Lloyd’s goal came just nine minutes into the Olympic opener and Morgan added the insurance goal just a minute into the second half.
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“That was the best way we could have started”, said Tobin Heath, who made the cross that led to Lloyd’s goal.
“One of the things that I really looked into is why has a repeat never been done”, said U.S. coach Jill Ellis, whose team has lost once in its last 40 matches. So I think that, mixed in with us old folks, we will be all right..
Sen. Charles Schumer is calling on the House to follow his chamber’s lead and make the cash prizes won by USA medalists tax-exempt in future games. It’s worth noting that the USA back line has been here before, too, and posted another clean sheet.
“I don’t think anything compares to the expectations we have for one another”, co-captain Becky Sauerbrunn said. From there, the tough American defense made it easy on star goalkeeper and Washington alumna Hope Solo, who didn’t see much pressure throughout the night.
The chants were repeated after the final whistle.
“I want to come away with a gold medal and am really just going to be going out there every game and working hard, doing everything possible to help my teammates”, Lloyd said.
In the last 40 games that the United States had played, they only lost once.
As a top women’s soccer power, the US has performed well at both tournaments throughout the years and has even held the titles of Olympic champions and World Cup champions at the same time, as they now do.
Olympic rosters are more compact too, with only 18 players, five fewer than the World Cup. A big one comes Saturday when the US team faces France, perhaps the only team in the world that can match the Americans in skill level.
New Zealand, playing in its third consecutive Olympics, barely threatened the U.S.at Mineirao, which holds more than 60,000 spectators.
US captain Carli Lloyd scored the team’s first goal in the ninth minute. She also has game-winning goals in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics to her name. She was named to the CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Best XI as one of the top players in the qualification tournament.
But each time Solo touched the ball, raucous booing broke out from the Brazilians, a response to Solo’s pre-Olympics social media posts about the Zika virus, which included a photo of the controversial goalkeeper wearing a mosquito net over her head and holding a giant bottle of bug spray. It was Lloyd’s 89th career global goal.
Among the Olympic newcomers are a few players who also made it to the World Cup previous year, including Meghan Klingenberg, Ali Krieger, Morgan Brian and Whitney Engen. The coach alluded to her midfield depth last month in Kansas City, but most still expected Horan to start once Morgan Brian returned from injury.
The U.S. announced earlier Wednesday that its first two friendlies after the Olympics will be against Thailand on September 15 in Columbus, Ohio, and against the Netherlands on September 18 in Atlanta at the Georgia Dome.
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“Soccer is the only Olympic sport not to be contested exclusively in Rio”.
