USA Women's Olympic Soccer Team: Keys to Bringing Home Gold

The United States women's national team has dominated the Olympics, but this year won't be so easy.

Since women's football was implemented as an Olympic event back in 1996, the Americans have taken home gold three times and silver once. After coming out on top in 2004 and 2008, they will be looking for the gold threepeat in London.

Essentially, the American women rule the football world.

Well, not so fast.

The 2011 World Cup belongs to Japan. Brazil—led by Marta, the best player in the world—is a threat for gold. Even France—although the Americans handled them by a score of 4-2 in Wednesday's opening match—has shown it can play with anybody. 

London isn't going to be the same ol' cakewalk for the Americans. Let's take a look at what they must do to prevail. 

Find the Right Mix of Abby Wambach and Alex Morgan

Wambach, who has scored 140 international goals in her career, and Morgan, who has piled in 29 and has arguably been the best forward in the world over the past year, are clearly going to be United States' main goal-scoring threats.

How the Americans use the duo, however, will be important.

Wambach, as she has shown time and time again on the biggest stage, is one of the best aerial threats in the world. If there is a ball whipped in with pace, she is going to be the first one to find it.

Morgan, on the other hand, is a sublime finisher whenever she gets possession anywhere around the box. Breakaway, defenders all over her, whatever. It doesn't matter. She knows how to put the ball in the back of the net.

If the women are going to be successful in London, it's going to have to be Morgan scoring the majority of the goals with Wambach adding the timely winners off set pieces. 

Finish

There's no question the Americans have the firepower to score two or more goals on any team in the world. It's what they do once they get the lead, however, that is key.

This problem reeled its ugly head in the final of the World Cup against Japan. The Americans jumped out to a lead two separate times, and both times gave up an untimely equalizer. 

When the ladies get out to a lead, they just have trouble getting rid of that "score-now" mentality. Instead of sitting back and defending their goal, the Americans have the propensity to continue to push up and leave themselves vulnerable to the counter attack when it's really not necessary. 

They did it once again on Wednesday against France, but were lucky enough to not be burnt by it.

The need to put games away in the right fashion is crucial.

Get Megan Rapinoe Involved

We've mentioned the forwards and goal-scorers, but the Americans' most important midfield player is easily Rapinoe.

Not only is she willing to drop back and defend with precise aggression, but when she feels like it, she makes threatening runs up the sideline and finishes by setting her teammates up perfectly (see her assist to Wambach in the above video. My goodness, it doesn't get better than that).

Rapinoe can really do it all, and as has been proven in the USA's biggest games, the more she has the ball at her feet, the more good things happen. 

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