After three months of bold predictions, shifting power rankings and in-depth sleuthing on who could possibly make the final 18-player USWNT Olympic roster, it’s safe to say that was all a waste of time.
Carli Lloyd entered the USWNT’s June training camp knowing she couldn’t risk taking it easy with just 18 roster spots available for the Tokyo Olympics in July. She didn’t help her case when over-celebrating for a goal where she was clearly offside against Portugal on Thursday.
Carli Lloyd is a woman on a mission to prove she deserves to be on the USWNT’s flight to Japan for the Olympics. When she thought she had doubled her team’s lead against Portugal on Thursday night, she sent head coach Vlatko Andonovski a message. There was only one tiny problem with that Carli Lloyd celebration: the goal didn’t count.
Soccer coaches are faced with countless unenviable problems every day: How to go about training, how to set the team up for matches, how to meld personalities into a single unit. But one problem every coach would love to have is what Vlatko Andonovski is facing ahead of this summer’s Olympics: How to cut some of the best players in the world.
The Portland Thorns showed that they’re the team to beat ahead of the 2021 National Women’s Soccer League season by lifting the Challenge Cup on Saturday afternoon. It shouldn’t have been so dramatic as the Thorns dominated NJ/NY Gotham FC over the course of 90 minutes, but Christine Sinclair’s early effort was all they had to show for it while Carli Lloyd buried Gotham’s only shot on target.
The USWNT is so dominant in world soccer, some games feel like they’re over before they begin. But that’s never the case when Sweden lines up against the U.S., and we saw Saturday as the USWNT narrowly escaped defeat, salvaging a 1-1 draw with a late Megan Rapinoe penalty in a friendly in Stockholm.
Carli Lloyd made history on Saturday, becoming just the third player to record 300 caps for the USWNT, captaining her side on the landmark day in a friendly against Sweden. Only Kristine Lilly and Christie Rampone have appeared for the U.S. more.
Congratulations, @CarliLloyd! pic.twitter.com/SbtKFNWk0U
As much as we at The18 love women’s soccer, it’s a sad fact that the men’s game receives far more attention, whether it’s from FIFA, other media companies, potential sponsors or the fans themselves. (We could spend hours debating why this is the case, but that’s for another story.) Despite this, there are still a large number of women’s footballers who are far more famous than their partners, who are themselves professional soccer players.
El resultado final fue de 6-0. No se trata de un partido de tenis entre un primer sembrado como Federer, Djokovic o Nadal contra uno de nosotros. Apenas lograríamos tocar la pelota con la raqueta al recibir el contundente servicio de alguno de estos tres colosos del deporte blanco.
Megan Rapinoe and Carli Lloyd are both over 35 and showing no signs of slowing down. While both will face stiff competition to make the 18-woman roster for this summer’s Olympics, they both showed they’re still among the best in the world in a dominant first half against Argentina on Wednesday.
Rapinoe, 35, scored twice and Lloyd, 38, added a third as the USWNT won its fourth SheBelieves Cup by strolling to a 6-0 victory over Argentina on Wednesday night in Florida. The U.S. won all three matches in the competition, becoming the first team to win it in back-to-back years.