US Beats Canada on Penalties to Take CONCACAF Championship

It took seven sets of penalties, but in the end, the US Women finished on top. They beat Canada Saturday night to take home the CONCACAF Championship trophy.

Both teams had already qualified for the Olympics in the semifinals, so this game was just for bragging right and the CONCACAF trophy. But the game went down to the wire, and past it.

The teams were tied at the end of regulation time. The US thought they had it sewed up when Carli Lloyd finally scored in the 112th minute, but Canada temporarily stole their joy with a Melissa Tancredi goal in the 118th. And then it all came down to penalities.

In the end, the US won 6-5.

The post-match view from USSoccer.com:

“It was an exciting game, you could hear it in the crowd’s reaction,” said Sundhage. “The way we played in the second half was very good and we created a lot of chances. This is the environment that really matters when you have the word “final” attached to it and being pushed to penalty kicks it’s one of the best things that could happen to the U.S. team in this tournament. You can’t match the feeling in practice of taking penalty kicks in a game like this, and it could happen in the Olympics. But I am very happy for the team as there were so many good things out there tonight.”

Or, if you want the Canadian view:

Nonetheless for the Canadians, who earned an Olympic berth last week with a semifinal win over Mexico, the end result made for a pretty positive tournament.

“Not a pretty positive tournament,” Canadian coach Even Pellerud said from Juarez, Mexico, after the game, “a very positive tournament.

This is probably one of the highlights (for the program), especially because we can take in the consolation that we qualified for the Olympic Games in a convincing way, and with the game today, when we played a strong game against U.S.A.”

In the end, a great way for both teams to work toward Olympic glory in China.