VANCOUVER — American soccer fans continue to celebrate the overwhelming 5-2 victory over Japan in Sunday’s Women’s World Cup finals.
Team USA broke the previous two-goal tournament record since it started in 1991, reports CBS News correspondent Jericka Duncan.
The U.S. women’s soccer team built a 4-0 lead over Japan in the opening minutes to secure a third World Cup title for the Americans — more than any other nation’s women’s team has garnered– and their first since 1999.
It was a re-match of the 2011 final — a game that saw American dreams of a World Cup slip through their fingers at the hands of the Japanese.
But Sunday, in front of 53,000 screaming fans, they saw the ultimate prize and never let it go.
Team USA’s scoring was fast and furious.
Midfielder Carli Lloyd struck first in the third minute, the quickest score in Women’s World Cup history.
The goals and records kept coming; it took just 16 minutes for the U.S. to net four goals, an insurmountable lead the Japanese could not overcome.
Lloyd, tournament MVP, scored three times and said the victory didn’t feel real.
“It hasn’t sunk in,” she said, adding that she was “so unbelievably proud of every person on this team… We just made history and we’re a part of it.”
Lloyd showed her love and respect for the veterans on the team.
She shed her captain armband as the match neared its end and gave it to friend and 35-year-old forward Abby Wambach, who likely saw her last World Cup as a player.
“I was asking my teammates next to me, I’m like, ‘Seriously am I alive? I feel like this is what heaven is supposed to feel like,'” Wambach said. “There is just something really special about it, looking up into the stands and seeing my family there.”
“Pure elation. I’m just so, so proud of this team and these players and so happy for them. So happy for every little girl that dreams about this,” coach Jill Ellis said.