The United States women’s national soccer team has an Olympic clash against Germany on Sunday in what is expected to be a tough match between two teams eager to restore their reputations after disastrous World Cup appearances last year.
The U.S. team has fallen from grace since winning the 2019 World Cup, its second consecutive FIFA World Cup title. The team failed to advance to the following Olympic Games, in Tokyo, and then had a regrettable performance in last year’s World Cup, eliminated in the round of 16.
It was the first elimination from a World Cup in the history of the women’s team, which is now in the fifth year of a drought without a major trophy.
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Once considered the darling of the world, the US women’s national team has faced increasingly tough competition as other countries invest in women’s sports. These investments are also coming to fruition at a time when some of America’s stars have begun to age out of the national spotlight, including former champions Megan Rapinoe, Ali Krieger, Kelley O’Hara and Ashlyn Harris.
Approximately half of this year’s squad has never competed in the Olympics before, although the young athletes proved to be eager on the field.
In addition to the relatively new squad, the coach is also new. Emma Hayes took over the program in May after more than a decade in charge of Chelsea. Hayes caused a sensation after moving much of the Olympic squad to younger players, but it paid dividends when the Games began last week.
In the opening match against Zambia on Thursday, the US women’s team offered an aggressive attack and ended up scoring three goals in a 3-0 victory. Zambia played the entire second half with one player less due to a red card sent off at the end of the first half, but the US team failed to score a single goal in that period.
Hayes offered tempered praise after the win.
“If you had asked me at the start of the game, would you have been happy with a three-nil win? I probably said no,” said the coach. “However, based on the performance and the chances created and the way we did it, I don’t want to be too hard on the players.”
German women are also entering the Olympics with a chip on their shoulder, having been shamefully eliminated from last year’s World Cup in the group stage. This happened just a few years after the team failed to qualify for the Tokyo Games.
If Thursday’s game is anything to go by, the German team is eager for redemption on the world stage.
Germany won their own game 3-0 against Australia with tight defense and a persistent attack that took advantage of opportunities. The Germans also shot significantly less than the Americans in the opening match, despite finishing with the same score.
Critically, each team’s accumulated goals will become a factor in exiting the group stage if Germany and the USA draw their game. Every missed shot in the U.S. opener risks becoming a haunting “what if?” moment for a team whose international prestige has lost its luster.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
