Thursday?s Olympic women?s soccer final offers a scintillating tale of redemption for the United States.
The top-ranked team in the world gets a second crack at Japan in a final on Thursday, just over one year after losing to Japan in the 2011 World Cup final.
Naturally, players are talking about redemption. Thursday?s match is a chance for the U.S. to claim what they felt should have been theirs last year ? gold medals. As U.S. midfielder Megan Rapinoe said on Wednesday, Japan ?snatched our dream last year.?
Japan stole the show in Germany last summer, uniting a nation shattered by natural disaster and captivating neutral fans worldwide.
But there is much more than just redemption at stake for the United States. Redemption is temporary satisfaction; it?s momentary bliss. What is at stake for the United States is living up to the pressure of the most storied women?s soccer program in the world.
The Women?s World Cup and Olympics both occur in four-year cycles, in back-to-back years. The U.S. has, since the introduction of women?s soccer as an Olympic sport in 1996, won the gold medal in one of the two major tournaments in each cycle. On the heels of its 2011 World Cup loss, this U.S. team faces the pressure of winning an Olympic gold medal following a World Cup letdown, just like the 2004 and 2008 Olympic teams did.
Both of those teams delivered Olympic gold medals.
So Thursday is a familiar position for the U.S., but it includes an increased amount of pressure. A World Cup title hasn?t landed on U.S. shores since 1999, when the Golden Girls of Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy & Co. won it on home soil. The earliest that trophy can return to the U.S. is in 2015.
Failing to win on Thursday would create an unprecedented failure for the U.S. (even if the standard is astronomically demanding). It would also allow Japan to become the first team ever to complete ?the double? by winning the World Cup and the Olympics in back-to-back years, effectively showing-up previous U.S. World Cup and Olympic teams.
The pressure is unforgiving. This group of U.S. players already lives in the shadows of the earlier generations which paved the way for the likes of Alex Morgan, Sydney Leroux to become such promising stars.
That's not to say winning a World Cup or Olympics gold medal is easy. Even the famous 1999 U.S. team settled for silver the next year at the Sydney Games.
What lies ahead for the U.S. women is uncertainty: no professional league to return home to, no indication on whether Pia Sundhage will continue as the coach and no major international championship for three years.
Redemption may be the short-term motivation for the U.S. in Thursday?s gold medal match. Upholding the standards of the United States women?s national team is the lasting legacy at stake.
Alex Morgan and Abby Wambach discuss the U.S. women's soccer team's dramatic victory over Canada and preview the gold medal match against Japan with Al Michaels.
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