U.S. beats Brazil 1-0 to win women's soccer gold

Rooted for U.S. but her goal was an obvious offside. The media tried to avoid showing replays and moved on quickly. The real MVP was the goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher.

U.S. beats Brazil 1-0 to win women's soccer gold

Good job ladies excellent defending but you can do better than that!!

"Rooted for U.S. but her goal was an obvious offside. The media tried to avoid showing replays and moved on quickly. The real MVP was the goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher." @nomination

You are right and wrong, they were two strikers chasing the same ball, however the one who was offside never touched the ball. Therefore, the goal stands and they were replay showing clearly the scorer was onside.

Round of 16 in the 2023 World Cup, but just 1 year later, back on top, the gold standard again!

Their new coach has only been there for a couple months due to prior club commitment (Chelsea). Including friendlies, this is only her 10th game with them and her first tournament. But she's undefeated - 9 wins, 1 draw, and 0 minutes trailing to an opponent!

The US is once again stout on defense - they've only given up 2 goals and have 4 shutouts, including all 3 knockout games! There was only 1 other time there was a shutout in an Olympic women gold medal game - in 2008, when Brazil was blanked by.......... the US. They did it again, lol

The US' game-winning scorer Mallory Swanson missed last year's World Cup due to a devastating late injury. This Olympics, she's got 4 goals and 2 assists - the golden ball!

This is Brazil's legendary Marta's final international game. She's won everything in the game, except a World Cup or Olympic gold. The open, chaotic first half favoured Brazil's creativity, but they couldn't sustain that energy the whole game. So when they slowed down a bit, that's when the US quickly striked with its speedy forwards. And the game settled from then on, which favoured the US control, but still needed yet another great late-game save from goalkeeper Naeher

Congrats to the US women!

The medalists are all 3 teams that flopped in the 2023 World Cup - the US lost in the Round of 16, while Brazil and Germany didn't even make it out of the group stage. What a turnaround for all 3 teams!

"Rooted for U.S. but her goal was an obvious offside. The media tried to avoid showing replays and moved on quickly. The real MVP was the goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher." @nomination

You are right and wrong, they were two strikers chasing the same ball, however the one who was offside never touched the ball. Therefore, the goal stands and they were replay showing clearly the scorer was onside.

Yep, here's a photo and an explanation:

https://www.reddit.com/r/WomensSoccer/comments/1eovqbm/not_offside/

https://www.essentiallysports.com/soccer-football-news-why-was-mallory-swanson-goal-vs-brazil-not-ruled-offside-amid-bias-allegations-against-uswnt-emma-hayes-at-paris-olympics-full-scenario-explained/

It was a beautiful play, but the only thing marring it was the calls for offside. But it wasn’t. The controversy kicked in because someone was offside, but it wasn’t the No. 9. It was Sophia Smith. After trying time and again to get past the defenses of Brazil, midfielder Korbin Albert found the perfect opening. From the center of the pitch, she played a through ball that skipped past all the Brazilian defenders, and it looked like it was going straight to Sophia Smith. But that was where Swanson came in.

“Don’t touch it!” the forward [Swanson] shouted, knowing that if Smith were to touch the ball, she would’ve been offside. Smith left it, but because of how close a call that was, it looked like she’d touched the ball. However, she hadn’t. That was when Mallory Swanson came in from the left, dribbled the ball into the penalty box, and in her second 1-on-1 of the match against the Brazilian goalkeeper, she scored. And the Parc de Princes Stadium erupted in cheers. Swanson looked back at the referee on the sideline, checking if the goal had been called offside. But all was good, and, just like that, Team USA was 1-0 up.

But here’s the thing. While watching the play multiple times after the fact made it clear that Sophia Smith made no contact with the ball, viewers watching on TV, including NBC’s coverage, didn’t get any replays. It’s customary for broadcasting channels to show replays of plays that have a chance of being offside. However, since there weren’t any, it led many to believe they were just trying to cover up an offside goal. Needless to say, claims like “USWNT is getting favoritism” and “It’s rigged!” arose. This raised a major question: why didn’t VAR call back the goal?

While Sophia Smith was technically offside, she wasn’t involved directly in the moments leading up to the 26-year-old’s goal. Some think she might have distracted defenders or influenced how things played out. But VAR didn’t see it that way; they ruled no interference, and since Mallory Swanson wasn’t offside, her goal counted!