Reuters
Rio de Janeiro, August 13: Favourites, the United States crashed out of the women’s soccer tournament on penalties Friday but host nation Brazil advanced into the semifinals the same way on a day of surprise and high drama.
Sweden eliminated the US, recording one of the sport’s biggest shocks by beating the holders 4-3 on penalties after the two sides drew 1-1 after extra time.
Lisa Dahlkvist converted Sweden’s final penalty after Alex Morgan and Christen Press missed for the World Champions in the shootout. Linda Sembrant also missed for Sweden.
The US, who dominated large parts of the match, have won four of the last five Olympic golds and had never failed to reach the Games final.
Sweden will be joined in the last four by Brazil who beat Australia 7-6 in an even more dramatic penalty shootout. The teams were tied 0-0 after extra time at the Mineirao stadium in Belo Horizonte.
Marta, the five-time ‘World Player of the Year’, missed Brazil’s fifth penalty of the shootout but Brazilian goalkeeper Barbara saved Australia’s last spot-kick from Katrina Gorry to take the game to sudden death. Tamires converted her kick before Alanna Kennedy missed hers to send the home fans into raptures.
Germany, who beat China 1-0, and Canada, overcame France by the same margin, also advanced to the semifinals. Melanie Behringer got the winner for Germany after 76 minutes while Wang Shuang missed a penalty for China with eight minutes to go.