Tobin Heath's arm meets ball.

The U.S. won its fourth gold out of five women's soccer tournaments in Olympic history by beating Japan 2-1 in a tense final. U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo (and the crossbar) came up with some absolutely fantastic saves (gif here) to help stave off the almost constant Japan threat on goal, Carli Lloyd scored two great goals and was relentless in midfield, and Alex Morgan was always dangerous in attack and put in great crosses, including the one that led to the match's first goal in the eighth minute.

[ Photos: U.S. women's soccer team takes gold ]

But since we highlighted the Melissa Tancredi head stomp on Lloyd that was missed by the referee in the U.S.'s semifinal against Canada, it's only fair that we also show the handball referee Bibiana Steinhaus missed in the final. An otherwise excellent Tobin Heath accidentally deflected an early Japan free kick from just outside the box with an arm that shouldn't have been where it was and even though the Japanese players immediately protested, there was no call from the referee.

The U.S. was aided by a handball in the box that was called against Canada and led to an equalizing penalty kick from Abby Wambach late in the semifinal. Of course, it's impossible to say how or if the Heath handball being called would've changed the outcome of the final. The way Solo played, she could've saved the ensuing penalty. Japan didn't dwell on the missed call, though. Instead, it stayed focused, remained patient on the ball and kept pressure on the U.S. until the final whistle.

[ Photos: Hope Solo in Action ]

Carli Lloyd added a second goal in the 54th minute with a blast from outside the box. Nine minutes later, Yuki Ogimi put in a rebound to make it 2-1 and ensure the remaining half hour would cause a few ulcers.

Despite Japan maintaining 58 percent of possession and getting off just one shot on target less, the U.S. held on and avenged last year's World Cup loss with some truly clutch performances in front of an Olympic women's football record crowd of 80,203 at Wembley Stadium.

Jose Mourinho disregards the obvious in Tito Vilanova's eyeball.

As the Supercopa de Espana draws near and Spanish bakeries sell their finest "fingers of Mou," Jose Mourinho himself has publicly acknowledged that, yeah, jabbing Tito Vilanova in the eyeball during the scuffle that followed last year's Super Cup win for Barca was poor form. Obviously.

Though Mourinho and the newly promoted Vilanova shook hands and made up long ago and their bans have been lifted as part of a general amnesty from the Spanish football federation, Jose finally decided to admit that the incident was his bad.

From Reuters:

"I should not have done what I did, obviously not," Mourinho told Fox Sports during Real's pre-season tour of the United States.

"The person who messed up there was me," added the Portuguese, in an interview posted on the broadcaster's website.

Many are hailing this as an apology, even though it doesn't appear to include an actual apology. Still, I suppose that statement of the obvious is a small step towards personal growth for Mourinho. And it will

Daniel Agger at Melwood on Wednesday. (Getty)

Man City have reportedly been sniffing around Liverpool centerback Daniel Agger and, when asked about this, Brendan Rodgers has gone on record as saying that "every player has a price." But Agger himself has made his intentions clear by showing up to a Liverpool training session with "YNWA" (You'll Never Walk Alone) tattooed on his fingers.

Agger joined the club in 2006 and is signed until 2014 and it seems he's intent on being with Liverpool for life, unless he knows a good laser tattoo removal place or Man City plan to adopt "You'll Never Want Again" as their slogan.

Anyway, what's going on with Man City? They still haven't made a signing this summer, PSG are already starting to usurp them as Europe's supreme spenders and their transfer targets are tattooing their loyalty to their current clubs across their fingers. Pretty soon Mario Balotelli will start wearing khaki pants while spending all his time doing jigsaw puzzles and Carlos Tevez will go six months without demanding a

Right back Tony Hibbert has famously never scored a goal in his 11 years and 308 appearances for Everton. But on Wednesday, August 8, 2012, in a preseason friendly/testimonial against AEK Athens to recognize his decade-plus of service, the 31-year-old actually scored a freaking goal.

