London, England (August 9, 2012)

Carli Lloyd scored two goals and the U.S. women's soccer team avenged its 2011 World Cup loss to Japan with a 2-1 victory Thursday to bag the Olympic gold medal for the third straight time.

Lloyd's heroics came in front of a record-crowd of 80,203 at Wembley Stadium.

Lloyd scored in the eighth minute before adding another in the 54th minute to help the Americans avenge their bitter loss to Japan via penalty kicks in the World Cup last year.

Lloyd was also the hero in the 2008 Beijing Olympics as she scored the game-winning goal against Brazil in the final.

The Japanese tried to bounce back in the second half, with Yuki Ogimi scoring in the 63rd minute but it was not enough to stop the Americans' march to their fifth gold-medal victory in last six appearances.

Earlier, Canada captured the bronze after beating France, 1-0. Diana Matheson scored the only goal in the second minute of injury time for the Canadians.

[ Related: USA Women's Soccer Redemption ]

The Americans controlled the game from the opening kick and quickly found itself with an early lead, from an assist by Alex Morgan to Lloyd for the opening goal.

Morgan received a pass from Tobin Heath at the near post and sent a perfectly placed chipped ball to a rushing Lloyd for a powerful header past goalkeeper Miho Fukumoto in the eighth minute.

The Japanese had a chance to tie but defender Christie Rampone got her foot on the ball with goalkeeper Hope Solo out of position. Moments later, Solo just barely got her hands on a Yuki Ogimi header to deflect it to the crossbar to protect a 1-0 lead going into halftime.

In the 54th minute, Lloyd raced down the middle of the field and drilled a rocket from just outside the middle of the box to give the Americans a two-goal advantage.

The Japanese got back in the game in the 63rd minute after Ogimi squeaked past US defenders to put them on the board.

Japan had a chance to equalize after Rampone turned the ball but Solo made a remarkable diving save, her fourth in the game.

The U.S. women's soccer team won its third straight Olympic gold medal Thursday, beating Japan 2-1 in a rematch of last year's World Cup final and avenging the most painful loss in its history.

2012 London Olympics - videos

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