The 2015 Women World Cup winners USA had an alright run at the 2016 Rio Olympics, although it came to an end in the Quarterfinals in a shootout loss to Sweden. The USWNT was a big favorite to win after winning the world cup the previous summer, but they were not as dominant as everybody thought they were going to be. They personally let me down as a big fan of them and one of their stars.  Alex Morgan, I was expecting a repeat of the last Olympics in London 2012 when they won gold after beating Japan 2-1.

This time around their group consisted of France, New Zealand and Colombia. They won 2 of their games, New Zealand (2-0) and France (1-0), and tied their 3^rd against Colombia (2-2). Against New Zealand they put a more dominant game with goals from Carli Lloyd in the 9^th minute and Alex Morgan in the 46^th minute. France was a different story, they did pull out the win but France dominated most of the game having more than double shots on target than the USA. Carli Lloyd scored in the 63^rd minute to secure them the win. Colombia was one of their tougher games with it being close the whole way. Colombia opened up the scoring in the 26^th minute by a goal from Catalina Usme, USA responded with goals in the 41^st and 59^th minute by Crystal Dunn and Mallory Pugh. When the game looked about over Hope Solo made a rare mistake and Colombia’s Usme scored in the 90^th minute to secure a draw and 1 point for both teams. USA still finished on top of the table with 7 points.

With their first place they secured a place in the quarterfinals with a match against Sweden. The first half of the game was a little boring with no goals coming until the second half in the 61^st minute by Stina Blackstenius. USA’s beautiful striker Alex Morgan scored a goal in the 77^th minute which tied up the game and with no goals coming in the remainder of regulation time they went to extra time. A scoreless extra time took the game into nerve-racking PKs, with the Swedish taking the win in a 4-3 shootout. That racked up the USA’s run in the tournament in which they were destined to win gold for the 4^th consecutive time. This is also the first time in USWNT history that they do not medal in the Olympic tournament.