Powell urges calm after Brazil victory
Steph Houghton scored her third goal this Games as Team GB beat Brazil
Hope Powell urged the nation not to get carried away after Great Britain's women's football team produced arguably one of the finest results in their history to beat Brazil 1-0 at the Olympics.
Steph Houghton's third goal in as many games was enough to maintain Team GB's flawless Group E campaign at London 2012 on a record-breaking night at Wembley. Such was the magnitude of the result, Powell's players and the 70,584 crowd - by far the largest ever for a women's game in Britain - celebrated at the final whistle almost as if a gold medal had been won.
But their manager was as stony-faced as ever and urged caution ahead of Friday's quarter-final against Canada in Coventry, and she said: "Every game, we've done well, we've won the game, we've topped the group. The danger is that everybody starts jumping on this 'medal'. We still have to play Canada. They want a medal as much as anybody else."
She added: "We're not in a position yet to get a medal."
Powell was similarly ambivalent about her side's performance, despite Britain creating the better of the chances and Kelly Smith missing a penalty.
She said: "Yes, we played well in patches. It wasn't the complete performance by any stretch of the imagination. But we did a job, very resilient, worked hard. You saw the girls at the end. They were dead on their feet."
Powell was nevertheless "really pleased" with the outcome and the "electric" support of the unprecedented crowd.
"I must say the crowd were really inspiring tonight," she said. "I think they gave us a little bit of an edge, which was great for us."
She added: "As a manager, certainly I've never experienced it. When I talk on the sidelines, the girls can usually hear me.
"Tonight was a good excuse for them to ignore me, which is what they tried to do...We actually spoke about it beforehand that 90% of the crowd were there to support Team GB and, 'Go out there and enjoy it and they'll get behind you'."
related stories on msn
of David Beckham against Greece! l just love to watch these girls,thier attitude and tremendous skill at times! all of them have been excellent and the mighty atom KIM LITTLE was absolutely brilliant!!
A great performance against a very good Brazil squad,but l must say Brazil were lucky it was only 1-0 could have been more....thier keeper had an inspired game...Well done GB !!!
Nice one the womens team did very well, but I wish all these commentators would stop saying that we are in line for a gold in..., all it does is to set the wrong expectations and loads the athlete with all sorts of pressure!
Given that the National Anthem is the British (NOT English) National Anthem, why are some players not singing it, Wales, Scotland and N. Ireland are part of the British Isles!
I think bravo girls.... some of the Men's squad hould be forced to watch... and repeatedly so in regards Rooney and the other egoistic morons who can't stay fit for 5 weeks and be shown how to play for their country. Both sides, and nigh all the sides in this Woman's tournement put them to shame with ethic regards the rules / game effing and bling and doing their utmost.
Gosh Roy, have you and Pearce got a job on your hands.
Mind Rooney / Young and co should be long gone before the next game. Well done girls.
Was and is how one should play for their country, and how it used to be!
