U.S. Women's Soccer Wins Gold In Rematch Final Against Japan

In front of a crowd of nearly 85,000 at London's Wembley Stadium, midfielder Carli Lloyd led the U.S. women's soccer team to a gold medal in Thursday's final against Japan.

The 2-1 victory was sweet revenge for the Americans, who lost to the Japanese in a 2011 World Cup final upset, the first time they had beaten the United States in 26 games. It also brought the United States within one gold medal of China on the medal table, where it leads in overall medals.

The United States drew blood early, with a goal by Lloyd in the eighth minute. As they celebrated the goal, some players thought the it was scored by Abby Wambach, who swung her foot at the ball at a cross by Alex Morgan as Lloyd knocked it in. Wambach cleared up the confusion with an emphatic point of the finger toward her teammate.

Lloyd struck goal again in the 54th minute, her fourth of the Olympics and the team's 16th. She dribbled a ball from Megan Rapinoe near the halfline toward the goal as Morgan and Wambach raced ahead of her. Neither were open, so rather than pass, Lloyd blasted a shot past Japanese goalkeeper Miho Fukimoto's outstretched arms and into the net's left side.

 It took Japan until the 64th minute to score. Japan's Yuki Ogimi tapped a ball in that the United States defense failed to clear. Defender Christie Rampone blocked a Japanese shot, but she could not keep Ogimi's rebound out of the net.

Despite Japan's 64-minute drought on the scoreboard, the first half contained several moments in which the U.S. lead came under threat.

U .S. goalkeeper Hope Solo had defender Christie Rampone to thank in the 17th minute when Rampone stretched to block a shot that had gotten past Solo and headed toward an empty net.

Just three minutes later, Ogimi drove a dangerous header past U.S. defenders that threatened to slip past Solo's hands, but a touch of the fingertip deflected the ball up to the crossbar.

Japan gained momentum in the second half as a previously somnolent Japanese crowd at Wembley thunderously awoke.

Confusion near the American net in the 74th minute almost gave the Japanese an equalizing second goal, but a foul called in the penalty box against Japan gave the United States relief from the threat.

The closing 15 minutes of the match were full of intense moments — physical play that earned Wambach a yellow card and breakaways from both teams — but the score stayed at 2-1 until the referee blew the final whistle, giving the United States the gold medal.

Despite their World Cup win, Japan came into Thursday's final at a significant disadvantage both in size and experience. History was also against them — with the exception of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the United States won the gold medal in women's soccer in every Games since it became an Olympic sport in 1996.

The American reign in the sport was in doubt just three days ago, when the Canadian team nearly advanced to the final in a nail-biting semifinal. Morgan headed a cross into the net in the last minute of extra time, ending a match that some Canadian players later said was unfairly refereed.