Olympic Soccer 2021: TV Schedule, Live Stream and Women's Final Time
August 2, 2021
Canada and Sweden will play for their first-ever gold medal in women's soccer on Thursday night.
Canada reached the championship match of the Tokyo Olympics through its first victory over the United States in 20 years.
Sweden knocked off Australia to reach its second consecutive gold-medal contest. The Swedes fell to Germany in Rio de Janeiro five years ago.
Both programs have been highly competitive for years, but neither nation has a first-place finish at one of the two major tournaments to show for it. That will change for one squad in a few days.
Canada vs. Sweden Info
Date: Thursday, August 5
Start Time: 10 p.m. ET
TV: NBC
Live Stream: NBCOlympics.com and NBC Sports app
Preview
Sweden has been in contention at the Olympics and Women's World Cup for a while, but it has not won either competition.
In the last decade, Sweden has two victories in the World Cup third-place game and a silver medal from the 2016 Olympics.
Sweden did not come into Tokyo as the gold-medal favorite, but it has played like it had that title from the start.
Sweden has picked up five victories in five games, starting with a 3-0 win over the United States in the Group G opener.
The European side produced clean sheets against the USA, New Zealand and Australia. It conceded more than one goal in a single match.
In that contest, Sweden put four goals past Australia in the group phase—the first of their two meetings in the tournament.
Canada's defense has gotten better as the tournament progressed. It held the USA and Brazil scoreless in the knockout round. It beat Brazil on penalties and used a spot-kick to defeat the Americans in regulation on Monday.
Canada has come close to earning the top honors in the women's game as well. It took the bronze medal at the 2012 London Games and the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
In 2016, Canada was held scoreless in the semifinal round by gold-medal winner Germany. It beat Brazil to come home with a bronze medal.
Canada will try to win the gold for Christine Sinclair, who has done everything in the game but win a major international tournament.
Sinclair is the all-time leading scorer on the international level and is running out of opportunities to put something in her trophy case.
However, Canada's attack faces a tough challenge to get Sinclair the elusive gold medal. Canada produced three shots on target in two knockout-round matches. If Canada remains that inefficient in front of goal, its chances of winning will go down.
Sweden put 10 shots on target in its victories over Japan and Australia. If it applies the same pressure on Thursday, it should be able to finish one or two significant chances and leave with the gold.