City at the Olympics: 2012 review | OneFootball

Following Manchester City’s strong 2023/24 Barclays Women’s Super League campaign, five members of Gareth Taylor’s squad have been selected to represent their respective nations at the 2024 Paris Olympic games.

Australia have selected Alanna Kennedy and Mary Fowler, meanwhile Yui Hasegawa and Risa Shimizu (Japan) and Laia Aleixandri (Spain) have also been included to help their countries compete for gold.

But back in 2012, seven future City stars were called upon – with one triumphant in London.

Here, we take a look back at the games in Great Britain and examine how each player fared.

TEAM GB

Soon to be City quartet Karen Bardsley, Steph Houghton, Jill Scott and Ellen White were all included in Great Britain’s squad for the 2012 Olympic games in London.

The United Kingdom were placed in Group E with New Zealand, Cameroon and Brazil and their four future Blues players played starring roles as they maintained an 100% record in the first phase.

Houghton scored their first goal at the tournament and helped Great Britain to a clean sheet in a 1-0 win over New Zealand at the Principality Stadium, Cardiff in their opening assignment.

Our colossal captain was then joined on the scoresheet in their next game by Casey Stoney and Scott in a superb 3-0 win over Cameroon in the same arena.

Houghton then made it three goals in as many games in a 1-0 win over Brazil at Wembley Stadium as they maintained their perfect record in the group phase.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t maintain that good form into the knockout stages when they fell to a 2-0 defeat to Canada in the last-16 in Coventry.

NEW ZEALAND

After making her debut for New Zealand in a 1-0 win over Argentina in 2008, Betsy Hassett has been a mainstay in their team ever since.

She featured in all three of her nation’s matches at the 2011 World Cup and was once again a key figure at the 2012 Olympic games in London.

The attacking midfielder played at the competition two years before signing for City and helped the Football Ferns progress into their maiden knockout stage of a major competition by finishing third in Group E with Great Britain, Brazil and Cameroon.

After losing to the Europeans and the South Americans by respective 1-0 scorelines, a superb 3-1 win over the African country secured passage into the last-16 with Hassett featuring in all three group assignments.

The versatile player then played the full 90 minutes of their knockout clash with the United States but unfortunately couldn’t prevent a 2-0 defeat in the capital.

SWEDEN

Operating for Paris Saint-Germain at the time, Kosovare Asllani returned for Sweden at the 2012 Olympic games - – four years before her arrival at Manchester City - after missing out on a place in their squad for the 2011 World Cup

The European nation were placed in Group F alongside Japan, Canda and South Africa and maintained an unbeaten record across their three assignments.

Asllani made back-to-back substitute appearances in her nation’s 4-1 win over South Africa and 0-0 draw with Japan before starting their final group match against Canada.

Although not on the scoresheet, she helped Sweden to a 2-2 draw which meant they finished as Group F winners.

Unfortunately, their tournament ended at the quarter-final stage following a 2-1 defeat to France where the forward was introduced from the substitutes in the second half.

USA

Within a team full of iconic United States players, future City midfielder Carli Lloyd starred for her nation at the 2012 games – helping them to glory.

Her nation was placed in Group B with France, Colombia and North Korea and she scored the US’ third goal in a 4-2 thriller with the European side in their opener at Hampden Park.

Lloyd then scored her second goal of the tournament in their 3-0 win over Colombia before Pia Sundhage’s team maintained their 100% record with a 1-0 win over North Korea.

Although Lloyd didn’t find the scoresheet in the US’ knockout wins over New Zealand and Canada en route to the final at Wembley – she made her mark on the showpiece at the national stadium.

The United States made a blisteringly quick start to proceedings and Lloyd broke the deadlock after just eight minutes when she headed home Alex Morgan’s cross in a crowded penalty area.

Following the opener, the match was evenly contested until the future City star doubled her personal tally just eight minutes after half-time with a venomous strike into the bottom corner from 20-yards.

Japan pulled a goal back on 63 minutes, but Sundhage’s side defended well to see out the victory which secured gold medals.