Well I'm Long... and I'm Strong...
and I'm Bound to Get the Friction On...
Congratulations to the U.S. Olympics Womens' Soccer Team 2012.
LONDON — They stood on the medal stand because of Alex Morgan’s head and Abby Wambach’s feet, because of Hope Solo’s hands and Becky Sauerbrunn’s brain. There are teams that pay lip service to the group they have assembled, to togetherness and unselfishness and sacrifice for each other. And then there is the U.S. women's soccer team, which pulls those qualities together, ties them with a bow, and presents them as it did Thursday night, with Olympic gold at stake.
“We all have such an extreme belief in each other,” Wambach said. “I can’t explain it. . . . It’s the trust that we’re going to find a way.”
The U.S. women's soccer team won its third straight Olympic gold medal Thursday, beating Japan 2-1 in a rematch of last year's World Cup final and avenging the most painful loss in its history.
So against Japan, in front of a packed house at historic Wembley Stadium, a player who might have been discarded two weeks ago found the way. Carli Lloyd headed home one goal in the first half, then booted home another in the second, the tallies that beat Japan, 2-1, for the Americans’ fourth gold medal in five Olympic tournaments.
That it was Lloyd who became a star in front of 80,203 fans — more than have ever seen a women’s soccer game in England — fit the American team like a Speedo. When the United States opened this tournament July 25, Lloyd was on the bench. At 30, a veteran of two Olympics and two Women’s World Cups, this was not a position to which she was accustomed, nor one she embraced.
“If somebody tells me I’m not good enough to start,” Lloyd said Thursday, “I’m going to prove them wrong.”
<< Home