As soon as he finally completed this achievement more astonishing than NASA landing a robot cameraman on Mars, there was a mass pitch invasion as fans at Goodison Park wanted to join Hibbert's teammates in a congratulatory mauling before being herded back into the stands by stewards. The goal wasn't exactly a gift, either. Hibbert squirted a free kick under the AEK wall and just inside the near post.

Hibbert first joined Everton's youth academy at the age of 10 and has been with the first team since 2001. After his long-awaited goal, Everton fans sang "Tony Hibbert, he scores when he wants."

The U.S. team lines up for the national anthem prior to its semifinal against Canada. (Getty)

Avenging its penalty shootout loss in the 2011 Women's World Cup final to Japan will be all the motivation the U.S. team needs for Thursday's gold-medal match, but the U.S. Soccer Federation has confirmed it will get a nice financial bonus if it can win the country's fourth Olympic gold in women's soccer.

USA Today reports that USSF president Sunil Gulati has announced that the team will split a $1.5 million bonus if it beats Japan, while an unspecified but smaller bonus will be paid out in the event of a loss. The bonus shares will be prorated and "the expectation is that the money will be split by the 18 players on the current roster, a pool of about a dozen reserves and training staff."

[Photos: U.S. Women's Soccer team]

In this edition of "When kit men attack" we have the case of Fluminense's kit man having a bit of a freakout over a disallowed goal. Late in a scoreless match against Atletico Mineiro, Fluminense had a goal ruled offside (video above). Several Fluminense players ran over the linesman and gave him a talking to, but it's the man who didn't quite make it that now faces a ban of up to 12 matches.

From Reuters:

"The kit man Denilson Macedo ran onto the pitch from the tunnel entrance and attempted to attack [the linesman]. He had to be restrained by police," said the tribunal in a statement, adding that Macedo also swore at and insulted the official.

Team manager Rodrigo Henriques also faces a ban after Fluminense officials refused to give Macedo's name to the referee or police, saying he would be punished internally.

That's an interrogation you don't see on cop shows too often. Police grilling a football manager for the name of the kit man they just stopped from attacking a linesman. That

Ibrox during a Scottish Communities League Cup first round match. (Getty)

Rangers played their first match at Ibrox since the club was liquidated and placed in the Third Division (the fourth tier of Scottish football). It was a Scottish Communities League Cup first-round match between a Third Division club and a Second Division club (East Fife), yet 38,160 people showed up to watch the home side win 4-0. In fact, ESPN reports that "the demand for tickets was so great ahead of kick-off, the start time was delayed by 15 minutes with a large number of fans still outside at 7:45pm."

Though the match was one that Rangers would've been exempt from if they were still a Scottish Premier League club, it ended up being a celebration of a rebirth as supporters put aside their bitterness and resentment over all that's happened to their club.

Said a supporter selling Rangers fanzine Number One outside the stadium (via Herald Scotland):

"It's given people a reason to pull together. There's a buzz about Ibrox that hasn't been here for years. Football and Rangers means the world to some people, and they'll be out to support the club.

"People were fed up with the SPL, and with Scottish football. It had grown stale and what's happened to Rangers has given the club a shot in the arm.

"It's got the fans excited in a way I've not seen for 15 years."

So Rangers will begin the road back to the SPL in a league where the combined average attendance last season was 4,706 with reinvested fans that seem ready to treat each game against Clyde and Montrose like Champions League matches. Well, the important Champions League matches, not those final group stage matches where everything's already been decided and the few fans that are there are angry that the tickets were so overpriced.

Holger Badstuber does not appreciate his teammates questioning his challenges at the training ground and he proved this when 18-year-old Bayern youth team product Emre Can reacted negatively to a lunging tackle. When Can protested, Badstuber grabbed him by the neck and told him to "shut up!"

Philipp Lahm and Franck Ribery were quick to diffuse the situation, which occurred during a training session that was open to the public. Clearly Bayern are ready for the season to start.

Badstuber plans on sneezing in the face of a Bayern groundskeeper and then yelling at the man for not saying "thank you" later in the week.

This has been the Dirty Tackle of the Day: a chronicling of unfortunate events.