Morgan and Co. had nothing to present for a principally dominant efficiency Monday till midfielder Rose Lavelle was tripped up after dribbling the ball into the penalty space within the 76th minute. The 33-year-old Morgan, the leading scorer within the National Women’s Soccer League, transformed the penalty kick within the 78th for her 118th purpose in worldwide play.
“It just always feels good to be called a champion, and so this game means a lot to us,” Morgan stated after the sport on Paramount Plus. She added that Canada “gave us a run for our money” however she and her teammates may “feel good about our performance.”
Morgan additionally acknowledged that her aspect engaged in a little bit of gamesmanship simply earlier than her penalty kick, when midfielder Lindsey Horan first went to the spot earlier than ceding the try. Morgan then took the ball and beat Canada goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan, a teammate of hers on the NWSL’s San Diego Wave.
Canada’s win on the Tokyo Olympics was its first in 20 years in opposition to the two-time reigning World Cup champion. Canada went on to defeat Sweden for its first Olympic gold medal in ladies’s soccer; the Americans topped Australia for bronze.
Since then, the top-ranked Americans have gone 15-0-3, with an 11-match profitable streak that features a 3-0 victory over Costa Rica in a semifinal Thursday. Canada reached Monday’s last by topping Jamaica, 3-0. The Americans’ win Monday improved their file in opposition to sixth-ranked Canada to 52-4-7.
During a scoreless first half, the Americans generated possibilities early and late however couldn’t get an authoritative last contact. Mallory Pugh twice pressured Sheridan into troublesome saves, however the 24-year-old ahead additionally had a nasty miss on an open shot within the penalty space. Later within the half, ahead Sophia Smith couldn’t deal with a feed from proper again Sofia Huerta that discovered her contained in the six-yard field, permitting Sheridan to smother the ball. Smith additionally had a miss within the second half on an open internet, after taking a superb by way of ball from Morgan, earlier than the latter put their staff forward.
Morgan subsequently praised Smith, fellow ahead Trinity Rodman and different teammates comparatively inexperienced on the worldwide stage for “making a name for themselves at such a young age.” She added that their journey by way of the event in Mexico, for which Morgan gained finest participant honors after tying for the general lead with three targets, would “go a long way” within the main occasions to come over the subsequent two years.
After Coach Vlatko Andonovski determined to go along with a mixture of youth and expertise for the event, simply 5 gamers who began in opposition to Canada within the Olympic semifinals — goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher, defender Becky Sauerbrunn, Morgan and midfielders Lindsey Horan and Lavelle — returned to the beginning lineup Monday.
Canada will await September 2023, when it will get one other probability at clinching an Olympic berth in a playoff match in opposition to Jamaica, which defeated Costa Rica within the Concacaf W Championship’s third-place sport earlier Monday. With victories earlier on this event, the U.S. squad clinched a berth within the 2023 World Cup, as did Canada, Jamaica and Costa Rica.
Since ladies’s soccer turned a part of the Olympic program in 1996, the U.S. has been to all seven Summer Games and medaled in six of them, totaling 4 golds, most just lately in 2012, plus a silver and the 2021 bronze.