Julia Grosso's Penalty Kick Gives Canada its First Gold Medal in Women's Soccer

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Julia Grosso scored Canada’s first ever golden goal.

After 120 minutes of soccer that ended in a 1-1 draw, and after five rounds of penalty kicks still weren’t enough to determine a gold medal winner, Grosso approached the ball with a chance to make history.

The 20-year-old fired into the back of the net for the winning penalty kick in a 3-2 shootout win over Sweden to give Canada its first gold medal in women’s soccer on Friday at the Tokyo Olympics.

After Caroline Seger fired over the crossbar in the fifth round on a penalty kick that could have won Sweden its first gold medal in women’s soccer, Canada’s Deanne Rose scored to even the shootout at 2-2.

Canada goalkeeper Stephanie Labbe then made her second diving stop of the shootout, setting the stage for Grosso’s gold-medal winning goal.

It was Jessie Fleming who helped get Canada to that position, scoring three crucial penalty kicks during the team’s run to gold. The first came late in the semifinals to give Canada a 1-0 win over the United States. The next came in the 66th minute against Sweden to even the gold medal game at 1-1 and force extra time.

Fleming then scored on Canada’s first penalty kick attempt in the shootout.

Canada, which went 1-0-2 in group play, took gold after winning bronze in each of the previous two Olympics.

Sweden, which took a 1-0 lead when Stina Blackstenius scored at the 33-minute mark, also was seeking its first gold medal in women’s soccer. It entered the gold medal game 5-0, and generated 14 corner kicks against Canada, but settled for silver for the second consecutive Summer Olympics.

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