Mallory Swanson scored the winning goal and the United States beat Brazil 1-0 in the women’s soccer final at the Olympics on Saturday, winning gold for a record fifth time.
Brazil fought hard on a hot afternoon at the Parc des Princes, but the United States scored just before the hour mark when Swanson, making her 100th cap, crossed the goal to fool keeper Lorena.
It is the first time the United States has won an Olympic title in 12 years, its gold medal in Paris joining those won in 1996, 2004, 2008 and 2012.
“I’m amazed at how hard everyone has worked to get here,” said wing Trinity Rodman.
“I believed in it the whole time, but to finally be able to hold (the gold medal) is so incredible.” The United States has beaten Brazil in three of those Olympic finals, with the South Americans set to take silver there again, as they did in Athens in 2004 and in Beijing four years later. It is not the result that its legendary captain Marta, who left her sixth and last Olympics at the age of 38 with a third silver medal, was hoping for.
“We pushed throughout the competition to reach the final, that was our main goal, to leave with a medal,” said Marta. Brazil was not expected to go this far, while the victory of the United States confirms its revival under the new English manager Emma Hayes.
Arriving from Chelsea at the end of May, he worked wonders with a team that had been eliminated from the World Cup at the round of 16 the year before. “I’m very touched. It was a dream for me to be in this position,” Hayes told Eurosport.
She described her team as “consisting of great people, players and models, I love it.”