The roaring crowd at the Maracana Stadium desperately wanted Lisa Dahlkvist to miss.
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After making a penalty save that helped Sweden get past the US women’s team in the quarterfinals, Lindahl made two stops against Brazil at the Maracana Stadium to secure her team’s spot in the Olympic final for the first time.
And it was the second time Dahlkvist had come through under pressure on penalties: Her kick ousted the favored US women in the quarterfinals. “Simple answer”, Dahlkvist said, laughing while describing how she tuned out the din at the almost full stadium.
Sweden, which has never before played in the gold medal match at the Olympics, will face Germany on Friday at the Maracana, the site of the men’s World Cup final in 2014. Goals from tournament top scorer Melanie Behringer and Sara Daebritz confined Canada to a 2-0 defeat and another battle for the bronze they won in London four years ago against Brazil in Sao Paolo on Friday.
There seemed to have been a realisation from the Swedish boss that they no longer have the legs or the power to take the game to the best teams in the women’s game, so she looked to play to their strengths.
And longtime goalkeeper Nadine Angerer, another former world player of the year, departed after last summer’s World Cup. “When the players reach the national team they are already very well prepared by the clubs”.
“Nothing will take the shine off the work we did during the whole year”, Marta told SporTV. “We have the match for the bronze medal now, and we will fight until the end to get that medal”. We tried to break through with three, four attackers.
Don’t expect any trash talk from either player like what came from the USA goalie Hope Solo, who called the Swedes cowards.
Her opposite number, Pia Sundhage hasn’t had the easiest spell in charge of her national team either, and an Olympic final and at least silver medal will be enough to pacify her superiors but if it’s enough for the fans, will remain to be seen.
Veteran midfielder Formiga, the only woman to play in all six Games since women’s football was introduced to the Olympics, came close to a fairytale end when her low header was just kept out by Lindahl in the fourth minute of stoppage time.
Lindahl had stopped Alex Morgan’s opening penalty in the shootout against the Americans in Brasilia on Friday, when Sweden won 5-4 to upset the five-time gold medalists. Afterward, U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo drew attention for calling Sweden “a bunch of cowards” for its style of play.
Pia Sundhage, if you are a keen follower of the women’s game, needs no introduction, she is now just one game away from winning gold at the Olympics for the third consecutive games.
Marta has scored 104 goals in 107 global appearances.
Brazil’s Marta (L) vies for the ball with Sweden’s Elin Rubensson during their semifinal. “What people are saying, it is not a big deal as very often you say it and sometimes I don’t even think you mean it”. “I don’t want to think about this right now”, she asserted. “We don’t make a big thing of it, we talk about football”.
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“What could be nicer than to have your last game with your team here, as a team coach playing for the gold medal in this fantastic stadium”, Neid said. Still, that gave him Olympic gold medal No. 8 and a third straight 200 title to go with the same trifecta in the 100 metres.
