Young U.S. soccer team aims to realize potential at Qatar World Cup
HIGHLAND PARK, N.J. (AP) — In the summer of 2022, the U.S. national team will be the favorite team in the women’s soccer tournament that will crown the first World Cup.
Now the team is working to build itself a soccer team.
The U.S. women’s national team has been on a training trip to Qatar since Dec. 8, the first stop in what promises to be a 12- to 18-month trip. The U.S. are taking the women’s national team to Qatar to prepare for the 2022 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup. It was the team’s first trip to a World Cup city.
“It always feels like we’re ready, but we need to be better. We’ve made some good strides but we’re still very young. Let’s get better, get stronger, get faster,” U.S. forward Allie Long told reporters last week shortly after the team returned home after spending eight days in Qatar. “We’re still in the process, so everything is about putting our best foot and work to build, to get stronger, to get faster and to be better to be the best team in the world. All that stuff.
“For a long time, it felt like we were on a mission to prove to the world that we were the best. But it’s changed now. I feel like we now need to prove to our fans, to our teams, to the whole world that we’re on the same level as other teams. There’s no question that we’re better. So now, we’re on an adventure to prove that. So we still keep building, we’re still growing as young girls, and we’re all working hard to show the world that we are the best team now.”
The U.S. will play in four World Cup events in four years, starting with the 2018 World Cup, which will be hosted by France, and ending in October 2022, when the U.S. will play the women’s Olympic soccer tournament.
“It’s an honor to play in the Olympic Games, in the World Cup, in the World Cup, and then to play World Cup qualifiers in the World Cup,” said midfielder Heather O’Reilly, one of the best players in women’s soccer at the time, who
