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Former USA goalkeeper Hope Solo has slammed the team's driblet from golden medal contention astatine the Tokyo Olympics, saying the existent broadside lacks winners.
The US are four-time Olympic golden medallists but volition play Australia for bronze successful Tokyo, aft losing their semi-final 1-0 to Canada.
Solo, a dual golden medallist, slammed the team's existent culture.
"I deliberation what's going connected is it's a taste alteration of the team. It's not needfully astir Xs and Os immoderate more. Of course, you request a bully crippled plan, but you request winners connected the field," Solo told Goal.
"You request players who volition spell for each header, who volition instrumentality players out. Like Abby [Wambach, erstwhile USWNT forward], she's not acrophobic of anything. We had Abby Wambach connected the squad and she'll find a mode to people oregon win. She whitethorn not beryllium the champion shot subordinate but she volition triumph it for us.
"I deliberation there's conscionable a taste shift, close now. The players are becoming much stars and little winners. We're focused a batch connected our appearances connected commercials, we are focused a batch connected warring for adjacent wage and the different broadside of it is we're focused much connected the subject facet of being a nonrecreational athlete.
"What I'm proceeding is there's much remainder days, there's much betterment days and sometimes you conscionable request your players to get connected the enactment and tally a mates 120s and punctual everybody that it's astir warring nary substance what. Because that's the civilization of the United States Soccer Federation [and] the United States women's squad - warring for everything.
"We mislaid that combat successful 2016 [losing to Sweden successful the Olympic quarter-finals] and I didn't spot combat successful this tourney from the American broadside either. It goes backmost to culture."
Solo suggested that manager Vlatko Andonovski's occupation should beryllium connected the enactment but does not expect him to beryllium sacked.
"I wonderment sometimes if Vlatko is falling unfortunate to wanting his players to similar him," Solo said. "Sometimes the bully feline doesn't triumph large tournaments.
"Sometimes you request idiosyncratic who's cut-throat. Sometimes you're connected the seat for 90 minutes, adjacent arsenic a star, if the prima isn't playing well, and it's a pugnacious pill to swallow. It doesn't marque players truly similar you arsenic a manager, but I don't deliberation managers should beryllium liked by each azygous subordinate connected the team, honestly, due to the fact that I deliberation you're doing thing incorrect astatine that moment."
The adjacent situation for the U.S. successful its quest to triumph a seventh consecutive Olympic golden medal is Australia arsenic the Americans Monday nighttime drew their rival successful the quarterfinals of the women's hoops tournament.
The Opals bushed the US successful an accumulation past period successful Las Vegas and volition beryllium the latest trial for a US squad that has been challenged astatine the Tokyo Games dissimilar immoderate different clip during its golden medal run.
"Australia volition beryllium a formidable hostile due to the fact that we cognize each different truthful good and we look guardant to the situation of getting retired of the quarterfinals,"" said U.S. manager Dawn Staley. "We surely person to execute connected some sides of the shot and proceed to get amended to advance."
The US and Australia are ranked No.1 and No.2 successful the satellite and usually conscionable aboriginal successful the Olympics, but the Aussies hardly qualified for the quarters. The Opals needed to bushed Puerto Rico by 24 points connected Monday nighttime to beforehand aft dropping their archetypal 2 games of the tournament.
Despite their struggles, determination won't beryllium a fearfulness origin for the Australians aft the triumph implicit the US successful Las Vegas.
"Obviously not the squad we wanted to play successful the quarterfinals, but we volition combat and anticipation to play our champion game," Australia manager Sandy Brondello said.
Australia has ne'er beaten the US successful the Olympics, losing to the Americans successful the golden medal crippled successful 2000, 04 and 08. The Australians besides mislaid successful the semifinals of the 1996 and 2012 Olympics to the US arsenic well.
The Americans person won 52 consecutive Olympic contests dating backmost to the bronze medal crippled of the 1992 Olympics. They went undefeated successful radical play — albeit not successful the ascendant manner the squad is utilized to.
"It's encouraging to proceed to triumph knowing what we're faced against," Staley said. "We are a batch antithetic than what we've been successful the Olympic Games starring up to this one, successful that we person conscionable fractional of the squad that's been astir and past the different fractional truly hasn't. When your make-up is such, you person a inclination to thin heavy connected the radical that person done it a full lot."
Nigeria became the archetypal squad to travel wrong azygous digits of the US since 2004 and France held an aboriginal 4th fourth lead. Still the Americans recovered ways to triumph and haven't mislaid a crippled successful radical play since women's hoops was added to the Olympics successful 1976.
"The countries present astatine the Olympic Games, they determination into their women's teams, and present you're seeing the effects of it," Staley said. "And that is large women's hoops play. We cognize we're successful a dogfight each clip we measurement connected the floor. It's large for those who conscionable enactment the tv connected and beryllium down and ticker players that they haven't seen before, countries that they haven't seen before, and spot them play a large game."
The different quarter-finals match-ups connected Wednesday include: Group A victor Spain (3-0) volition look France (1-2, 3rd spot successful Group B), Group C victor China (3-0) plays Serbia (2-1, 2nd spot successful Group A), and Group C second-place finisher Belgium (2-1) drew a matchup with Japan (2-1, 2nd spot successful Group B).
The US-Australia victor volition play the China-Serbia victor successful 1 semifinal, and the Belgium-Japan victor plays the Spain-France victor successful the other. The quarterfinals are win-or-go-home; a triumph means teams are assured of 2 much games — the semifinals followed by a gold- oregon bronze-medal contention — earlier leaving Tokyo. The golden medal crippled is connected Sunday.
Sifan Hassan pointed to her near shoulder. "I person symptom here," she said.
Then, her close leg. "Pain here."
Then, she dropped her hands to her sides successful exhaustion, excessively bushed to explicate it anymore. "Pain there."
Winning the Olympics truly tin wounded sometimes. But it's hard to support the world's busiest velocity demon down for long.
Hassan scored 2 singular victories connected the Olympic way Monday. Her gold-medal tally successful the women's 5,000m came a specified 11 hours aft she picked herself up from a scary autumn connected the last thigh of her 1,500m heat to not lone decorativeness that contention — but triumph it, arsenic well.
Those 2 wins kept Hassan, the Ethiopian-born 28-year-old who present competes for the Netherlands, precise overmuch successful the premix for not one, not two, but 3 medals — successful the 1,500, the 5,000 and the 10,000.
It's a never-before-attempted Olympic travel that volition necessitate six races implicit 8 days. It's a travel astir thought would beryllium intolerable adjacent earlier the benignant of autumn that tin instrumentality adjacent the heartiest of runners disconnected the track.
"To travel backmost (11) hours aft that, and to tally the race," said metallic medalist Hellen Obiri of Kenya, "and you tin spot that she's great."
The 1,500m vigor should person been a no-fuss warmup for Hassan's main lawsuit aboriginal successful the day. Running from the back, arsenic is her preference, she was gearing up to marque her determination arsenic the phalanx of 15 runners approached the commencement of the last lap.
But Kenya's Edinah Jebitok stumbled and tumbled to the crushed conscionable successful beforehand of her. Hassan tried to prevention things by hurdling implicit her fallen opponent, but alternatively tripped and did fractional a tube roll.
Most runners mightiness person called it a day, and Hassan said the thought crossed her caput for a divided second. She could person filed a protestation and perchance been moved on to the adjacent circular due to the fact that the spill truly wasn't her fault.
"But I told myself 'No.' I didn't privation to regret it later. I don't privation each the excuses," she said.
And so, successful the span of 2 seconds, she was up again. What came adjacent was 1 of the astir singular 60-second laps successful racing, arsenic Hassan moved from the backmost of the pack, picking disconnected runner aft runner. All she needed to beforehand was a top-six finish. She ended up taking first.
"She closed successful a 60-second thigh with a fall, truthful she astir apt ran astir a 55," Canada's 5,000m runner Andrea Seccafien said. "So, yeah, she's connected different level for sure."
Exhausting work, but, Hassan conceded, "I felt similar idiosyncratic who drank 20 cups of coffee."
While social media blew up with tales of Hassan's recovery, the way and tract satellite waited done luncheon and meal to spot what, if anything, she could perchance person near successful the vessel erstwhile she returned for her archetypal gold-medal race.
Turned retired to beryllium plenty.
Lingering successful the back, past the mediate of the battalion for the archetypal 11 laps connected a way inactive soaked by an earlier rainstorm, she kicked things successful with astir 250 meters left. She won the contention going away, successful 14 minutes, 36.79 seconds — a pedestrian clip for her, but astonishing considering the circumstances.
"They were moving truthful slow. I felt OK. Every thigh I felt OK," she said. "Like idiosyncratic who is getting energy. I was really not tired."
Hassan was 1.57 seconds up of Obiri, and Ethiopia's Gudaf Tsegay took bronze. While astir runners collapsed and gasped for enactment astatine the end, Hassan kept connected walking, astatine 1 constituent pointing to her thorax and offering a look of amazement.
Two 18-year-old Namibian runners threw way and field's contentious testosterone contented backmost into the Olympic spotlight Monday erstwhile they blazed into the women's 200-meter last successful Tokyo conscionable weeks aft being barred from the 400m race.
One of them, Christine Mboma, broke the satellite under-20 grounds doubly successful the span of astir 8 hours astatine the Olympic Stadium connected the mode to the 200 final.
She besides charged past American Gabby Thomas, who earlier this twelvemonth became the second-fastest pistillate ever successful the 200, down the location agelong of their semifinal. Mboma finished 2nd down Elaine Thompson-Herah, the defending Olympic champion.
Mboma and teammate Beatrice Masilingi aren't allowed to tally successful the 400 — their favoured lawsuit — aft tests ordered by way governing assemblage World Athletics recovered they had precocious earthy testosterone. That meant they fell nether the aforesaid regulations that person sidelined treble Olympic champion Caster Semenya of South Africa successful the 800 meters.
But the testosterone rules use lone to races betwixt 400 and the mile, allowing Mboma and Masilingi a accidental astatine the 200 successful Tokyo.
"I'm blessed with my time, breaking the inferior record," Mboma said. "I broke it successful the greeting and broke it present again. I'm truly happy. It's crazy."
Asked astir her prohibition from the 400, Mboma responded: "I person nary remark for that."
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