The United States Women's National Team won their third-straight gold medal at the Olympics on Thursday evening, defeating Japan by a score of 2-1 in front of the largest soccer crowd in summer games history. The U.S. used two early goals and terrific goal keeping from Hope Solo to hold off a very strong Japanese attack in the closing minutes.
Carli Lloyd scored both of Team USA's goals. She connected with a header in the eighth minute to make it 1-0, and she followed in the 54th minute with a beautiful strike from just outside the box to increase the lead to two goals.
Japan scored their lone goal in the 63rd minute. They had numerous scoring opportunities late against Solo and the U.S. defenders, but they were unable to get anything in the back of the net before the whistle blew in the 92nd minute.
Solo stopped 12 of the 13 shots she faced, doing so with quite a few diving and leaping stops. Without her efforts in goal, the U.S. would have settled for a silver medal. She continued to establish herself as the best goalie in the world in London.
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