With the 2016 Olympics starting up this week there's entirely too many topics and events to get excited or upset about, but through all the controversy one fact remains: the best athletes from around the world are all challenging each other in a variety of competitions to determine who the best truly is. And while everyone has their favorite event they like to view, I would like to cover the event I'm most interested in: soccer.
Now when it comes to soccer for the Olympics the women's competition will almost always have more significance than that of the men's competition. And this is because while countries get to bring their full women's national team, the men's competition has many rules that end up downplaying the entire tournament into a U-23 (23 years old and under) youth championships. That means when the men's US team failed to qualify for the second time in a row, it wasn't the end of the world. So let's focus on the women's team instead.
Here's a full roster if you're interested, but some of the key players for this year would be the popular four players Hope Solo (goalkeeper), Alex Morgan (forward), Megan Rapinoe (midfielder), and Carli Llyod (midfielder). These women have played together for many years now and their chemistry on the field really shines because of it. But some of the lesser known names that I'm super interested in are Meghan Klingenberg (defender) and Mallory Pugh (forward). Klingenberg because she's a clever defender best known for her goal-line save that kept the US alive in the last world cup (check it out, it was amazing), and Mallory Pugh because she's younger than me and is playing on our national soccer team.
The women's team has already won their first two games against New Zealand and France with scores of 2-0 and 1-0 respectively with Lloyd and Morgan being the scorers of those goals. Solo did an amazing job keeping the shutout alive in both games, which really helps with both team moral and tournament standing. We are currently at the top of our group in the preliminaries, giving us two main advantages: depending on the outcome of the New Zealand v. Columbia, we could automatically qualify for the quarterfinals, and if we finish the prelims in first, then we most likely won't have to face the ever challenging Germany in the quarterfinals.
One of the main motivators for our team this year, besides it being an Olympic tournament, is the potential for the US to be the first team to be both the World Cup champions and the Olympic champions. So be sure to cheer on our girls this Tuesday at 6 when they face off against Columbia!
(Also, here's something to watch for in the coming games)
