Diana Matheson



Diana Matheson (born April 6, 1984) is a Canadian professional soccer player for Washington Spirit in the National Women's Soccer League. She is perhaps best known for scoring the bronze medal winning goal for Canada in the 92nd minute against France at the 2012 Summer Olympics. She also won the bronze medal with the same team at the 2007 Pan American Games.



Contents
[hide]  *1 Early life  ==Early life[edit] == Born in Mississauga, Ontario, Matheson attended White Oaks High School in Oakville, Ontario where she received Principal's Award for athletics and academics. As a member of the Ontario provincial team from 1999-2002, she won the national championship in 2001 and was runner-up in 2002. She was captain of the team in 2002. Playing for the Oakville Women's team, Matheson was a 2002 Ontario Cup champion and club national women's champion.[1] ===Princeton University[edit] === Matheson majored in economics at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey and was voted Ivy League Player of the Year in 2007 and Princeton Women's Athlete of the Year in 2008.[1] [2]
 * 1.1 Princeton University
 * 2 Playing career
 * 2.1 Club
 * 2.1.1 Team Strømmen
 * 2.1.2 Washington Spirit
 * 2.2 International
 * 2.2.1 International goals
 * 3 See also
 * 4 References
 * 5 External links

As a freshman in 2004, Matheson was a unanimous first-team All-Ivy selection and was named Ivy League Rookie of the Year. She earned first-team All-America and first-team All-Mid-Atlantic Region honors and was one of 12 finalists for SoccerBuzz Freshman of the Year. She was a three-time Ivy Rookie of the Week. During her sophomore year, she scored five goals, second-most on the team, and had a team-high of seven assists (ranked third in the Ivy League). She was one of only two unanimous first-team All-Ivy selections. Matheson earned SoccerBuzz first-team all-region and NSCAA second-team all-region honors. After missing the season-opening trip to Florida to play with the Canadian national team, she started all 14 games the rest of the season. As a junior in 2006, Matheson co-captained the squad and led the Tigers with eight goals and five assists for 21 points despite missing five games to train with the Canadian national team. She was a unanimous selection for first-team All-Ivy. As a senior, Matheson missed the first seven games to play in the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup in China. After returning from the tournament, she earned a point in seven straight games of the 10 played and broke Princeton's single-game and career assist records with a four-assist performance against Rutgers. Serving as co-captain of the team, she was Princeton's third four-time first-team all-league honoree and seventh Player of the Year.[1] ==Playing career[edit] == ===Club[edit] === ====Team Strømmen[edit] ==== Diana Matheson played the second half of the 2008 season in Oslo, Norway with Team Strømmen, becoming a runner-up in the Toppserien league and also in the annual Cup competition. She rejoined the same club for the 2009 season running from April to October and for the first half of 2010 until national team duties called her away. In Norway she was named 'Mathesonen', literally 'the Matheson' by her teammates. ====Washington Spirit<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] ==== <p style="line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">In early 2013, it was announced that Matheson would be joining the Washington Spirit as part of the NWSL Player Allocation, a team in the newly founded National Women's Soccer League.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-3" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[3] ===International<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] === <p style="line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">As a regular player for Canada, Matheson is remarkable for possessing the speed and skill to hold her place in an international team that is known for its physical approach to the game, despite having a height of only 5 ft 0¼. Matheson made her national team debut at at the Algarve Cup in March 2003.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-princeton_bio_1-3" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[1]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">Matheson scored in Canada's 3-1 win over China on Sept. 30, 2010.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-4" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[4]  She can also be seen in a video made by her Norwegian team.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[5]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">In the 2011 Pan-American women's soccer tournament, Matheson helped Canada win the gold medal game against the defending champions Brazil by scoring on the first Canadian penalty kick after Extra-time.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-6" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[6] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-7" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[7]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">Matheson notched the winning goal in the 92nd minute of Canada's Bronze-medal game (1-0) against France at the 2012 Summer Olympics on August 9, 2012.