After a successful win in Canada at the women's world cup, it only made logical sense that the strong number one national women's side would fair pretty well in the Olympics at Rio in 2016. Unfortunately, they followed a trend that seems to be plaguing the men's national team as well, losing in the quarter finals of the Olympics, marking their earliest defeat ever in a national tournament.
The friendlies before the crucial Olympic group stage would have not shown any indicators of a weak national American side. The most significant win, a 4-0 win over Costa Rica, should have secured the women side's perception of mental and physical strength against other international team squads. The Americans also had crucial players playing in the Olympics (even without Sydney Leroux), including great soccer players like Megan Rapinoe, Hope Solo, Alex Morgan and the surprising 24 year old who has shown spectacular performances in the friendlies, Crystal Dunn (who I really want a jersey with her name on it cause she's totally awesome, and should have 5 star skills plus in FIFA). Along with Crystal Dunn, Alex Morgan showed strong skills in the opponent's boxes during the friendlies, so I was very hopeful the Women's national team would make it to, at least, the semi finals. Not to mention, the American National team really had to thank Carli Lloyd for spectacular performances during both the friendlies and Olympics.
The iconic tournament started off with the Women's national team facing New Zealand in the group stage. Goals from Lloyd and Morgan helped secured a win with massive possession for the United States over New Zealand. However, the next game against the powerful french side, had me worried that the United States would have some difficulty against a strong French squad, with many cringe-worthy moments, and great saves from Hope Solo, to win only 1-0, courtesy of Lloyd once again. This game also helped the Women's national team secure their spot into the next quarter final stage, very early on. Unfortunately, I noticed the downward trend with the game against Colombia, ending 2-2 because of some atrocious goalkeeping from Hope Solo (at the Olympic stage, you cannot afford for the ball to go in between a goalkeeper's legs from a free kick). Dunn and Pugh (who was subbed on for an injured Rapinoe who couldn't last a full 90 minutes) only looked to be the strong players in the game. Then Sweden showed up in the quarter finals, with too many long balls for the United States and trying to cross the ball in when it just wasn't working. Jill Ellis, manager of the strong side, really should have made some key game-plan changes to surprise Sweden, but the game ended up with the United states losing 3-4 in penalties. Even though this same side won the world cup, its important to remember that there will always be that one game that the team does not well on, and while I'm dissapointed, I only hope the team learns from their mistakes for the future.
