KANSAS CITY, Kan.
The experience of the team has the USWNT in a great place headed to the Olympics next month.
These ladies are good. Really good. Friday’s 4-0 score may not have been as decisive as the game really was, but the Americans controlled the entire game, led by Carli Lloyd, making her first start since her injury in April.
“I think I played the injury very smart, coming back when I was fully ready,” Lloyd said. “Had a lot support, unfortunately missing pretty much all the first part of the Houston Dash season, but the coaching staff and everyone there were very supportive and very patient with me, as well as Jill and the entire coaching staff here.
“I am coming off a little bit of break, so I am coming in a little fresh, rejuvenated, and really continue to get this thing done.”
After a sprained ankle sat her down for two months, Lloyd was hot from the start, along with her fellow veterans, Becky Sauerbrunn and Alex Morgan. The captain – earning her 224th cap – played the full 90 minutes and tallied a goal.
“The fact that she went 90 in this heat, I was pleased,” USWNT head coach Jill Ellis said. “Her link up play with both the nines that went in was very good. Her passing from deep was, when she picked up the ball, she was dangerous.”
This was not Llloyd’s first minutes since the injury though. Against South Africa on July 9, the captain came in at halftime to get 45 minutes under her belt in Chicago.
Part of the success for the USWNT will be the experience of Lloyd and the rest of the team. As an average of the 18 players announced headed for Rio, six players — Lloyd, Hope Solo (197), Tobin Heath (119), Megan Rapinoe (113), Alex Morgan (112) and Sauerbrunn (109) — have more than 100 caps, and the average cap total of the entire team is at 71.
“It’s really just doing what I do,” Lloyd said. “I think leading by example and bringing that grit, that determination.”
The USWNT gets underway in Olympic action three days before the opening ceremonies. On Aug. 3, the American open up with New Zealand in Group G action. In 13 games against the Oceanic country, the U.S. has the 11-1-1 lead and a 47-5 scoring advantage.
Three days later, the USWNT has France in the same place, Belo Horizonte. On Aug. 9, the Americans will take on Colombia in their group-stage finale.
Against all teams in Group G, the U.S. has a 32-2-3 record and a +97 goal differential.
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