Tears and smiles and medals.

This is a medal ceremony post for the CanWNT and the USWNT. Both my favourite teams made it to the podium, this was the most intense day of my life.

OK, maybe not of my life. But of these Olympics, for sure.

The Americans beat the Japanese 2-1, with two goals coming from midfielder Carli Lloyd. The turnout was fantastic - the largest audience ever at a women's soccer final at the Olympics. Japan had some chances late in the 2nd half, but they were ultimately not able to tie the game, prompting this reaction out of Megan Rapinoe:

Apparently Rapinoe also took her shirt off at one point during the celebrations....which I only heard about when I went online and everyone was talking about it. DAMN YOU TSN FOR NOT BROADCASTING THIS FOR ME. DO YOU KNOW HOW IMPORTANT THAT IS TO MY LIFE AND MY PERSONAL WELL-BEING??!!

And omg Kelley O'Hara....when did you get hot??!!!

  

This reaction from Rapinoe when she sees her family in the crowd will never cease to make me cry though:

OH MAN, PINOE. LET ME HUG YOU.

The Canadians:

So cool. Best player in the world, finally getting the recognition she deserves.

Aww. Someone commented about how the Canadians seemed totally attached to one another when they went to get their medals. Definitely a very cute team.

And apparently still very attractive, as these tumblr posts keeps confirming.

Next goal? Let's get Christine Sinclair to be Canada's flag bearer at the Closing Ceremonies. Take to twitter now with the hashtag #SinclairForFlagBearer. Go on. Go. You will receive brownie points from all the Canadian soccer gods of the universe.

Diana "barely 5 feet" Matheson got us the bronze.

It's been 76 years. 76 years.

76 years since Canada won an Olympic medal in a team sport. The last time was in 1936 in Berlin, where Canada won silver in men's basketball.

The Canadian team were clearly going to be playing a tough game today. France is ranked 6th in the world, and the last time we played France (which was March 6th of this year), Canada lost 2-0. When they played France at the FIFA Women's World Cup, Canada lost 4-0.

Just because they played a near winning game against the States, didn't mean that the game against France was going to come easy - considering Canada's history against France, considering the fact that France is incredibly good, and considering Canada has been through more physical and emotional turmoil than any other team in the tournament right now. Having FIFA on your heels investigating you can't be comforting.

France went into the game attacking, gaining most of the possession and getting so many chances against Erin McLeod - one of which was an indirect free kick that Desiree Scott got her hands on (or in this case, knee) to deflect it away from the goal line. Lots of post contact and lots of balls that were just not on target either. Canada was amazing on defence, but they were not doing much in terms of getting the ball out into French territory, and any passes they made to get it forward would almost always be intercepted. Definitely areas in Canada's game that need to be worked on before 2015, but this game did showcase their strengths defensively as well. With the French basically on their heels at all times, it wasn't until the +90th minute, basically, where fed by Schmidt on a very nice and busy attack on the part of the Canadians, Matheson drove the ball into the net. 

It was only Canada's third real chance on net the entire game, and it got in. France was clearly the better team throughout the game, but because of great goal-keeping and great defensive play by Canada, the French win was prevented. Canada taking everything out of their minimal opportunities was what got them the win in the end.

Also, I don't think Canada wanted to play more extra time like they did the last game.

One of the highlights though, besides the amazing Diana Matheson goal and the Erin McLeod leap saves, was midfielder and French captain Sandrine Soubeyrand checking out our players while they were lining up. She was blatantly checking them out, seemingly oblivious to the camera set right on her. It was hilarious. 

Some pics from this match:

Matheson goal pics:

Celebratory pics:

Remember when I called Diana Matheson in my July 1st post regarding the Canada v.s. USA game on June 30th?

DIANA, YOU'RE OUR HERO - ALL 4 FEET 11 INCHES OF YOU. GAH SO PROUD OF THAT GIRL AND OF THIS TEAM. WAY TO MAKE HISTORY AND INSPIRE FEMALE SOCCER PLAYERS IN THIS AWESOME COUNTRY.