ASN: How Will the U.S. Ladies Strategy 2016 Olympics?

They got here. They noticed. Carli Lloyd scored a hat trick. So what’s subsequent for the USA girls’s nationwide workforce? ASN’s John D. Halloran appears forward to the 2016 Olympics, that are simply across the nook.

BY

John D. Halloran

Posted
July 08, 2015
10:30 AM

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WHAT’S NEXT FOR the USA girls’s nationwide workforce?

With a 3rd World Cup title within the books, the U.S. girls will deservedly spend the subsequent few days, weeks, and even months celebrating their win. However earlier than lengthy the squad should get again to work.

That is as a result of the opposite main championship in girls’s soccer is the Olympics, which will get underway in Rio de Janeiro subsequent summer time. Not like within the males’s sport, the ladies’s regional confederation championships are typically not thought of main tournaments and there’s no Confederations Cup. The Olympics, nonetheless, which on the ladies’s facet has no age restriction (the boys’s Olympic event is basically a U-23 competitors), is taken into account a significant prize. 

Through the years the U.S. girls have loved near-complete domination of the Olympic video games, successful the event in 1996, 2004, 2008, and 2012. However with solely 5 months till qualification begins, the workforce could have a number of inquiries to reply within the weeks forward. Listed below are three of them.

WHO WILL RETIRE?

Whereas the 2016 Summer season Olympic event remains to be over a yr away, qualification will happen this January.

As initially reported by Steven Goff, the U.S. girls will play 10 celebratory residence friendlies to shut out the 2015 calendar yr, a lot as they did following the 2011 World Cup and 2012 Olympics. Whereas the veterans will virtually actually be part of these friendlies and the corresponding celebration, the extra rapid query is, which ones will likely be stepping down earlier than the 2016 Olympics?

The quick hole between the World Cup and the Olympics signifies that any participant—even essentially the most aged—may probably keep within the fold. Nevertheless, lots of the veterans will seemingly take Sunday’s World Cup win as an opportunity to exit on prime and fade into retirement.

On the prime of the record is all-time worldwide purpose scorer Abby Wambach, who has said again and again {that a} World Cup trophy was the one lacking piece of her highly-decorated profession.

Talking previous to Sunday’s remaining in opposition to Japan, she reiterated that feeling once more.

“I want to be remembered as…a World Cup champion. That is what I want my legacy to be,” mentioned Wambach.

With that purpose now obtained, it would not be a shock to see Wambach grasp up her boots.

She is going to seemingly be joined by captain Christie Rampone, who turned 40 two weeks in the past. Rampone remains to be the workforce’s third greatest middle again, however is unlikely to push her method again into the highest two and will select this time to step apart. Forward of Sunday’s World Cup remaining, Rampone mentioned she nonetheless hadn’t made up her thoughts on whether or not she would keep on board for the 2016 Olympics.

“I still have to think about it,” she mentioned. “I know this is my last World Cup. We’ll see about the Olympics and see how [the final] pans out.”

With the win over Japan, nonetheless, Rampone now has the excellence of being the one participant from the 1999 squad to nonetheless be round to win the trophy in 2015. The temptation to step down with World Cup trophies bookending either side of her superb profession could also be too sturdy to cross up.

Shannon Boxx, who’s 38 years previous and was a shock to even make the roster this time round, will virtually actually be completed. In complete, Boxx solely performed quarter-hour within the 2015 event.

As for the opposite 30 yr olds, none appear prone to depart of their very own volition. Hope Solo, Carli Lloyd, Becky Sauerbrunn, Ali Krieger, Carli Lloyd, and Megan Rapinoe are all nonetheless at, or close to, the highest of their video games and unlikely to depart.

Lloyd, the hero of Sunday’s remaining, appeared to substantiate her intention to remain round for so long as doable.

Talking after the win in opposition to Japan, Lloyd mentioned, “I’ll be back to work and back stronger than ever.”

Nevertheless, Heather O’Reilly, who’s simply 30 years previous, could be compelled out of the combination. She solely performed 9 minutes within the 2015 World Cup and has quickly fallen down the depth chart over the previous yr. The Olympic qualifying roster can also be harder to make as it’s restricted to solely 20 gamers (and the roster for the precise Olympics is even smaller, restricted to 18), not like the 23-player World Cup roster.

