Julia Grosso kicks Canada to women's soccer gold in sudden death shootout over Sweden
After two halves and two periods of extra time didn't determine a winner, Canada and Sweden went to penalty kicks on Friday for the women's soccer Olympic gold medal, tied at 1-1.
And that still wasn't enough.
Both teams kicked poorly in the first stage of the shootout, which ended in a 2-2 tie after three misses from both teams. That tie set up a sudden death shootout.
Sweden's Jonna Andersson went first. Her effort up the middle resulted in an easy save for Canadian goalkeeper Stephanie Labbé. It was Sweden's third straight penalty-kick miss.
The gold medal then rest on the right foot of 20-year-old Canadian midfielder Julia Grosso. She delivered, sending the ball past a diving Hedvig Lindhal to secure Canada's first gold medal in women's soccer.
FOR THE FIRST TIME - CANADA HAS WON GOLD IN WOMEN'S SOCCER! 🥇#TokyoOlympics pic.twitter.com/nj0TwLt8Z9
— #TokyoOlympics (@NBCOlympics) August 6, 2021
The victory capped a breakthrough Olympics for Canada, which vanquished the favored rival U.S. women's national soccer team in the semifinal round to advance to the gold medal game.
The penalty kick session got off to an ominous start when Sweden's Kosovare Asllani hit the right post with the first kick. Canada's Jessie Fleming got the scoring started to give Canada a 1-0 lead. But three straight Canadian misses — including a Vanessa Gilles effort off the crossbar — gave 36-year-old Swedish captain Caroline Seger a chance to win the shootout and the gold medal in the final round with Sweden leading 2-1.
Her effort sailed over the top of the goal. Canada's Deanne Rose then delivered on a must-make kick to tie the shootout at 2-2 to set up Grosso's heroics.
Sweden controlled the game through the first half. Stina Blackstenius scored on a cross from Asllani at the 34-minute mark after Canada turned the ball over in its own territory. Sweden took a 1-0 lead into halftime. But it wouldn't score again in regulation.
Fleming, who scored the first goal in the shootout, also scored Canada's only goal in regulation, tying the game on a penalty kick in the 67th minute. A penalty on Sweden's Amanda Ilestedt set up the kick. Officials didn't call the penalty on the field, but VAR determined that Ilestedt fouled Christine Sinclair in the box. Fleming delivered on the kick, sending it left as Lindhal dove right.
Sweden outshot Canada 30-14 in regulation. But only six of those shots landed on goal, as Canada did enough to survive the game and secure victory in the shootout.
More from Yahoo Sports:
