NewsBite

Tokyo Olympics: Australian fans rage over Matildas farce against US

Australia will move into the Olympic knockout stages against Great Britain but they have earned themselves no new friends.

Andrew McMurtryAndrew McMurtry
@AndrewMcMurtry
less than 2 min read
July 28, 2021 - 2:03AM
You still did Australia proud Jess - and there's still the C-1 gold to chase.
You still did Australia proud Jess - and there's still the C-1 gold to chase.

The Matildas tempted fate in a dour draw with the USA as the sides played out a 0-0 draw but the Aussies will advance to the Olympics knockout stage, setting up  a grudge match against Great Britain.

America is the powerhouse of women's football so a draw is hardly a bad result, but the borefest left a sour taste in the mouths of Aussie football fans. Viewers complained about the lack of intent on show as both teams seemed happy to settle for a draw in a match that provided previous few highlights.

It was a tough night for Aussies in team sports as the Opals lost their first match of the Games to debutants Belgium and the men's Rugby Sevens team was knocked out by Fiji in the quarterfinals. 

Jessica Fox's pursuit of an elusive Olympic gold medal will continue later in the week after she claimed bronze in the women's K-1 final.

She qualified fastest for the final and was again quickest down the course but two penalties cost her first place.

Australia claimed a historic medal in surfing, with Owen Wright beating world number 1 Gabriel Medina for the bronze medal.

We're also celebrating another golden moment in the Olympic pool with Kaylee McKeown setting a new Olympic record on her way to winning the women's 100m backstroke.

Thanks for joining us on Day 4. You can read all about the day's highlights below.

Updates

NSW records 1218 cases

Mitchell Van Homrigh
No one had a good taste in their mouth after this.
No one had a good taste in their mouth after this.

The Matildas are into the Olympics knockout stage after a dour 0-0 draw against the USA, where they will face Great Britain.

There was a slight chance only coming away with a point would have left the Aussies open to being sent packing early, but there was nothing nasty among the other results and Australia lives to fight another day.

Fans were left incredibly frustrated by the Matildas' performance, particularly late in the game. This tweet below pretty much sums up how exciting the contest was.

The Matildas were lucky to avoid conceding in the first half when Alex Morgan was deemed to be offside by the barest of margins.

Very lucky from the Matildas.
Very lucky from the Matildas.

The US had the better of the chances but the final half of the second stanza was all about self preservation as the game fizzled out, much to the angst of social media.

Post-match, Aussie skipper Sam Kerr said the team "came to win" but will "take the point and we move on".

"I thought we played really well," she said. "I thought we dominated for most of the game but at the end of the day you don't win a medal by tying with the USA so hopefully we can go through and continue to play like that and we might go a long way."

NSW latest cases at 11

Mitchell Van Homrigh

The Aussie Sharks have won the men's water polo clash with Croatia 11-8 to continue their good performance in the pool.

It's the first time Australia have ever defeated Croatia in an Olympic Games.

Queensland could take PM to court

Mitchell Van Homrigh

Swimming is a game of tiny margins and tiny time differences but this is getting ridiculous.

Izaac Stubblety-Cook has claimed the fastest time in the 200m men's breaststroke.

Well, equal fastest.

Stubblety-Cook shared his time of 2:07.37 with the Netherlands' Arno Kamminga with a touch dead heat.

Couldn't have been any closer than that.
Couldn't have been any closer than that.

It's far from the first either with four so far this meet.

"Four dead heats now. That is so rare in Olympics," Leisel Jones said.

The fifth heat was then almost another dead heat as Anton Chupkov was 0.06 seconds behind the US' Nic Fink.

Jones was quite incredulous about how close it was.

"It would've been three firsts," she said "If Chupkov didn't have a short stroke on the end, he would've been quite even. I've never seen so many dead heats in an Olympic Games."

Both Stubblety-Cook in first and Matt Wilson in 10th are through to the semi-finals of the 200m men's breaststroke.

Welcome to Sunday's blog

Mitchell Van Homrigh

Reigning gold medallists Fiji have spanked Australia out of the men's rugby Sevens.

The green and gold put up a massive fight against New Zealand earlier but Fiji have continued their dominance against Australia with a 19-0 win to knock us out of the competition.

The Aussie boys were devastated after the game but the Fijians showed their class in some sweet moments on field.

Our last singles hope is out of the tennis in Tokyo with James Duckworth knocked out by Karen Khachanov 7-5 6-1.

But there are some good signs for Australia with Ash Barty revealing she would go after another medal as she and John Peers were named Australia's mixed double pairing.

After she was knocked out of the singles in round one – it's a bit of a silver lining as she lines up with our best mens doubles player in the 16 team competition.

