USWNT kick off Games with shot at 2016 payback

It might seem hard to remember now, but the last time the United States women’s national team played an soccer match in the Olympics, it ended in disaster.

Five years and one glorious World Cup title later, the top-ranked USWNT returns to the Summer Games looking to avenge that shocking 2016 quarterfinal ouster by Sweden — and potentially send a golden generation of star players out on top of another podium.

Team USA, unbeaten in a jaw-dropping 44 consecutive matches, is vying to become the first reigning World Cup champion to win gold at the following Olympics, though the feat this time comes with an interim of two years, rather than one, after the 2020 Games were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

They kick off their tournament Wednesday (4:30 a.m., USA Network) — two days in advance of Friday’s opening ceremonies — against the same nation that defeated them in 2016.

“It was one of the worst results that the senior national team has had in a major tournament, and from playing in that game I know how disappointed we all were. And for me it has lit a fire,” U.S. captain and central defender Becky Sauerbrunn said this week, per Reuters.

“It was against Sweden, and so it seems kind of rich that we get to play them for this Olympics.”

The match in 2016 was tied 1-1 after regulation and two fruitless overtime periods, and Sweden prevailed on penalty kicks.

At the direction of Sweden coach Pia Sundhage, who had coached the U.S. to Olympic gold medals in Beijing and London, the Swedish team hunkered down and played a very defensive style. That inspired an emotional outburst from goalkeeper Hope Solo, “I also think we played a bunch of cowards. The best team did not win today,” that contributed to her banishment from the USWNT.

“It was devastating,” star forward Alex Morgan recently told FIFA.com, about the 2016 upset. “Having said that, we seem to have played Sweden at pretty much every tournament I’ve been involved in and they always play well against us. They beat us in the [World Cup] group stage in 2011 and in the quarterfinals in 2016, and I always see them as one of the toughest teams we face on the world stage. We’re all really looking forward to playing against them again.”