Hope Solo after loss to Sweden: They’re ‘cowards’

Sweden ended a disconsolate Marta’s dreams of guiding Brazil’s women to a first Olympic football gold medal Tuesday with a 4-3 penalty shoot-out win to book their place in the gold medal match. They did just that.

After Stina Blackstenius latched onto a hopeful ball over the top to slip between the centre backs and slot the ball past Hope Solo into the far corner, the USA ramped up the pressure.

“They tried to counter with long balls”. Alex Morgan netted the equalizer in the 78th and the match went to extra time.

120 minutes of high drama in front of a near capacity 60,000 crowd in Belo Horizonte produced no goals between Brazil and Australia. Crystal Dunn was immediately introduced and her presence proved to be the catalyst as the U.S. resorted parity late on after Alex Morgan connected with the ball in the box to get the better of Hedvig Lindahl.

Marta, who has played her club football in Sweden for the past four years, was consoled by the Swedish players, whilst a huge crowd in excess of 70,000 at the iconic Maracana stadium gave their defeated team a huge ovation. Lloyd had a goal disallowed for the United States, which the forward was later told was for offside-it wasn’t-then Sweden went back up the other end of the pitch and Lotta Schelin also found the back of the net. Schelin, Lindsay Horan, Kosovare Asllani and Lloyd all finished past their opposite keepers before Solo pulled off a fine save to deny Linda Sembrandt, tying things up once more.

“We played a bunch of cowards”, Solo told Sports Illustrated. The last time the two teams met in the Olympics was at the 1996 Atlanta Games. I strongly believe that.

It is the first time in the history of women’s football in the Olympic Games that the United States of America won’t win a medal, and it didn’t go down well with some of the players, especially Solo.

“Sweden dropped off. They didn’t want to open play”, Solo said, explaining why she criticized her opponents.

“I’m very proud of this team”. They didn’t want to pass the ball.

Brazil coach Vadao introduced Cristiane for extra-time despite doubts over her fitness after missing the quarter-final through injury.

“I thought that we played a courageous game”, Solo reportedly said.

Brazil forward Marta, one of the biggest stars of the tournament, buried the first kick of the shootout.

Steph Catley had the chance to fire the Matildas into the semis, but Brazil goalkeeper Barbara broke their hearts, saving the game-winning kick, then doing the same to Alanna Kennedy’s shot, ensuring the host nation made it through to the final four.

Sweden, which has never before played in the gold match at the Olympics, will face Germany for gold on Friday at the Maracana, the site of the men’s World Cup final in 2014.

The closest Brazil came to scoring in the first half came in the 27th minute on a corner kick.

Wang Shanshan had been given a red card, picking up her second yellow after an hour-she was only on the pitch for nine minutes-making China’s task even harder. In the end, Melanie Behringer found the back of the net for Germany in the 76th minute, giving them the win and sending them on to the semi-finals.

The game remained scoreless until the 61st minute, when Swedish forward Stina Blackstenius angled in a ideal shot, which Solo could not get her gloves on, and scored. While France has one of the most talented rosters in the world, Canada came in undefeated in this Olympic tournament.

If Sweden are the USA’s bogey team, Canada are becoming the same for France.

Sweden’s best finish was in Athens when the team fell to Germany in the bronze medal match.