Lori Chalupny, at 31, is the final of the 30-year-olds, however could possibly stick round resulting from her versatility. Meghan Klingenberg seems to have a hammerlock on the spot at left again, however Chalupny will also be a dominating holding midfielder, a high quality that might maintain her across the nationwide workforce for an additional yr.

WHAT ABOUT ELLIS?

One other massive query going through the U.S. girls’s workforce is, who will coach it on the Olympic Video games? Whether or not Jill Ellis stays as head coach really boils down to 2 separate questions:

            1) Ought to she keep?

            2) Will she keep?

Having gained the World Cup, it appears unthinkable that U.S. Soccer would make a change, nevertheless it’s additionally no secret that, even with Sunday’s win, Ellis is unpopular with many followers and pundits and made some questionable selections main as much as and in the course of the event. To her credit score, she obtained it proper when it counted, however there quite a few causes the federation would possibly need to make a change.

Through the event, there have been rumors that she had misplaced the locker room, and there has at all times been a sense that Ellis was chosen due to her reference to the veteran gamers. With many key veterans prone to transfer on, the federation might need to make the change now and go in a brand new path.

There may be additionally the lingering query in regards to the want for the U.S. girls’s program to evolve and whether or not or not Ellis is the correct coach to make the wanted modifications.

However the larger query could also be whether or not Ellis needs to remain. In 2012, when former head coach Pia Sundhage stepped down, Ellis—then an assistant—did not need the job.

Ellis mentioned she turned the job down initially as a result of she to spend extra time at residence, and fewer time on the street.

“I simply wanted to be in a single place for some time, for my household, and myself. I had been on the street for too a few years.”

Now, coming off a world title, Ellis might determine as soon as once more to step apart.

STICKING WITH THE 4-2-3-1

The true tactical revelation of the 2015 event was the transfer to a three-player midfield triangle of Morgan Brian, Lauren Vacation, and Carli Lloyd. The introduction of Brian into the beginning XI lastly made the transfer work, regardless of its failures early within the Ellis period when she tried shoehorning Wambach and Rapinoe into the attacking midfield position. With Brian and Vacation holding, Lloyd was lastly pushed right into a free attacking position—the place she shined.

However with Vacation’s coming retirement—confirmed Tuesday—that midfield triangle now must be reworked.

A (completely happy) tearful Lauren Vacation simply confirmed she’s retiring from USWNT at 27. Says has given final 10 years to nationwide workforce. Household now.

— Grant Wahl (@GrantWahl) July 7, 2015

There are alternatives to exchange Vacation, nonetheless, beginning with Chalupny, who has proven a capability to dominate NWSL video games as a holding midfielder. And throughout the league—and even the school ranks—there are a number of midfield choices that might nonetheless make a three-player midfield triangle work.

Within the broad midfield positions of the 4-2-3-1, the U.S. will nonetheless have Tobin Heath and Rapinoe, in addition to 2015 World Cup sparkplug Kelley O’Hara. The extra urgent downside could also be at ahead with the cadre of out-of-form strikers. However in that case, a single-striker set may match greatest.

Alex Morgan, for all her capacity to run at defenders and trigger issues, scored just one purpose in all the event. To be honest, she had three lengthy damage layoffs over the previous 18 months, however the U.S. nonetheless will want its ahead in a 4-2-3-1 to attain objectives.

Christen Press, who was extensively tipped by many to be a breakout star this summer time, struggled to make an influence. After beginning 11 of the primary 12 video games of 2015, together with the primary two video games of the World Cup, Press fell to the bench as an alternative and did not even play within the U.S.’s remaining two matches. The one benefit for Press is that she has confirmed she will be able to play on the wing, the place she may compete with Heath, Rapinoe, and O’Hara for minutes.

Lastly, Sydney Leroux, for all of the pre-tournament tales about her enjoying a World Cup in her native Canada, by no means obtained off the mark. After beginning the primary two video games for the U.S., Leroux logged solely a single minute the remainder of the best way—approaching as a 93rd-minute substitute—within the U.S.’s final 4 video games mixed. If the U.S. stays in a single-striker set, Leroux would seemingly be in a direct battle with Morgan for the begins because the U.S.’s lone ahead.

Olympic qualifying begins January 21.