The U.S. can be represented in each soccer competitions on the Olympics for the primary time in 16 years, with the U-23 U.S. males’s nationwide staff becoming a member of the four-time gold-winning U.S. girls’s nationwide staff in Paris.
It would mark simply the fourth time each soccer groups can be on the Olympics on the similar time, roughly 30 years after girls’s soccer was added to the Video games’ lineup in 1996. Each groups have hit some highs on the Olympics throughout that span however every staff’s journey has been a special one. Whereas the U-23 males’s staff have missed out on a string of journeys to the Video games, the ladies’s staff have medaled all however as soon as on the occasion.
This is a glance again on the U.S. groups’ historical past on the Olympics.
USWNT’s historical past of success
- Atlanta 1996: Gold medal
- Sydney 2000: Silver medal
- Athens 2004: Gold medal
- Beijing 2008: Gold medal
- London 2012: Gold medal
- Rio de Janeiro 2016: Quarterfinals
- Tokyo 2020: Bronze medal
The USWNT are probably the most completed girls’s soccer staff within the historical past of the Olympics with 4 gold medals, which means many of the staff’s iconic gamers have earned the Video games’ highest distinction throughout their careers.
Within the first-ever girls’s soccer occasion on the Olympics, the USWNT beat China 2-1 within the remaining — three years earlier than they did so on the 1999 World Cup. They fell brief to Norway in Sydney when the European aspect received their solely gold medal within the occasion to this point however got here again for a three-peat, culminating with a win in London. The 2012 match additionally delivered the most effective video games in latest historical past, a 4-3 semifinal win over Canada that noticed the U.S. come from behind thrice earlier than Alex Morgan scored the game-winning header in additional time.
Issues have been much less simple since, with the inflow of funding and intention for the ladies’s sport creating extra aggressive tournaments. The USWNT had been ousted by Sweden within the quarterfinals in Rio de Janeiro however rebounded in Tokyo with a bronze medal regardless of enjoying unimpressive video games through the match.
U-23 USMNT’s return to the Video games
- Barcelona 1992: Group stage
- Atlanta 1996: Group stage
- Sydney 2000: Fourth place
- Athens 2004: Didn’t qualify
- Beijing 2008: Group stage
- London 2012: Didn’t qualify
- Rio de Janeiro 2016: Didn’t qualify
- Tokyo 2020: Didn’t qualify
The U-23s have been solely occasional contributors on the Olympics, advancing out of the group stage only one time in 2000. This match has steadily been a showcase for a number of the senior nationwide staff’s up-and-comers, together with in 1992 when Brad Friedel and Claudio Reyna made the minimize. Future USMNT legends Landon Donovan and Tim Howard had been a part of the staff that performed within the bronze medal match in 2000, two years earlier than Donovan was a breakout star within the 2002 World Cup the place the U.S. went to the quarterfinals.
On the U-23’s final journey to the Olympics in 2008, six gamers who had been rostered went on to play on the 2010 World Cup — Jozy Altidore, Michael Bradley, Maurice Edu, Benny Feilhaber, Brad Guzan and Stuart Holden.
