The Rio Olympics "kicked off" Wednesday night, with Women's Soccer taking claim of the opening games. Twelve countries are being represented in the tournament, divided into three groups:
Group E--Brazil, China, Sweden, South Africa
Group F --Canada, Australia, Zimbabwe, Germany
Group G--USA, New Zealand, France, Columbia
Of those 12 countries, only one can be ranked first in the world by FIFA. Can you guess who claims the elite top spot? A team who is no stranger to winning Olympic gold, and the high expectations that come along with defending the title: the stars and stripes of the U.S.A.
The U.S. has dominated the Olympic Women's Soccer Tournament since it was put in place in Atlanta 1996: winning four of the five Olympic tournaments, according to Yahoo Sports. They have earned a trip to the final in all five tournaments, losing only in the Sydney 2000 final to Norway in extra time.
As if the U.S. Women's National Team's Olympic prowess isn't overwhelming enough, they are also the most successful team in FIFA Women's World Cup history. They've made it to four of the seven championship games, being crowned champion a record three times over. Never have they finished lower than third place in World Cup history.
In last year's Women's World Cup in Canada, the USWNT won in dramatic fashion. A 5-2 thrashing of Japan proved to be the largest goal differential in the history of the tournament's championship games. Without U.S. standout Carli Lloyd's hat trick, though, the title could have gone back to the 2011 defending champions.
Lloyd, now captain of the USWNT, has already made her mark in the Rio Olympics. On opening day, she scored the team's first goal in this year's tournament with a header just nine minutes into the match against New Zealand. Clearly, she is primed and ready to lead her team to yet another Olympic gold medal. Alex Morgan added a goal to make the final tally against New Zealand 2-0.
Other news on opening day include Sweden beating South Africa by the score of 1-0. Canadian forward Janine Beckie scored in the first 20 seconds of the match versus Australia, earning herself the fastest goal scored in Olympic soccer history (men's or women's). Canada went on to win 2-0, regardless of being down a player for 70 minutes due to a red card early on in the match. An impressive day for Canadian women's soccer, to say the least.
Germany, who is ranked number 2 in the world, was shocked to see 93rd-ranked Zimbabwe slip a goal past their keeper just after halftime. Forward Kudakwashe Basopo scored Zimbabwe's first-ever goal for women's soccer in an Olympics Tournament. Germany went on to win 6-1, but a record set is a record set--and, it was against a world powerhouse.
Other lopsided defeats included host nation Brazil beating China 3-0. A highly skilled and technical, world-ranked number three France team beat number 24 ranked Columbia 4-0.
The USWNT will face France on Saturday at 4 in what will be one of their toughest matches of the tournament. The match is high-stakes as well, with travel to another stadium across Brazil and a future playoff match-up versus number two Germany on the line. Facing some of the most skilled teams ever to play in Olympic Women's Soccer history, time will tell if the U.S. will perform as usual, or uncharacteristically choke. I, for one, have faith that the U.S.A. will once again go all the way.
