Megan Rapinoe was entirely hurt after the US Women’s National Team’s second loss at the Tokyo Olympics.
“This sucks,” an emotional Rapinoe said during her post-match TV interview on USA Network. “It sucks.”
With a trip to the gold-medal game on the line, the Americans dropped a gutting 1-0 decision to Canada in Monday’s semifinal match.
“Man, it’s terrible,” Rapinoe said. “Not our best game, not our best tournament. We didn’t have it today. Too many errors from us, again.”
“It’s a bitter one to swallow,” she added.
“Obviously we never want to lose to Canada,” Rapinoe said. “I don’t think I’ve ever lost to Canada, so it’s a bitter one.”
Click on ‘Follow Us’ and get notified of the most viral Soccer stories via Google! Follow Us
Before Monday, the USWNT hadn’t lost a game to Canada in 20 years.
Rapinoe attributed the team’s inability to “click” throughout the tournament to the fact that the players “haven’t had our joy, a little bit” and potentially “roster rotations,” but added that she “can’t quite put my finger on it” when it comes to what went wrong.
She began to choke up while reflecting on her career and discussing the reaction of her longtime teammate, Carli Lloyd.
“We’ve been in this a long time together,” Rapinoe said, her voice cracking. “We’re both closer to the end than the beginning. We shared a lot of those happy moments on the field and not that many sad moments, but we’ve had a few. We don’t even really need to say anything.”
“It’s tough,” she continued. “[Lloyd is] one of the greatest players that’s pulled this jersey on, and who knows? It might not be her last Olympics, but it probably is. Obviously we want to send everybody out on the happiest note, and we weren’t able to do that today.”
Thursday’s game will likely be Rapinoe’s last at a major international tournament, she managed to look on the bright side for her teammates:
“There’s still a lot to compete for,” Rapinoe said. “That’s what I told the girls and what we talked about in the huddle.”
“It’s not the color we want, but there’s still a medal on the line.”
