Trinity Rodman Take a coffee break.
Not a break For coffee. A break Since coffee. Specifically the espresso.
Last summer Rodman and his teammates Mallory Swanson And Sophia Wilson (née Smith) combined 10 goals and five assists to direct the We have his first Olympic title in women's football in a dozen years. One of the three had the goal of Go-Ahead in the six American victories in France, a performance deserving a catchy nickname. The caffeinated trio was therefore called triple espresso.
But Triple Espresso was not on the Uswnt Menu since the gold medal match in Paris, the last time the three played together for the national team. And a meeting will not happen soon because Swanson remains on a “personal break“And Wilson is on maternity leave.
Rodman, however, is back in the South California training camp and could play for the United States on Saturday when he meets Brazil at the Sofi stadium in a revenge match of the Olympic final. But if she has coffee here, she plans to stick to the Décaf.
“I really liked Espresso,” said Rodman, who is his playing time after missing four months with a back injury. “The national team has a lot of coffee drinkers. It's their favorite hobby.
“After having coffee for a very long time, I'm like yes, it's time to take a short break.”
Rodman is the straw that arouses espresso. At 22, she is the youngest and undoubtedly the most vocal, energetic and recognizable of the trio, often playing with long pink braids dragging after her.
And the trip to Inglewood, where the USWNT will play in the The most expensive stage in the world For the first time, will mark a return for Rodman and his mother Michelle Moyer, who moved from South Orange County to Washington, DC, after Rodman was drafted by the spirit of Washington in 2021.
“I have a lot of friends and other extended family who, for sure, will come. So I have to jostle for additional tickets,” said Rodman. “My priority is my sister, my niece and my nephew and my mother.”
Trinity Rodman, center and his American women's football teammates take a bite from their Olympic gold medals during their podium celebration at the Paris Games.
(Aurelien Morissard / Associated Press)
As for the transition that takes place on the field, each training camp and game brings adjustments, she said.
“You are still changing and adapting and playing with different people,” said Rodman, who played 63 minutes for The Spirit on Friday, his longest performance since the NWSL title in November. “It was nice to play a very good football with Soph and bad. But that is part of the game now with new faces and younger players who enter the national team.
“This is another opportunity, I don't know, build this and be challenged in different ways.”
One of the young players invited to camp to challenge Rodman is Angel City Forward Alyssa Thompson20 years, who scored his first international goal last fall and will probably have an additional playing time with Wilson and Swanson.
“I hope I would be in a good position to be chosen whether or not they were here,” said Thompson, who scored his second goal in three games for Angel City on Sunday. “But that's the right time to introduce myself. I hope I can have more minutes because bad or Soph are not there.”
There is no shortage of Olympians. Are also defenders Nomi size And Jenna Nighswongermidfielder Rose lava and forward Lynn Biyendolo (born Williams). For coach Emma HayesThe matches against Brazil – the teams will meet again in San José on April 8 – will offer a chance to build the depth of alignment and acquire more experience. The 24 women she called to camp on average 25 years, and 11 of them have 10 or less caps at the senior level.
“This gives our less experienced players another opportunity to see where we are meeting,” she said. “I always try to compete to win, but I also know and understand the development and the importance of development is that you have to take these difficult lessons from the start, then work with the players to continue growing on it.”
When Hayes resumed the USWNT last summer, she estimated that the young players' swimming pool had been authorized to languish. The reconstruction of this, she said, will take time.
“I resumed a team that had not developed many players for a long time in terms of game possibilities. You cannot do it by talking about it. You have to do it, ”she said. “But if you are going to do it, you must accept that they will not be as polite in all areas of their game.
“We want to build following teams that can compete over and over again. To do this with the level of the place where the game is in the world, we must go through this process. ”
And for the moment, they will cross it with a single espresso.
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