The all-time international record goalscorer Christine Sinclair praised Bev Priestman for “changing the attitude of the team” and said they were “claiming” the English manager for their own after she led Canada to Olympic gold and Sinclair to her first major tournament victory at 38.
University of Texas’s Julia Grosso scored the decisive penalty as Canada beat back-to-back silver medallists Sweden in a sudden-death shootout after a Jessie Fleming penalty cancelled out Stina Blackstenius’s first-half strike to force the game beyond 90 minutes. The veteran goalkeeper Hedvig Lindahl and her counterpart Stephanie Labbé were the heroes with each team scoring only two of their first five penalties before the latter stopped the Chelsea defender Jonna Andersson’s tame effort and Grosso scored to give Canada the victory.
“After the World Cup it was kind of like, urgh, things weren’t clicking,” said Sinclair. “I missed the first camp that the national team had with Bev and when I came in to that second camp you could just tell there was something different about this team, that Bev had instilled this sense of belief, confidence and bravery that we hadn’t seen before.”
“Ouch!”, she added, when reminded that her manager is three years younger than her, before explaining that the team was now embracing its talents. “We now play to our strengths,” she said. “Bev definitely brought that to our team and we have a gold medal so she must have done something right.”
Priestman said she was proud to have helped finally get gold around the neck of Sinclair. “An all-time great who’s going to go on for another four years, I can feel it, I can sense it,” she said with a big smile. “Listen, I can see every player did it for themselves, for their country but also for an absolute legend.”
For those expecting a thriller to match the seven-goal spectacle between the USA and Australia in the battle for bronze the night before, there will have been disappointment. However, there is a reason that Sweden and Canada progressed at the expense of the swashbuckling third- and fourth-placed teams. Sweden had conceded three times and kept three clean sheets on their run to their second successive Olympic final. Canada had similarly conceded three goals in normal time (the team’s 0-0 draw with Brazil went to penalties too).
It took Blackstenius, who plays for Sweden’s BK Häcken, until the 34th minute to give Sweden the edge in the chess match playing out on the pitch as she poked in Kosovare Asllani’s cross after the midfielder had danced past two defenders on the right to give the Swedes hope that they would exorcise the pain of their silver medal in Rio and their bronze at the World Cup in 2019.
As players grabbed water bottles from the touchline at every opportunity, the original mind-boggling decision of the IOC to hold the game in the searing 11am heat at the shot-put-cratered Tokyo Olympic Stadium looked even more ludicrous. As the clock had ticked towards the new 9pm kick-off at the replacement Yokohama Stadium, the temperature was 29C with 75% humidity and phones showed the “feels like” temperature as 34C.
Looking to get Canada’s players on the ball more Priestman, the first English manager in an Olympic final since George Raynor in 1948, made two half-time changes, bringing on Grosso and the West Ham forward Adriana Leon.
It would be the introduction of Deanne Rose though, the player brought down for Canada’s penalty against the United States in their semi-final, that would pull them back into the game. Her ball toward Sinclair caught the Swedish defence out, Amanda Ilestedt clipped the left foot of the veteran forward from behind and, after a two-minute VAR consultation, up stepped the 23-year-old Fleming to send Lindahl the wrong way and draw Canada level.
Canada too have suffered in this competition with back-to-back bronze medals in London and Rio having twice missed out on the final to the eventual gold medallists both times, the US and then Germany.
With Priestman’s astute substitutions having swung the momentum Canada’s way at each point the flagging legs needed a boost, they took their superiority into extra time. But Sweden would go closest, with a scrap in the box seeing the ball cleared off the line with three minutes remaining.
In the shootout, Asllani hit the post, Anna Anvegård and Jonna Andersson had their efforts saved, and the captain Caroline Seger blasted over for Sweden when the 36-year-old had the chance to give them gold. Lindahl saved from Ashley Lawrence and Leon, while Vanessa Gilles crashed her strike off the bar. But Grosso stepped up to power home the winner.
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Priestman said: “I came into this tournament knowing the opportunity to have five subs would be critical and for the first time we have the depth and every player could contribute to helping us get a gold medal. You have to be brave.”
Sinclair said she hoped the gold added to their two bronzes would prompt investment in the game in Canada. “I hope we inspired a lot of people back home and I hope we see some investment in the women’s game,” she said. “I think it’s time Canada gets a professional league or some professional teams and if a gold medal and three Olympic medals doesn’t do that nothing will. I think it’s time for Canada to step up. That’s what I hope they saw today.”