Olympic wake-up call: Canadians upset U.S. in soccer semis, beach volleyball duos keep rolling

Team Canada celebrates its victory over the United States Monday in the semifinals of the women's soccer tournament at the Tokyo Olympic Games.  (Atsushi Tomura/Getty Images - image credit)
Team Canada celebrates its victory over the United States Monday in the semifinals of the women's soccer tournament at the Tokyo Olympic Games. (Atsushi Tomura/Getty Images - image credit)

The Canadian women's soccer team will go for gold after defeating the United States Monday at the Tokyo Games.

Scoreless over the first 70 minutes, Jessie Fleming lined up to take a penalty kick for Canada — and found the back of the net. The Canadian team went wild.

And when time in the game ran out, the Canadians dropped to their knees, screamed and threw their arms in the air, finally beating the Americans — the four-time Olympic champions — 20 years since the last time they beat their rivals.

WATCH | Canada defeats U.S. in women's soccer semifinals:

CBC Sports's Devin Heroux has more on Canada's quest on the pitch and that nerve-racking semifinal game.

Here's what else you might have missed on Monday in Tokyo.

Canada's beach volleyball duos into quarter-finals

Two Canadian beach volleyball teams are headed into the quarter-finals of the women's tournament. And if they win their matches, the pairs will have to play each other in the semifinals.

Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes, the reigning world champions, have won every single match in Tokyo so far. They're set to face Australians Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy.

WATCH | Pavan, Humana-Paredes are heading to the quater-finals:

The other Canadian duo, Heather Bansley and Brandie Wilkerson, will take on Latvia's Tina Graudina and Anastasija Kravcenoka.

At this point, there can still be two Canadian teams on the podium: while the winner of the semifinals would go on to the gold-medal match, the other would play for bronze.

Canadian sisters size up track semi

The women's 1,500-metre race is shaping up to be a family affair.

Two Canadian sisters — Gabriela Debues-Stafford and Lucia Stafford — will race together in the semifinals of the track event after getting through the qualifying heats.

Gabriela holds the Canadian record time, and finished first in her heat with a time of four minutes 3.70 seconds on Monday. Lucia had a fantastic run, reaching a personal best of 4:03.52 seconds, and finishing seventh in her tough heat.

The semifinals are scheduled to take place on Wednesday.

Phil Noble/Reuters
Phil Noble/Reuters

Simone Biles is back

American gymnastics superstar Simone Biles is making a return to Olympic competition in Tokyo. According to USA Gymnastics, the 24-year-old and six-time Olympic medallist plans to compete in the balance beam finals.

Biles had recently pulled out of several events at the Olympics in order to focus on her mental well-being.

Aleksandra Szmigiel/Reuters
Aleksandra Szmigiel/Reuters

While she didn't compete in the team final, as well as the finals of the individual all-around, vault, floor exercise or uneven bars, the organization says she'll return on Wednesday for the beam event, in which she earned an Olympic bronze in Rio 2016.

She spent time at the Games cheering on her American teammates, such as Suni Lee, who won gold in the all-around, and Jade Carey, who grabbed gold in the women's floor exercise in her Olympic debut.

Canada's team pursuit squads will go for bronze

The Canadian men's and women's team pursuit squads will have to focus their sights on the bronze medal after finishing in the bottom halves of their qualifying races on Monday.

Since the Canadian cyclists finished sixth and eighth, respectively, in their events, the gold and silver medals are out of grasp.

Jamie Squire/Getty Images
Jamie Squire/Getty Images

If they do hit the podium, it would be a case of déjà vu for the women's team — three of four team members are competing in Tokyo after the squad clinched bronze in Rio 2016.

The men's race also had a frightening moment, when an Australian competitor's handlebars broke and set him flying onto the track. The race was paused so the athlete, Alexander Porter, could get medical attention.

He returned with his team later on to race again, scrapes and all.