Americans surprise Australia by scoring a last-second goal to take bronze in women’s soccer.
The Americans surprised Australia by scoring an extra-time try in the final seconds to secure victory by 14-12 and claim the bronze medal for female rugby in the 2024 Paris Games.
The American women were expected to be spoilers in the game to Australia and its frantic offense in the bronze medal game. Australia’s speedy offense was the main reason for their defeat. U.S. women entered the game with a guarantee of the best result in an Olympic sporting event after being sixth overall in Tokyo as well as fifth at Rio. They made the most of their opportunity by delivering an upset in the last second and a 14-12 victory against Australia to win their bronze trophy.
The Americans were victorious at the end of the game in which Alex Sedrickstiffed arm to get past Australia’s defense and ran across the field before putting the ball in the middle of the play to tie the score. Under the greatest pressure, she scored her own kick to the Americans to win in the favor of the Americans.
Following the match, Ilona Maher was still struggling to comprehend what had just transpired. “I hasn’t sunk into it yet. I’m exhausted, but I’m just so happy. I’m not sure if it’ll be fully absorbed until we are back with the medals. We really put in the effort. We wanted this award not just for ourselves, however, but to honor our family members. It was a difficult couple of decades, however we accomplished it.”
The first half, Maddison Levi continued her tear in the tournament scoring her thirteenth attempt of the Paris Games to give Australia 7-0 lead. The 13 tries are the highest number of tries scored in the course of a single Olympic Games. Ilona Maher was the leader of the Americans with a great sprint midway through the opening game, but she was unable to score the try, and U.S. squad was slowed when they were close to scoring. They Americans are in the process of playing a classic sequence at the time Teagan Levi got dismissed for a high-tack.
With the advantage of man with the man advantage, the Americans scored several times. The best chance was created by a close attempt from Kayla Canett, but Faith Nathan tackled her to the ground and saved the attempt. At an off, Canett was able to make up the lost goal by making a powerful tackle inside the attempt zone, gaining the ball back to the United States. The following scrum was the moment that the three-time Olympian Alev Kelter was able to power into Australia into the try zone. Kelter converted her own score to draw the score at 7, and that’s the way both teams ended up going into the second period.
Australia threatened at the first half of the second period with a risky run by Maddison Levi. But Sariah Paki dropped the ball after receiving a ball in the attempt.
Americans defense held back the powerful Australia offense for the majority of during the 2nd third. Despite the defensive skill an offside penalty for a scrum turned the ball into Australia just 90 seconds left to play. the Levi sisters reacted and gave Australia the lead after Maddison crossed the line of attack to score her 14th goal during the event.
In the subsequent kickoff and the Australians took a risky decision for the ball to be kicked into the deep from when they kicked off. Ariana Ramsey set theSedrick HTML3up to take the ball deep inside the American territory. The Olympic newcomer took over the rest and then swarmed Teagan Levi on the floor and sprinted through the entire pitch to win the game. She converted her own goal from under the post, giving the Americans victory 14-12 at the Bronze medal game.
Americans have pulled off an unbelievable comeback to claim the first ever medal in either women’s or men’s 7s. It is also the first gold medal in rugby (15s (or sevens) by the U.S. since 1924 when the men took home gold. The victory also saw the head coach Emilie Bydwellbecame the first female head coach to guide the team to an award of any sort.
The focus of Olympic rugby moves to 2028’s Games at Los Angeles Maher hopes the victory will move American rugby ahead. “I hope it will mean we can play more matches in stadiums similar to this, so that we can get more money and funds for women’s rugby. We deserve it. There are more girls in the US playing rugby and observing how it can benefit the girls.”
