The United States women’s national soccer team has something to prove at the Tokyo Olympics.
It’s not so much about revenge after a surprising …
The United States women’s national soccer team has something to prove at the Tokyo Olympics. It’s not so much about revenge after a surprising loss to Sweden at the 2016 Rio Games but, rather, a new goal: The U.S. can become the first team to win an Olympics following a World Cup victory. In Tokyo the Americans will play for their first world championship under coach Vlatko Andonovski. His immensely deep and talented squad includes the sport’s biggest names: Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, Christen Press and Carli Lloyd. The U.S. team, winner of the 2019 World Cup in France, is ranked No.1 in the World. They’re undefeated in 42 straight matches and show no sign of slowing down heading into the 2023 World Cup. The biggest hurdle along that path will be the Olympics, where a small roster, a condensed schedule and the hot and humid conditions will all be challenges — along with the competition. Andonovski emphasized versatility in choosing his squad for Tokyo. Experience counted, too, with the average age of the team at 30.8 years old — the oldest U.S. Olympic roster ever. Seventeen of the 18 players were on the World Cup squad. “There’s so many boxes that the players need to check in order to make the roster, starting from health and fitness, and very important, performance. They’ve got to perform. It doesn’t matter if they’re versatile if they don’t perform well. So there’s a certain level of performance that they need to have, or a certain way they need to execute the task,” Andonovski said. “And then obviously the experience that they have, they’ve already been on this team in big tournaments.
