Page 9 - Keynsham Town Ladies programme

KEYNSHAM TOWN LADIES 9
Canada strike gold

Canada beat Sweden on penalties to win women's football gold at Tokyo 2020. It marks
a first Olympic gold in the competition for the Canucks, who won successive bronze
medals in London and Rio.

The game went to extra time after Canada's Jessie Fleming equalised from the penalty
spot to cancel out Stina Blackstenius' opener. Midfielder Julia Grosso scored the winning
penalty in the shootout as Canada won 3-2.

In a game of few chances, Sweden's Blackstenius opened the scoring in the 34th
minute, beating goalkeeper Stephanie Labbe with her low, first time strike from
Kosovare Asllani's cross. But Fleming equalised from the penalty spot after veteran
forward Christine Sinclair was fouled by Amanda Ilestedt.

Referee Anastasia Pustovoytova initially waved away Canada's appeals, but the Russian
pointed to the spot after the video assistant referee showed the Canadian was kicked
from behind as the pair challenged for a loose ball inside the box.

With the scores level after 120 minutes, both sides looked nervous as they lined up for
the shootout, which lacked real quality as seven of the 12 penalties were either missed
or saved. Nathalie Bjorn and Olivia Schough scored from the spot for Sweden, but
Grosso won it for Canada after Fleming and Deanne Rose also converted their spot-kicks.

Sweden have taken the silver in successive Olympic women's football finals after their
Rio 2016 loss to Germany.

The victory is a first major title for Canada boss Bev Priestman, who was born in County
Durham and coached England's women's under-17 squad before becoming Phil Nev-
ille's assistant coach with the senior team from 2018-2020. She was appointed head
coach of Canada in October 2020 after previous spells coaching their youth teams.

The bronze medal went to the United States after they won a thrilling game 4-3 against
Australia.
Megan Rapinoe and Carli Lloyd both scored twice to give the USA a consolation win
after having been beaten 1-0 by Canada in the semi finals, whilst Australia, for whom
fourth place is their best ever performance in the competition, replied with a goal
apiece from Sam Kerr, Caitlin Foord and Emily Gielnik.

Front cover photo:
Kerry Walklett in action during our pre-season friendly with Abingdon Utd
(Women’s Soccer Scene).