She is also into the third round of doubles with Storm Sanders.

Barty raises Aussie medal hopes.
Barty raises Aussie medal hopes.

The US' Alex Morgan looked to have opened the scoring from a corner against the Matildas – but VAR has saved us.

The US sharpshooter was deemed to be offside by the tip of her shoulder.

Phew!
Phew!

Thank god for the VAR – this time at least.

At halftime, the score was still 0-all although the US were pushing hard.

Just a reminder, a win would see the Matildas or the US into the knockout rounds, a draw would see the US through and a loss would see a nervous wait for the later games to see if they can survive into the next rounds.

Ridiculous reasons people are calling ambulances

Ally Foster
Ally Foster

Brutal.
Brutal.

Jess Fox has had to settle for bronze once again after a couple of mistakes cost her dearly in the K-1 canoe slalom final.

She dominated the heats and the semi-finals and but a touch on gate 4 and 25 cost her dearly.

At least she'll still be on the podium in bronze, assuming she survives the final questions about her two second touch on the final gate.

Competitors have to pass their head through the gates and not touch them, with green gates going forwards, and red poles going backwards.

If they touch the poles, it's a 2 second penalty; if they miss a gate, it's a 50 second penalty.

Fox won silver in London in the K1 event, and bronze in same event in Rio.

Devastating for Jess but she'll be back in the C1 later in the week.
Devastating for Jess but she'll be back in the C1 later in the week.

Her dad Richard, a former Olympic canoeist himself who was in commentary, was gutted for Fox after the result.

"I'm proud. She was in the race. She made mistakes. She came back. She was still in the race, right down to the wire," he said. "And, yeah. Comes away with a bronze. Look, what a fight! Credit to Maialen Chourraut. She is a racer. Maybe Jess chased her too hard. But C1 to come, so that fire will be burning."

Matt Shirvington said that Richard was "absolutely devastated for Jess" at the end.

Fox has won 10 world championship titles with four in the C1, three in the K1 and three more in the C1 team.

The defending champion Spaniard Maialen Chourraut with a time of 106.63 in the final would have been second to Fox's semi-final time of 105.85 but it was good enough for silver.

German Ricarda Funk took out the event with a 105.50 time with no mistakes putting the gold around her neck.

If Fox was flawless, she would have had a time of 102.73 and won gold – even one mistake would have given her gold.

'Ambulances are not taxis': Hazzard

Ally Foster
Ally Foster

Jian Fang Lay is down 2 sets to love in the table tennis.

It's the best of seven but the Aussie has a mountain to climb here.

She ran out to a massive lead early in the first but the German Han Ying bounced back and has taken control of the match.

NSW reaches new vaccine record

Ally Foster
Ally Foster

Owen Wright has had an incredible comeback to swimming after he suffered a traumatic brain injury in December 2015.

While it was a seemingly innocuous moment by all reports, but the issues it cause were life threateningly serious.

He had bleeding on the brain, suffered memory loss and required full time care.

But fast forward five and a half years, and he's the first surfing medalist with the women's medals and the mens gold medal match still to be handed out.

"Look I'm really proud to be representing all of Australia, representing my family, my kids, my wife," Wright said after admitting the number 7 on his chest was a tribute to surfing legend Mick Fanning.

"And then also, you know, on a really personal level is all the TBI survivors out there, the team that have had bad brain injuries. It's all possible. Don't give up. Keep striving to get back there.

"I went through some tough times, I was three years into it and I was getting – the Olympics including surfing spur me on to my best. Getting that medal, it really just sealed that for me, and, yeah, I do it for the TBI guys too."

Owen Wright - Olympic bronze medallist!
Owen Wright – Olympic bronze medallist!

Wright added that surfing at the Olympics has been a "beacon of light" for him.

"I was going through some really tough times," he said. "I had some long-lasting symptoms. I questioned whether or not I would do the sport again.

"Then the Olympics was announced. With that attention then came in some extra funding and I got to the doctors I needed to get to and end up striving and striving and I qualified that year and here I am standing here with a medal.

"It really did change my life, the Olympics coming on board."

Jess Fox already has a silver and a bronze in the Olympics but she's hunting gold.

She was the only one under 100 seconds yesterday and absolutely crushed it again in the semis.

She was No. 1 by three seconds. Until they added a penalty, but she was so fast she still qualifies fastest.

Now there's only the final to come. C'mon Jess.

The Canoe Slalom final will start at 5.15pm and Fox will be the last one up.

Read related topics:Live Daily News

Add your comment to this story

To join the conversation, please Don't have an account? Register

Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout

More related stories

Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/sport/olympics/tokyo-olympics-live-updates-day-4-results-schedule-for-australia/live-coverage/69995119a8680c939b0b47f88c3e462e