United States star Megan Rapinoe refused to prepare for her international future as the world champions suffered a 1-0 loss to Canada in the semi-finals. Tokyo Olympics on Monday. Rapinoe, 2012 Olympic champion and two-time World Cup winner, came to Kashima as a second-half substitute – a role to which she has become accustomed in Japan. Asked whether Thursday’s bronze medal match would be her country’s last, she said: “I haven’t really thought too much about it, I’ll think about it after the tournament.”
“I was wondering how soon this question would come up,” she said with a sharp smile. “You guys (media) are already trying to put me on pasture.
“We don’t really get the luxury of going for like a year at a time. We have to think in these four-year blocks, and so I haven’t even thought about it.”
The US reached Japan in bitter memories of the 2016 quarterfinal loss on penalties by Sweden, but fell short again after their first loss to Canada in two decades.
Rapinoe, now 36, was part of the US team that won gold in London 2012, where the Americans defeated Canada 4–3 on their way to a fourth Olympic title after extra time in the semifinals.
The US had lost only once in 90 minutes in their last six appearances at the Olympics, but an aging side was beaten 3–0 by Sweden in their opening game in Tokyo before being bundled out by Canada.
Rapinoe and many of his teammates are in the late stages of their careers.
Carli Lloyd and Tobin Heath attend their fourth Olympics in Tokyo with 2019 World Cup winners Kristen Press, Alex Morgan, Alyssa Naher, Becky Sauerbrunn and Kelly O’Hara.
“It’s sad because these (Olympics) only come so often, obviously it’s with a long build-up, so it’s tough. I think it was a little hard to swallow,” Rapinoe said.
The 2019 Ballon d’Or winner spoke in defense of coach Wlatko Andonovsky, leading the US in a major tournament for the first time.
“I think the players have a lot to look at about themselves. It’s not taking on each other, but we need to look at ourselves and we need to do better,” Rapinoe said.
“We’ll take that back, and it’ll make all those players in the locker room better.”
America finds itself in the unfamiliar position of fighting for bronze against Australia, but Rapinoe insists that motivation will not be an issue.
“We don’t lose very often and so we usually bounce back very well,” she said. “We have a medal to compete in. We had a goal to win a gold medal but any medal is really special.
“We can’t take our eyes off that, especially looking at the year everyone has gone through and what it took to be here.
“I think we still have a ton to play for. I think taking home the bronze medal will be a huge achievement for this team and I don’t think we should just get that far.”
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