The U.S. Women’s National Team got off to an excellent start on Wednesday in their opening Group G game of the 2016 Rio Olympics beating New Zealand 2-0.
For Thorns FC midfielder Allie Long, the game also marked her first-ever start in a major international tournament for the USWNT. It was a moment she cherished.
“I was definitely excited and a little bit nervous during the game but we had a shutout and we had two great goals,” said Long after the match. “It was a great start and three points.”
The Thorns all-time career leader in games played, games started, goals and assists, Long had determinedly worked her way into USWNT head coach Jill Ellis’ squad over the last year earning national team camp call-ups as well as numerous caps in friendlies leading up to the Olympic tournament. This past April, she scored her first two career goals at the international level in a 7-0 win over Colombia in a friendly.
All that hard effort paid off in her full 90 performance at the Mineirão Stadium in Belo Horizonte—if not also bringing with it a special amount of pregame buzz.
“I was listening to a lot of music on the bus [ride to the stadium], and I was extremely excited and Alex [Morgan] kept telling me to calm down because I was a little too hyper,” said Long with a laugh. “But I was just so excited and I couldn’t wait. It was just such an awesome experience and definitely one of my favorite memories so far.”
Joining her on the field were Thorns FC teammates Tobin Heath and Meghan Klingenberg, who both started, and Lindsey Horan who came on in the 64th minute.
Opening game jitters aside, Long knows that the win is just the first step in the team’s quest for their fourth consecutive gold medal.
“It’s just one game and we’ve got to keep going,” she said.
The team’s next game is against France on Saturday (11am PT, NBCSN), a team Long has some unique knowledge of.
“I’m familiar with a lot of them having played on [Paris St. Germain in the past] and one of them is on our team on the Thorns—Amandine [Henry],” she said. “They’re a good technical team.
“We’ve just got to be super disciplined and just do what we do best and score goals and I think we’ll come out on top.”
