Mia Hamm and the rest of the Fab Five of women's soccer from the US had just enough left in their thirtysomething legs for one more title, beating Brazil 2-1 Thursday in extra time to win the Olympic gold medal in their final tournament together.
Abby Wambach, the player who might just break Hamm's records one day, scored in the 112th minute with a powerful 10m header off a corner kick from Kristine Lilly. It was Wambach's fourth goal of the Olympics and 18th in her last 20 games.
Lindsay Tarpley scored the first goal for the Americans in the 39th minute, while Pretinha scored the lone goal for Brazil in the 73rd.
Women's World Cup champion Germany got the bronze, beating Sweden 1-0 on Renate Lingor's goal and a solid game from goalkeeper Silke Rottenberg in her 100th international soccer appearance.
The gold-medal match marked the final competitive appearance together for the last remaining players from the first Women's World Cup championship team in 1991. The five also helped win the World Cup in 1999, and together they have played in 1,230 international matches.
Hamm, Julie Foudy and Joy Fawcett are retiring from the US team -- although they might play in some farewell exhibitions this fall -- leaving Lilly and Brandi Chastain as the last of the old guard.
They'll leave happy with the final result, but they might never want to watch a replay of a game that showed it is indeed perhaps time to hang it up. Maybe they were trying too hard, but the Americans were slower, less organized, less creative and lost the chase to most of the loose balls against the young Brazilians, who also weren't afraid to shove the US stars around.
Hamm especially was a non-factor, unable to find space to make the kind of runs that made her famous. She had no legs left in the extra time periods of the 266th game of a 17-year career that included 153 goals.
The US team was rescued by Wambach, some great saves from goalkeeper Briana Scurry and a goal from Tarpley, one of two college players on the team.
In the bronze medal match, Rottenberg's milestone was commemorated with flowers and a pennant from FIFA president Sepp Blatter before kickoff. She then remained the star during the game with three tough saves in a two-minute span in the first half and two more great stops after halftime.
The game was a rematch of last year's Women's World Cup final, won by Germany 2-1 in extra time. Germany lost in the Olympic semifinals 2-1 to the US in extra time this week, while Sweden dropped a 1-0 game to Brazil.
Germany also won the bronze four years ago in Sydney.
The Swedes can blame their fourth-place finish on a lack of offense; they scored just four goals in five games.
Lingor scored in the 17th minute, charging to meet a left-wing cross from Conny Pohlers with a right-footed shot that deflected off the hands of goalkeeper Caroline Jonsson. Jonsson dropped to her knees and stared at her gloves in disbelief as the ball bounced into the net.
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