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The U.S. women’s national soccer team will try to follow their 2019 World Cup triumph with Olympic gold when they play at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Seventeen of the 18 players on the roster played NCAA football, many of them former college stars, some of whom won national championships.
This includes Megan Rapinoe, who won a national title with Portland in 2005 and later received the West Coast Conference Player of the Year award in 2008. Rapinoe helped the pilots remain undefeated in 2005 (23-0-2). In 2019 she won the Golden Ball and the Golden Shoe at the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2019.
Former Rutgers star Carli Lloyd and UNC star Tobin Heath are both on the Olympic team for the fourth time. Lloyd is a two-time FIFA Player of the Year, scoring 50 goals in college.
| player | position | University |
|---|---|---|
| Abby Dahlkemper | D. | UCLA |
| Tierna Davidson | D. | Stanford |
| Crystal Dunn | D. | North Carolina |
| Julie Ertz | MF | Santa Clara |
| Adrianna Franch | GK | State of Oklahoma |
| Tobin Heath | F. | North Carolina |
| Lindsey Horan | MF | N / A |
| Rose Lavelle | MF | Wisconsin |
| Carli Lloyd | F. | Rutgers |
| Kristie Mewis | MF | Boston College |
| Samantha Mewis | MF | UCLA |
| Alex Morgan | F. | California |
| Alyssa nearer | GK | Penn State |
| Kelley O’Hara | D. | Stanford |
| Christian press | F. | Stanford |
| Megan Rapinoe | F. | Portland |
| Becky Sauerbrunn | D. | Virginia |
| Emily Sonnet | D. | Virginia |
The 17 former college players come from 12 different schools. Stanford tops the list of most former players with three on the USWNT list. North Carolina, Virginia, and UCLA all have two pieces. The NCAA representation is not limited to the United States, however. Christine Sinclair, who plays in Canada and previously played in Portland, is the top international goalscorer with 186 goalscorers – men or women.
The United States has won four gold medals since it was first held at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. The USA also won gold in 2004 (Athens), 2008 (Beijing) and 2012 (London). Sweden upset the US on penalties in the quarter-finals of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.
Seventeen of the 18 players were on the team for the 2019 Women’s World Cup. Kristie Mewis is the only one who wasn’t. She is the older sister of Samantha, another USWNT team member. The Mewis sisters are joined by Dahlkemper, Davidson, Sonnett, Lavelle and Franch as first-time Olympic participants.
Here is the USA’s schedule for the group stage:
- 4:30 p.m. ET against Sweden on Wednesday July 21
- 7:30 a.m. ET against New Zealand on Saturday, July 24th
- 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday July 27 vs. Australia
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