Megan Rapinoe shows she’s far from over as USWNT repeats it in SheBelieves Cup

The United States Women’s National Team became the first consecutive SheBelieves Cup champion in the tournament’s six-year history on Wednesday, easily beating Argentina 6-0 to claim the trophy.

The victory ended a perfect tournament for the USWNT, who had previously beaten Canada and Brazil.

The USWNT had to fight fiercely against the Canadians and Brazilians, but Wednesday night’s victory was a snap, with the grassroots stars as well as the Olympic bubble players all playing their part.

Rapinoe is far from over

Megan Rapinoe hadn’t seen the field for nearly a year when she arrived at the USWNT camp last month. After choosing not to participate in the NWSL season and an American camp, many wondered if she could regain the revolutionary form she had often displayed in the past.

Five games and five goals later, it’s clear the veteran hasn’t lost her ability to decide a game.

Rapinoe was all over against Argentina, scoring the game’s first two goals and playing a major role with a cheeky film on the third for Carli Lloyd. The 35-year-old will no longer be going up and down the field but, in the final third, she still has the composure and the point to make a difference.

The selection of the Olympic list will be a major challenge

It’s no secret that head coach Vlatko Andonovski is going to have some nerve-wracking decisions to make when training his 18-man Olympic roster. This struggle could not have been more perfectly demonstrated on Wednesday.

Several players from the Tokyo roster bubble had a chance to shine against Argentina and with the obvious caveat of how good the opposition was, most of them gave their chances.

Kristie Mewis assisted Lloyd’s goal with a precise first cross before scoring herself with a superb left-footed strike. Casey Krueger made a strong two-way switch in her own half while Tierna Davidson was calm and showed her reach in central defense. Sophia Smith came off the bench and got an assist on Alex Morgan’s goal.

Andonovski had a lot of praise for Mewis, saying: “It took her a little while, but once she figured it out I thought she was very good. She scored a big goal, she helped out on a very nice goal and she was able to impact the game in different ways. “

The head coach was also pleased with what he saw from Krueger (“on the defensive end she was perfect in every action she took”) as well as Davidson (“very calm setting the pace with Becky [Sauerbrunn], spraying bullets left and right, I thought she was doing good. “)

The only bubble player who didn’t get a chance to show what she can do was goalie Jane Campbell. Argentina did not frame the night.

Morgan’s significant goal

Morgan scored plenty of goals for the USWNT and almost all of them were bigger than Wednesday’s, which made it 5-0 in the 84th minute. But very few would have meant so much to Morgan personally.

The forward’s late goal was her first since the 2019 World Cup semi-final and her first since becoming a mother last May. Morgan is now hoping she can serve as an example for other professional athletes who are already mothers or who are considering becoming a mom.

“To say it’s been a long time is an understatement. It’s been over 500 days – you don’t need to sugarcoat it,” Morgan said with a laugh.

“I’m very excited to get my first goal back with the national team and join the list of team moms who have scored goals and played as a national team player. I just want to be an example for other female athletes who are moms or want to be moms – knowing that they are still part of the game after having children.

“You can be a mom and still be on top of your game so I want to keep showing this and tonight was the first step of that.”