The U.S. Women’s soccer team is no stranger to fierce competition and thrilling wins, coming off of their World Cup championship in 2019. Last July, the team delivered a startling victory that put them on the mainstage of both athletics and pop culture.
With 10 of the 11 players starting who played in that incredible World Cup game in July, the United States women’s national team beat Mexico 4-0 last Friday, securing a spot in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Coming off of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, in which the U.S. Women’s American team lost in the quarterfinals, the women are thrilled for their chance to win it all in Tokyo in the upcoming Olympic games. Especially since their 2016 loss broke their three-time Olympic winning streak that began in 2004.
In the game against Mexico, Rose Lavelle and Sam Mewis scored within the first 15 minutes, showcasing a desire to win and an early energy. The two were tremendous in qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics, which was of high importance to the team, specifically under new leadership.
According to Sports Illustrated, this will mark the U.S. team’s seventh consecutive Olympic appearance. The team is bound to make more headlines as they push toward summer 2020. After their World Cup championship last year, they also made headlines on the basis of a gender-discrimination lawsuit against the United States Soccer Federation.
Team captains Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, and Carli Lloyd spearheaded the lawsuit, which was brought up because they were not being paid as much as the U.S. men’s soccer team.
Under the leadership of new coach Vlatko Andonovski, the U.S. is now at-bat to become the first nation to ever follow a World Cup title with an Olympic title in the following year.
The next task for the team is to put together an 18 player Olympic roster—without star forward Alex Morgan, who is due in April with her first child. Despite her pregnancy announcement, the team captain has made statements expressing her desire to be considered for the Olympic roster nonetheless.
It should be an exciting turn of events as the U.S. national team forges forward to the 2020 Olympic games, perhaps even going up against Japan, the host nation, in the journey to gold.
Featured Image by Jon Candy on Flickr
Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)
