Note from the editor: This story originally ran in 2016 following the loss of the USWNT to Sweden in the Olympic Games. We've reposted it today in the lead up to the group stage rematch at the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup.
Exactly 10 years ago Thursday, the Argentina national team won gold in soccer at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. It remains as Lionel Messi’s greatest triumph at the international level.
So what's happened to the players since?
The 2008 Argentina Olympics squad was absolutely loaded with talent. Youngsters like Lionel Messi, Sergio Agüero, Ángel Di María, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Éver Banega and Pablo Zabaleta were just starting their careers. They were joined by over-age player Javier Mascherano (then just 24 himself) and led by the serene Juan Román Riquelme.
August 12th, 2016 was a low point for the United States women’s national team. They were heading home from Rio after falling to Sweden in a penalty kick shootout in the quarterfinals. A fifth place finish for a team that had won gold at the previous two editions of the Summer Games, and who had just won the World Cup a year ago, was an embarrassment.
No sporting events captivate a global audience like the World Cup and Olympics. Roughly half of the world's population tunes in to see at least a part of each spectacle. When analyzing the World Cup vs Olympics debate, no clear winner emerges. However, TV ratings suggest that the Olypmics has a slight edge.
Unfortunately for us footie fans, there is no soccer at the Winter Olympics; we’ll have to wait a while before eisfußball becomes an Olympic sport. But there was one professional soccer player, Håkon Lorentzen, who was fully in the spirit of the games on Monday and his reaction to his brother’s performance in PyeongChang was priceless.
A lot of you probably don’t know about the United States women’s national ice hockey team. That’s alright, that’s your issue. A lot of you will use this ignorance to claim that, vis-a-vis, they shouldn’t be properly compensated for their work. That’s not alright. These women are entitled, by law, to equitable support from USA Hockey in compensation, equipment, meals, staffing, transportation, hotels, travel and marketing.
The Olympics and the World Cup are arguably the two greatest sporting occasions on the planet. What makes them so special is that they only come 'round once every four years, but there are a great deal of differences among these two giant competitions.
In the grand scheme of things, the simple fact is this: the Olympic Games mean way more to athletes than the World Cup does to footballers. Now, that wasn't always the case, but over time it has certainly developed into being that way, and it isn't really a surprise.
Jeferson da Conceicao Goncalves, commonly known as Jefinho, helped Brazil to their fourth straight gold medal in football 5-a-side at the Paralympic Games. The man who’s drawn comparisons to Pele and Neymar is blind as a result of glaucoma, but his ability on the ball is simply breathtaking.