The United States women’s soccer team will not win a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics. On Monday, the squad lost to Canada 1-0 in the semifinals and will now play in the bronze medal game later this week. The USWNT could never get anything going in the Olympics, winning just two of the five games they played in. This will be the second consecutive Olympics the team won’t win a gold medal, losing to Sweden in the quarterfinals in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
“It’s terrible. We just didn’t have it today,” USWNT forward Megan Rapinoe said after the match, per ESPN. “Just too many errors from us again. I felt like the space was there for us to play and we just couldn’t get into it, too many touches or, you know, an errant touch.” Despite missing out on playing for a gold medal, the U.S. is looking forward to playing for a medal.
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Not the result we wanted but not done yet. Still a medal to play for on Thursday 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/Dyo92I1hxP
— U.S. Soccer WNT (@USWNT) August 2, 2021
“That’s football,” Rapinoe added. “They got, I think, one shot on goal, a PK, and from what it sounds like it was a PK. So yeah, it’s a bitter one to swallow. Obviously, we never want to lose to Canada. I don’t think I’ve ever lost to Canada. So it’s a bitter one. Obviously, there’s still a lot to compete for. That’s what I told the girls and what we talked about in the huddle. It’s not the color we want, but there’s still a medal on the line. That’s a huge thing and we want to win that game, but yeah, this is … this sucks. It sucks.”
The U.S. got off to a rough start in the Olympics, losing to Sweeden 3-0 in their opening game. They bounced back with a 6-1 win against New Zealand and then taking Australia to a 0-0 draw. The USWNT qualified for the quarterfinals and beat the Netherlands via penalty kicks 4-2 (2-2 in regulation). There are many reasons why the U.S. lost to Canada, but Rapinoe reveals the one big reason they are not playing for gold.
“I just think the players have a lot to look at ourselves about,” she said. “It’s not like, ‘Oh, we didn’t play better,’ and getting on each other, but we need to perform better, period. We don’t have juice because the ball’s banging off our shins and we’re not finding open passes and doing the simple things.”
