Canada shock USA to reach Olympic women’s football final

Jessie Fleming scored a second-half penalty as Canada stunned four-time Olympic women’s football champions the United States 1-0 Monday to reach the final for the first time.

Fleming’s nerveless 74th-minute spot-kick earned Canada a first win over their neighbours since 2001 and set up a clash with Sweden or Australia for gold.

Defeat ended USA’s 36-match unbeaten run against Canada. The world champions will face the losers of Monday’s second semi-final for the bronze medal.

“It sucks, obviously, you never want to lose,” said US forward Megan Rapinoe.

“You never want to lose to Canada, you never want to lose playing the way that we did. There’s 100 things we’d all want to do better. I think that’s the most frustrating thing for all of us,” she added.

USA and Canada combined for seven goals the last time they met at the Olympics, a memorable 4-3 semi-final win for USA after extra time at London 2012.

Canada ultimately finished with bronze nine years ago and ended third at Rio 2016 as well. 

“There’s some veterans on the team that still feel that hurt from 2012. I’m just over the moon for that group of players. Winners win and we’re going into this final to absolutely go and get a gold medal,” said Canada coach Bev Priestman.

It wasn’t until the introduction of Rapinoe, Carli Lloyd and Christen Press on the hour that the US recorded a first shot on target, a curling strike from Lloyd tipped over by Stephanie Labbe.

Yet they had won just once in four matches over 90 minutes in Japan, and fell behind when Canada were awarded a soft penalty following a VAR review.

Deanne Rose put Tierna Davidson under pressure chasing a loose ball and the Canadian went sprawling after a tangle of legs, with the referee pointing to the spot after consulting the pitchside monitor.

Fleming tucked the penalty beyond Franch, and there would be no comeback from the Americans, Lloyd’s header clipping the bar in the final minutes as their Olympics came to a tame end.