U.S. coach April Heinrichs on the problems her team had with Nigeria: “The style that they play can be unsettling to anybody… From the bench, it seemed like we had time and space to possess the ball better, but none of us on the bench are under the pressure of having our legs ripped off at any moment. That pressure is real and it’s unnerving to play against that.” Heinrichs on Brazil: “With their technical ability, their speed all over the field and their individual defending ability, Brazil is a very difficult team for us to play against. I can tell you that our team has the utmost respect for Brazil.” Heinrichs on China’s elimination: “China is an awesome team and I am standing on the shore watching their plane take off and giving them a little wave thanking God it’s them getting on the plane and not us.” Heinrichs on U.S. defense against Nigeria: “Our defense, they put their bodies on the line. They stepped up and made tackles, they headed the ball, slide through tackles and did everything they absolutely could tonight. But give Nigeria their due, they are a good team and they scored one goal against three of the best teams in the world.” Tiffeny Milbrett on her emotional embrace with Chinese keeper Gao Hong as the Chinese were leaving their Canberra hotel and heading back home after being eliminated in the semifinals: “I didn’t know China was going to be here today. When their bus was almost ready to depart, I was standing outside waving, and I made eye contact with Gao. She actually made her way out of the bus and came up and gave me a hug. It was just so hard. Looking into her eyes, she was fighting back tears. It made me really emotional. I was tearing up — I’m tearing up now. For me, sporting aspect aside, I feel really bad for them, because they are truly and incredible team and a team that was capable of winning the gold medal.” Milbrett on her collision with Nigerian keeper Anna Chiejine: “It was a great ball from Mac (Shannon MacMillan) that sent me through. It was bouncing and I saw the goalkeeper coming out. I thought I could get a toe on it and just get it over her or by her. But as I was getting my toe up, all of a sudden I saw her cleats coming. All I could do was brace myself for the impact. I put my right arm across my chest and it got the impact from her cleats. My arm just went numb. (The marks on her arm) are from her karate-chop cleats. It’s not broken, it’s just a massive impact bruise. When you’ve been playing the game this long and get a hit like that, it was fairly traumatic, I’d have to say.” Milbrett on the first round: “The toll that these three games have taken has been incredible. You can always say that you are preparing yourselves for Olympics matches, but there is no way you can completely prepare because they are so intense and you have all the nerves that you don’t have in friendly matches so that drains you that much more.” Milbrett on Brazil: “All three games with Brazil this year have been very intense. Definitely the Gold Cup was very intense. That’s the best I’ve seen Brazil play. They really poured it on. I remember having to be very alert and at the top of your game mentally. They possess the ball well and have a good team shape. It’s really a battle playing them.”