PARIS — Trinity Rodman doesn’t remember much about her staggering extra-time strike that sent the United States women’s national team into the Olympic semifinals on Saturday.
In truth, Rodman confessed afterward, the whole sequence from when she received Crystal Dunn‘s pass is a blur.
“I kind of blacked out,” Rodman said after the USWNT’s 1-0 victory over Japan. “The last thing I remember is Crystal playing it and then I was like: ‘Ahhh!’
“That’s the best moment of my career,” she added. “I couldn’t have asked for anything better.”
While Rodman may not have a strong memory of what she did, her goal will be a highlight that figures to linger. After taking the ball down on the right flank, she dribbled inside and blasted a shot that ripped into the upper corner of the far post as the Parc des Princes erupted.
“Of course Trinity is going to do that,” Mallory Swanson, who partners with Rodman and Sophia Smith on the front line for the U.S, said of the moment. “I think sometimes in games like this, it just takes a little bit of magic, a little bit of individual brilliance. And that’s what Trinity did.”
