Olympic Football Preview: USA women defend fifth title against heavy weights

The United States is regarded as the top contender to become the first consecutive winner of the World Cup and the Olympics as the women's football tournament kicks off here on Wednesday at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

Head coach Jill Ellis expressed her expectation of the USA team's fifth Olympic gold medal before the tournament starts.

It would be incredible to be the first team of either gender to add an Olympic Games gold medal to a World Cup title back-to-back, she said.

Apart from the coach who has been coaching in U.S. for 28 years at all levels, the team also has superstars such as midfielder Carli Lloyd, who was crowned FIFA Women's World Player of the Year in 2015, and goalkeeper Hope Solo, who had got 198 caps in her international outings.

Nevertheless, Ellis admitted that winning the tournament is no easy task for the defending champion.

"It's a lot of travel for visiting teams though. [It will be] a very tough competition, and women's football is getting better and better," she said, "With Germany, Australia, Brazil, France and ourselves, there are so many good teams. No team has won the World Cup and then the Olympic title, so it is a challenge for us."

The Americans have won four of the five Olympic gold medals available since women's football joined the Olympics. The only blemish on their record is the Sydney 2000 tournament when they lost to Norway in the final.

Powerhouse as USA is, it still confronts threats from at least five heavyweights who have the strength to knock it off from its pedestal.

Two-time world champion Germany has never won an Olympic gold medal, but will be gunning for its first title in Rio de Janeiro.

Edged out by USA 4-3 in the semifinal of the London Olympic Games, Canada also hungers for a revenge in the Rio tournament.

After finishing fourth both in the London 2012 Olympics and in the 2011 World Cup, French ladies are determined to go home from Rio with medals around their necks.

Sweden has kept an unbeaten record facing USA since 2013. It is pitted in Group E with host Brazil, China and South Africa.

Both Brazilian men and women teams are fighting for the first Olympic gold at home. Two world-class superstars, Neymar da Silva Santos Junior and Marta Vieira da Silva, are pinned high hopes to lead their teams to bring gold for their country, "the kingdom of football".

"It is the most important tournament of my career," said Oswaldo Alvarez, coach of Brazilian women's team.

"In relation to emotional control, we will have to live with that. The Brazil women's football team plays very little at home. Now we will have the supporters with us, but at the same time they will ask for more. We have already talked about that. We have a psychologist, we are working with him," he added.

STEEL ROSES' JOURNEY

Brazil will face its first competitor China on Wednesday, the curtian raiser of the women's football tournament.

The Chinese women team, dubbed "Steel Roses", aims for the top eight in Rio, but is also expected to bring more surprises if the Roses enter semifinals.

"Several months ago I couldn't believe that we can enter the final tournament, but now we aim to advance to the quarterfinals," said Bruno Bini, head coach of China.

China is unbeaten in the Asian Olympic qualification to Rio. It defeated USA 1-0 but lost to France 3-0 in friendly games 2016.

Brazil has noted China has improved the skills and tactics after Bini's arrival.

"China become more aggressive. They used to wait for the counterattacks. We do not know what strategy they will use, but we know that China is ready," said Alvarez.

Chinese players should maintain consistency in order to become a stronger team in women's football, Bini told Xinhua.

"In the qualifying round we have already seen that. Maybe we are not as strong as other teams, but we work harder," said Bini. Endit