Olga Carmona shoots to the top of the class
The Real Madrid full-back excelled in the semi-final against Sweden and capped it off with an historic goal: “I wasn’t sure if it was going in or not”.
If the quarter final was Salma’s moment, the semi-final against Sweden was Olga Carmona’s too. And not only because of the stunning goal scored by the Seville-born full-back to seal an historic victory and a ticket to the World Cup final. The Real Madrid defender’s performance throughout the game was outstanding.
She returned after having lost her place - Oihane’s accumulation of yellow cards and subsequent ban brought Olga back to the starting XI. At 5 foot 3, she was dwarfed by her Swedish opponents who towered above her - but nothing could faze her. She was like a roadrunner, relentlessly haring up and down her wing. And everything else she did, she did perfectly, with intelligence and purpose.
“I felt good out there. There were a few moments when we suffered, but we were able to manage them. We knew that they would attack us a lot on the right. I felt very comfortable and the goal just puts the icing on the cake,” she explained in the flash zone after leaving her mark at Eden Park. She admitted that she still can’t believe the sensational goal she scored on 89 minutes just when the game appeared to be heading into extra-time. A fierce, left-foot drive that crashed in off the bar - unstoppable for Sweden goalkeeper Zecira Musovic. “I still can’t take it in, but we deserve it. Football is being fair to us and we are going to enjoy this final a lot,” she said.
It was her team mate and close friend Tere [Abelleira] who picked her out with a short corner. With one touch, she controlled the ball before unleashing a powerful strike from the edge of the box. The Galician midfielder had seen her looking confident during the match and noticed that she was free and unmarked. “I had tried a shot like that in the first half and went a bit astray. I knew that it could be our last opportunity so I tried to strike the ball hard because their goalkeeper was huge; it was very difficult for her to stop. When I saw the ball enter, I remembered all my family, the people who love me, everyone who is supporting us. Everyone all over Spain”.
At just 23 years old, Olga is breaking barriers wherever she goes. “Right in the last minute, Olga arrives and scores a work of art,” said a jubilant Jorge Vilda, still surprised by what the young woman had done. “What a great goal from Carmona!” Luis Rubiales said emotionally when he passed through the mixed zone before the media, with a gesture of emotion for everything he had gone through in New Zealand.
Olga is a purebred player and nothing can stop her. “All my team mates jumped on top of me, I could hardly breathe. I had never experienced anything like this”. And neither has the whole of Spain, thank you Olga!