Analyzing the USA Women’s Soccer Team’s loss at the 2016 Olympics in Rio

The United States Women’s Soccer Team (Photo: Instagram)

13658800_1349846668376882_2002454898_n

By Alexandria Cannon

The United States Women’s soccer team traveled to Rio to attempt to win Olympic Gold. Leading up to their defeat they played with confidence each game, starting from the preliminaries.

They started with a 2-0 victory over a talented New Zealand team; then beat France 1-0 to advance to the quarterfinal round of the Olympic Games.

In the quarterfinal game they faced a talented Sweden team. Last year in the World Cup they faced Sweden and defeated them 1-0 in Canada. In a sense, Sweden was seeking revenge on the United States. Also, Sweden had something to prove because of the embarrassing loss to Brazil, 5-1.

The United States played a great, hard-fought battle against Sweden. The USA had numerous opportunities if they capitalized early on in the game, but Sweden would get on the scoreboard first, forcing team USA to rally and get on the board to tie the game. At the end of regulation, they would have to go into overtime, and both teams had numerous opportunities and they would not take advantage of free kicks or the corner kicks. Because of that it lead to an intense penalty kicks battle. Therefore, they stunned the world by losing to Sweden in penalty kicks in the Quarterfinals.

After the game, Team USA and soccer fans across the world were stunned. Carli Lloyd of Team USA was interviewed after the game and anyone watching could see her emotions she was clearly upset and stunned. USA goalkeeper Hope Solo said in an interview “We played a bunch of cowards” causing a stir with commentators.

Up next for Team USA is the next World Cup before the 2020 Olympics.

Alexandria Cannon can be reached at alexcannon40@gmail.com

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *