2020 Tokyo Olympics – Group G
Date: July 21, 2021
Venue: Tokyo Stadium; Tokyo, Japan
Broadcast: USA, Telemundo, NBCOlympics.com, Telemundo Deportes App
Broadcast Time: 4:00 a.m. ET on USA and Telemundo
Official Kickoff Time: 4:30 a.m. ET
Starting XI vs. Sweden: 1-Alyssa Naeher; 5-Kelley O’Hara, 17-Abby Dahlkemper, 4-Becky Sauerbrunn (Capt.), 2-Crystal Dunn; 9-Lindsey Horan, 3-Samantha Mewis, 16-Rose Lavelle; 7-Tobin Heath, 13-Alex Morgan, 11-Christen Press
Available Subs: 6-Kristie Mewis, 8-Julie Ertz, 10-Carli Lloyd, 12-Tierna Davidson, 14-Emily Sonnett, 15-Megan Rapinoe, 18-Adrianna Franch
U.S. WNT Starting XI Cap Numbers (including this match): Sauerbrunn (189), Morgan (181), Heath (172), Press (150), O’Hara (141), Dunn (117), Horan (99), S. Mewis (78), Naeher (74), Dahlkemper (72), Lavelle (57)
Today’s Starting XI features four different players from the starting lineup that played Sweden to a 1-1 draw on April 10 in Stockholm: Dahlkemper for Davidson in the center of defense, Samantha Mewis for Ertz in the midfield, and Morgan and Heath for Lloyd and Williams up top.
Seven of the players in the Starting XI featured in the 2016 Olympic Quarterfinal matchup against Sweden. Sauerbrunn, O’Hara, Heath and Morgan all started the match while Dunn, Horan and Press saw action off the bench.
Today’s Starting XI vs. Sweden has an average of 121 caps per player, including six players with 100+ international appearances.
Becky Sauerbrunn will earn her 189th career cap as she captains the USWNT for the first time at a senior world championship event. Sauerbrunn, who will be making her fifth career start and eighth appearance overall at the Olympics, leads the USWNT in minutes played in 2021.
Goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher is set to make her Olympic debut in what will be her 74th cap overall with the USWNT. Ranked third for goalkeepers in USWNT history in both caps and shutouts (43), Naeher was on the Olympic roster in 2016 but did not see game action as the back-up.
Kelley O’Hara will earn her 141st cap for the USWNT and will make her 11th consecutive start for the USA at the Olympics. The 23rd player in USWNT history to reach 140 caps, O’Hara played every minute of the USA’s run to the gold medal at the 2012 Olympics in Tokyo and started all four matches in Rio in 2016. O’Hara drew the foul that led to the equalizing penalty kick in the USA’s 1-1 draw vs. Sweden on April 10 in Stockholm.
Abby Dahlkemper will make her Olympic debut in what will be her 72nd appearance overall for the USWNT. Dahlkemper has been a stalwart on the USA backline and led all field players in minutes at the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, which marked her first senior world championship event. Dahlkemper led the team in minutes in both 2019 and 2020 and has started 65 of her 72 career caps.
Crystal Dunn is set to earn her 117th cap for the USWNT in what will be her third career Olympic start and fifth Olympic appearance overall. Dunn played in all four of the USA’s matches at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, making two starts and tallying both a goal and an assist in the final match of the group stage against Colombia.
Lindsey Horan will be making her 99th international appearance today against Sweden. Horan has appeared in all 12 games for the USA so far in 2021 – a distinction she shares with Carli Lloyd – and has tallied a goal or an assist in 12 of her last 20 appearances for the USA, with ten goals and seven assists during that span. This will be Horan’s second career start and fifth appearance overall at the Olympics, going the full 90 minutes against Colombia at the 2016 Games in Rio. Horan scored against Sweden in the group stage of the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
An alternate for the 2016 Summer Olympics, Samantha Mewis will make her Olympic debut in what will be her 78th cap for the USWNT. The 2020 U.S. Soccer Female Athlete of the Year, Mewis is tied for second on the team in scoring with five goals this year and has either scored or assisted in four of the USA’s last five outings.
First-time Olympian and Bronze Ball winner at the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, Rose Lavelle will make her Olympic debut as she earns her 57th career cap for the USWNT. Lavelle has accounted for three of the USA’s 12 game-winning goals (two goals and one assist on game-winners) since the resumption of play in November 2020.
Tobin Heath will earn her third cap of 2021 and make her second consecutive start for the USWNT in what will be her 13th appearance overall at the Olympics. Now a four-time Olympian, Heath scored in each of the USWNT’s Send-Off Series matches vs. Mexico, which marked her first game action for club or country since December 20, 2020. She has tallied five assists in her previous 12 Olympic matches – three in 2012 and two in 2016.
Earning her 181st cap overall, Alex Morgan is set to make her 11th appearance and 10th start for the USA at the Olympics. In her previous 10 games at the Olympics, Morgan has tallied five goals and four assists and she still owns the record for the latest goal in Olympic, FIFA and U.S. history, tallying after 122 minutes and 22 seconds against Canada to notch the game-winning goal in the semifinals of the 2012 Olympics. Morgan has three goals on the year and has now scored in 76 career games for the USA. In those matches the U.S. team has never lost, going 66-0-10.
Christen Press will earn her 150th cap tonight and will make her tenth consecutive start, the longest streak of consecutive starts in her USWNT career. The 23rd player in USWNT history to reach 150 caps, Press will be making her second career start and fifth appearance overall at the Olympics. An alternate in 2012, this is the second Olympics for Press, who is in the middle of one of the finest stretches of her career as she has been involved in 37 goals in her last 37 games for the USWNT.
Press has either scored or assisted in 17 of her last 21 games for the USA, including five matches in a row before not getting a goal or an assist vs. Mexico on July 5, though she did have a goal wrongly called back due to an inadvertent whistle and helped force an own goal by Mexico. Since the start of 2019, Press leads the USWNT with 19 assists and is third in scoring with 17 goals over that span.