Indeed, the American women had not lost to Canada in 20 years but this was a fortnight of unusual errors and omissions from the two-time defending World Cup champions.
They entered the Olympics having not lost, period, in 44 matches. They hadn't been shutout in four years.
In Tokyo, they lost twice and were shutout three times. And now bronze is their best hope.
So what happened?
"I feel like we haven't had our joy a little bit," Rapinoe said. "It hasn't flowed for us. it hasn't been easy. We tried to find it. It's not for lack of effort. It just didn't click for us. I don't know if it's roster rotation but our roster's deep as hell. We just didn't have that juice that we normally do. ... Not even close to our best performances that I've seen over the years or even under Vlatko this year. We didn't expect it to be easy. It's all the best teams in the world and everything's on the line. We couldn't unlock it."
Cameras caught Rapinoe comforting Carli Lloyd, who was crouched on the turf after the final whistle, the USWNT legend rumored to be retiring after the games.
"We've been in this long time together," Rapinoe said. "We're both closer to the end than the beginning. We've shared so many happy moments on the field. Not many sad but we've had a few. One of the greatest players to pull that jersey on. We want to send everyone out on the best note but we weren't able to do that."
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August 02, 2021 at 05:21PM
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Rapinoe on USA loss: 'We didn't have that juice. It sucks' - NBC Olympics
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