Perhaps big tournament nerves got to her; hopefully Pugh will take her first Olympic minutes and use them to get settled for France, assuming she’s fit to play.
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The United States women’s soccer team began its quest for a fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal with a 2-0 win against New Zealand in their group play opener in Belo Horizonte.
“There’s been a little bit of a change in the roster, but it’s good”, Lloyd said. The 25-year-old is in the best form of her life, and confidently brushing off the past track disputes said: “I’ve been through a lot”.
The U.S. dominated from the start to earn the victory and remain unbeaten in 2016. “But we have something different and I don’t think anybody has seen the USA team as we are right now”.
“I thought about it. I just don’t know how I would actually go about it”, she told the Team USA website.
The chants were repeated after the final whistle.
“Of course we had some enormous losses, some players that have been around the game for quite some time, and they are irreplaceable, really”, veteran goalkeeper Hope Solo said. Their stories couldn’t be more different – Long is a 28-year-old late bloomer while Pugh is an 18-year-old phenom – but they both displayed admirable composure Wednesday.
The opening ceremony isn’t until Friday, but the United States women’s national team already has its first win of the Rio 2016 Olympics. The Olympic tournament is the first major competition for the US since the retirement of key players such as Abby Wambach and Lauren Holiday following last year’s world title in Canada.
The win gives the United States an important three points going into Saturday’s match with number-three ranked France.
After darting straight into New Zealand’s third of the field, the USA froze the Ferns’ defense with a slick passing move at the top of the penalty area. Tobin Heath took advantage of the space given by two very generous New Zealand defenders to perfectly place a cross to the far post, where Lloyd easily out-jumped her marker to head the ball back across goal.
For the most part, the women chosen for the Olympics team is exactly as we expected; however, some people were surprised that Alyssa Naeher was chosen over Ashlyn Harris for goalkeeper and that Megan Rapinoe was chosen over Heather O’Reilly in the midfield. She has 13 Olympics appearances, tied with Solo for the most on the team. But just 30 seconds into the second half, they doubled their lead, with Alex Morgan finishing off a pass from Morgan Brian, beating Erin Nayler at her near post. It was her 12 goal of the year and 68th global goal.
The Barcelona forward is thus laden not just with the captain’s armband, but the existential angst of a nation that has never won a men’s Olympic gold medal in its flagship sport. The only time it didn’t win was in 2000, when it lost the final to Norway.
The Americans have a fresh team with 11 Olympic newcomers, although many who made it to Rio were in the World Cup-winning squad in Canada past year.
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The younger Carli Lloyd, 26, is a setter for the USA women’s indoor volleyball team in Rio.
