Opinion: Carli Lloyd and Megan Rapinoe are game-changers again, possibly one last time
KASHIMA, Japan — For the better part of an hour, the years fell away from Megan Rapinoe and Carli Lloyd.
Knowing this might be their last Olympic game, maybe their last game at any major international tournament, they played with the fierce abandon that the entire USWNT has been missing. Showing the kind of opportunism that has long made them two of the most feared players in the world with two goals apiece, they gave the Americans their swagger back.
The U.S. women are leaving the Tokyo Olympics with a medal thanks to two goals apiece from Rapinoe and Lloyd on Friday night. A bronze wasn’t what they were seeking when they arrived for the Tokyo Games, but it means the Americans have won a medal at all but one World Cup and Olympics.
That kind of consistency, that kind of success, is one any team, in any sport, would covet.
“I’ve had a different mindset going into this one. I haven’t made any official announcement yet, but obviously I am at the tail end of my career,” Lloyd said. “The drive over to the game was different. I was just thinking about a lot of things. I just wanted to do everything possible to help this team win a medal.
“It’s not a little chintzy third-place World Cup medal,” Lloyd said. “It’s a medal of a different color. But we’re going home with that medal and it’s really special.”
The U.S. women have won the past two World Cups, and been ranked No. 1 for most of the past decade. Look at their roster on paper, and they are indisputably the best in the world.
But as they discovered this tournament, talent alone isn’t what has made the Americans so dominant all these years.
“It’s about the mentality this team has had forever,” Lloyd said. “The way you saw us come out and play, that was the U.S. mentality.”
Its absence until the bronze-medal match against Australia was glaring. The Americans lost their opener against Sweden, and were held scoreless in two of their three group matches. They needed penalties to beat the Netherlands in the quarterfinals, and lost to Canada for the first time in 20 years in the semifinals.
Following that loss, the Americans had a team meeting, coaches and players. Then the players themselves sat down together.
“As you can imagine, we’ve done lots of talking and meetings and hashing it all out and doing the autopsy,” Rapinoe said. “But I felt like we just got to a good place, and we’re either going to come out and play great or play s-----, so just be a bit more free. Trust in ourselves. Trust in each other.”
Rapinoe and Lloyd are not similar players, in either style or substance. Lloyd is aggressive every second that she is on the field, hunting goals like a predator. Rapinoe is more strategic, the master of set pieces. Off the field, Lloyd can be prickly, looking for any doubt or criticism that she can use as motivation. Rapinoe is the life of the party, as quotable as she is sociable.
But they are alike in the only way that matters: They want to win. Badly. Every time out.
Neither Lloyd, 39, nor Rapinoe, 36, has made an official decision about her future, though Lloyd came close after the game. If this was their last time on the world’s biggest stage, though, they did not want to end it with a loss or a poor performance.
Eight minutes into the game, the USWNT earned a corner kick and Rapinoe stepped up to take it. She sent the ball on a shallow arc toward the goal and rather than finding a teammate’s head or foot or caroming off an Australian, it settled into the back of the net for an olimpico.
(Or close to it, with replays showing Australian goalkeeper Teagan Micah might have gotten the very edge of her thumb on it.)
Olimpicos are rare, scored directly off corner kicks. But this is actually Rapinoe’s second Olympic olimpico, having done it in 2012, too.
Already playing with more energy, the spectacular goal seemed to unleash something in the Americans. After the Australians briefly tied it up, Rapinoe put the USWNT in front for good, scoring in the 21st minute on a thunderous volley after a botched clearance by Australia.
Then it was Lloyd’s turn. In the second minute of first-half stoppage time, she scored a cracker, controlling a pass from Lindsey Horan with her right foot, she went far post with a left-footed rocket. She added a second in the 51st minute when she beat Micah on what was essentially a one-vs.-one after dropping a Matildas defender.
Lloyd’s goals gave her 10 in four Olympics, a record for the USWNT. Asked afterward if that had any kind of meaning, she smirked. Records like that aren’t why she has spent the past 17 years grinding, sacrificing almost all semblance of personal life. (“I know my husband is eagerly waiting for me to switch off,” she said.)
It’s collecting titles and trophies. And, short of that, medals.
“I’m extremely proud of the way we persevered, the way we turned things around,” Lloyd said. “We’re going home with a medal and there’s no greater feeling than that.”
Lloyd and Rapinoe have been cornerstones of what is arguably the most successful run the USWNT has had. The Americans have won the past two World Cups, as well as the Olympic title in 2012. Lloyd was also part of the team that won gold in 2008, scoring the game-winner.
This bronze medal exemplifies the American exceptionalism that has made the USWNT so dominant for so many years. But it also symbolizes everything Lloyd and Rapinoe have meant to the U.S. women, and how sorely they’ll be missed when they’re no longer playing.
Follow Paste BN Sports columnist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour.