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Canada 1 – 0 France
Canada brings home the bronze medal in one of the most dramatic ways possible. With extra-time looming in just 30 seconds, Diana Matheson side-footed in the winning goal in the 92' to make it 1-0 against France.
After the ball was poked away from Sophie Schmidt by French midfield Camille Abily, Matheson collected the ball and played it back up. Schmidt's initial shot deflected off a defender and Matheson pounced on the rebound to put it in the empty net. It was Canada's only dangerous shot on goal.
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The win secured Canada's first Olympic medal in a traditional team sport since the men's silver medal winning performance in basketball at Berlin 1936.
Both John Herdman and his French counterpart Bruno Bini selected the same starting line ups that had brought their respective teams success in the latter part of the tournament. For the fourth time, Herdman started Erin McLeod; Marie-Eve Nault, Carmelina Moscato, Lauren Sesselmann, Rhian Wilkinson; Desiree Scott, Diana Matheson, Sophie Schmidt; Christine Sinclair, Melissa Tancredi; and Jonelle Filigno in a 4-2-3-1.
A rather pedestrian first half at the City of Coventry Stadium saw both squads playing at a slow pace and easily conceding possession back to the other side with no one successfully controlling the tempo of the match.
Canada's best scoring opportunity early on came in the 15' when Wilkinson squared the ball to Sinclair, but her shot sailed. For France, Elodie Thomis stormed up her right flank in the 27' and unleashed a shot from a tight angle. McLeod came out in time to palm away the danger. Thomis and Gaetane Thiney sent their other opportunities high and wide.
Conscientious of the refereeing controversy in the Canada vs. the United States semi-final, centre ref Jenny Palmqvist of Sweden called the third place match very tightly.
Similar to France's second half rally against Japan in their semi-final, the French emerged from the half-time break by dominating possession and substitutting on impact players like Abily and Eugenie Le Sommer later on. This was France's match to win, yet, Canada was scrappy in fending off the onslaught while being outshot 18 to 4 officially (others report 25 to 4).
France couldn't find the back of the net despite, for instance, Marie-Laure Delie putting the ball wide (47'); Thiney beating McLeod and putting it off the post (62'); Thomis one-timing the ball off the crossbar (63'); Le Sommer (64'), Abily (65') and Corine Franco (78') sailing their shots and many more opportunities.
Canada had two superb saves to keep themselves in the match. In the 49', McLeod just got her fingertips on a deflected shot by Louisa Necib. Then, in the 70', a shot by Franco off a corner kick was saved off the line by Desiree "The Destroyer" Scott.
The victory over France was redemption against a team who's put Canada through misery in their past two meetings. Canada was knocked out of the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup on a blistering 4-0 loss to France and was unable to defend their Cyprus Cup title for only the second time since the tournament's inception in 2008 when France won 2-0 in the final this March.
With the addition of today's result to last year's WWC finish, France has placed fourth in consecutive major tournaments. Despite coming up short, the French have marked their place on the world stage in just one year's time as a technically gifted team with speed to burn.
As the statistics currently stand, Sinclair has set a women's record with the most goals scored, six, in a single Olympic Games.
Looking beyond this year, the stage has now been set for Canada to host the 2015 Women's World Cup. CTV is already running ads for the tournament. Following the bronze medal performance, Matheson said, "We came in wanting to leave a legacy for Canadian soccer ahead of 2015. We did that."
Indeed, the Canadian public is incredibly interested in women's soccer; the Canada vs. USA semi-final averaged 3.84 million viewers, peaking at 10.7 million. These are the highest Olympic ratings on TSN second only to the Vancouver 2010 men's gold medal hockey match.
Congratulations to the Canadian Women's Soccer Team on making history!
While pursuing a career in non-profit event planning and fundraising,
Lissa provides in depth coverage of the CanWNT for All White Kit and
RedNation.
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