It was a memorable moment for Zambia’s Pauline Zulu who made her Olympic debut during her side’s contest against the United States in Nice on Thursday night. But Zulu failed to leave a positive impact as she was given the marching orders having denied her opponents a goal-scoring opportunity in the first half of the game at the Paris Olympics.
The incident occurred in the 34th minute of the match. United States’ Sophia Smith entered Zambia’s defence with sheer pace and Zulu, in a bid to save her goal, came up with a tackle on her opponent outside the penalty box, forcing the match referee to produce a yellow card just before the break. However, the match referee was sent to the monitor to adjudicate whether the incident actually took place inside the box or not. Having checked the replay, the referee did suggest that the incident happened outside the box but Zulu did not receive any reprieve. Rather, her yellow card was upgraded to red.
Having been sent off the pitch, Zulu failed to hold back her tears. The Zambian international was consoled by her teammates while she made her way off the field.
Straight red card in the game USA – Zambia for the Olympic Games. #OlympicGames #Olympic2024 #PARIS2024pic.twitter.com/skY2jKhBUU— That Red Card Football Channel (@FootballRedCard) July 25, 2024
The decision proved to be a terrible one for Zambia who were already trailing by three goals to nil by then. The United States, eventually, went on to win the game 3-0. The resounding victory also offered coach Emma Hayes a win in her first major tournament with the team.
“If you had asked me at the beginning of the game, ‘Would you be happy with a 3-nil win?’ I probably would have said no. However, after the performance and the chances created and finding the back of the net we did, I don’t want to be too hard on the girls,” Hayes was quoted as saying by news agency AP.
Mallory Swanson scored a brace to earn a convincing win for the United States in the Group B fixture against Zambia. The American forward netted her two goals within 70 seconds in the 24th and 25th minutes to earn an unassailable lead of 3-0 for her side.
“I think there are little things within that game, within the play, that we need to fine-tune, that we can just keep on growing with. So I think there’s definitely those little things, and we’ll address them and fix them and keep moving forward,” Swanson said, as per AP.
Trinity Rodman, who also made her Olympic debut against Zambia, scored the other goal of the fixture in the 17th minute. The United States are aiming for a record fifth gold medal this time in Paris.
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