The U.S. women’s soccer team has lost its chances of Olympic gold in Tokyo after a loss to Canada in the competition’s semifinal match Monday, ending the top-ranked team’s hopes of chasing World Cup victory in 2019 with an Olympic win.
They are expected to take home the gold since they ranked number one in the world, but karma bites harder and they lost 1-0 in the semifinal contest.
It’s the second straight Olympics the U.S. team will not play in the gold medal match. Also, the team was knocked out by Sweden in the quarterfinals during the Rio Games in 2016.
The single goal was scored by Canada’s Jessie Fleming late in the second half, a penalty kick that sneaked by backup goalkeeper Adrianna Franch.
“Carli Lloyd — one of several legendary American players on the Olympic roster this year — crouched on the field, holding her head in her hands when the final whistle blew Monday,” The Washington Post detailed. Team USA now has no chance at gold, a feeling Lloyd no doubt was reflecting on.
Canada defeats the USWNT for the first time since 2001 to reach the women’s soccer gold medal game. pic.twitter.com/EudG9Hz7Yb
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) August 2, 2021
Team USA got off to a rocky start at the Tokyo Olympics, losing their opener to Sweden 3-0. Notably, before the game, all 22 players took a knee in solidarity with the radical leftist group Black Lives Matter before the game, a major point of contention with U.S. fans.
Yahoo Sports also reported that Team USA knelt before their kickoff, just as players on Sweden’s women’s team did:
The U.S. women’s national team and other soccer teams knelt before kickoff of their Olympic openers on Wednesday, the first demonstrations under slightly relaxed restrictions on protest at the Games.
The demonstrations were pre-planned, as they have been before various international soccer matches for over a year now as collective statements against racism and other forms of discrimination.
Canada is rather “woke,” too. One of the team’s players identifies as transgender. A midfielder known only as Quinn, formerly Rebecca Quinn, is biologically female but identifies as male or non-binary.
The team’s official roster and the Canada Soccer website list the soccer player with the singular name, Quinn.
In the Tokyo Olympics, under certain guidance, transgender athletes are allowed to compete against athletes of the gender with which they identify, as opposed to their biological sex.
Quinn, a biological female who identifies as male or “non-binary,” has not tried to participate on the men’s team, however.
Sources: Daily Wire, Washington Post, Yahoo News, Forbes
The weather was pleasant, cool air and blue skies. It could have been the middle of a hurricane but that’s how it felt when the score was announced. Team USA my *ss. Team CCCP is more appropriate. I fervently hope they think about being more concerned about political messages than playing messages and it cost them the gold.
Should have used that knee to honor God.