Four-time Olympic soccer champion United States has put its disastrous Women’s World Cup campaign in the rear view mirror, captain Lindsey Horan said on Monday, with young talent hungry to top the podium in Paris.
The Americans settled for bronze at the COVID-delayed Tokyo Games three years ago and captured their last gold in 2012.
They have pride on the line this time around after their worst showing at a Women’s World Cup last year that saw them knocked out in the round of 16.
“After the World Cup, we really regrouped,” Horan told reporters in New York.
“You look at the young players coming in, the leaders on this team, you know, just (a) big mesh of what we have. I think what you’re going to see and what’s in store for us is incredible.”
The team will rely an array of new faces, with just eight members of the Tokyo team traveling to Paris on the 18-player Olympic roster.
The biggest change of all has been new coach Emma Hayes, the extraordinarily successful former Chelsea manager who only stepped onto the U.S. touchline for the first time last month with a promise not to change the “American DNA.”
“We’re very prepared to go into this tournament regardless of the short lead in time,” Hayes said.
“A lot of that work is being done over the last year, you know, reflecting from the World Cup and then putting the roster together bit by bit, over the course of the year, so much of that has been done.”
The United States women’s national team begin their Olympic campaign against Group B opponent Zambia on July 25.