both Rapinoe and Lloyd to the line-up after USA’s first loss to Canada in 20 years, which ruined their hopes of a fifth Olympic title in seven editions.
“I am very proud of the group, the way we reacted today and the way we have been together throughout this tournament. It’s really easy to start pointing fingers,” Rapinoe said.
“I think we just let it go for a bit. Obviously we haven’t played our best football through this tournament and it didn’t really click. We wanted to end this tournament on a good note. “
Rapinoe catches the goalkeeper
It was a much more absorbing contest than a 0–0 draw between the teams in the group stage, with Rapinoe leading the United States by eight minutes when he scored a corner, shining ahead of Australia goalkeeper Tegan Micah. Hit the whip
Kerr went ahead of Lisa de Vanna with her 48th international goal and squeezed the ball in front of Adriana French – for the injured Alyssa Naher – to bring Australia level at quarter-hour.
French flew to his right to clear away a Kerr header, but Rapinoe soon punished a wrong clearance by Alana Kennedy, rifling home a brilliant volley to put the Americans back in front.
Australia again had to pay for losing the ball to their own half as Lindsay Horan slipped into Lloyd, the two-time Olympic gold medalist and World Cup winner, hitting her shot inside the far post.
A more difficult defense by Australia without the suspended Ellie Carpenter after a red card against Sweden allowed Lloyd to go past the backline and make it 4-1 early in the second half.
But to their credit, Australia continued to threaten and were rewarded when an unmarked Ford went ahead of the French with more than 30 minutes to go.
Kerr saw his header spin away from the target after rebounding from the post, while Gilnick’s exploratory drive from distance in the final minute was in vain.
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