It's not the trophy the U.S. women's national team is aiming for this year, there's a bigger one on the horizon. For the next few weeks and months, the excitement will only continue to build and build toward this summer's Paris Olympics.
If the U.S. does succeed in France, if they are to put last summer's World Cup disaster behind them, if they do end up regaining their place at the top of the mountain top, we might just say that this Gold Cup was really where it all began. This may just have been the tournament where the USWNT got their swagger back, where they remembered who and what they are and what it takes to be just that.
Lindsey Horan's goal late in the first half was all the U.S. needed to claim a 1-0 victory. After surviving a chaotic semifinal against Canada, Sunday's Gold Cup finale was a different type of match - It was tense and nervy and somewhat stressful. It was a game of fine margins; not calamity and chaos.
And sometimes, in those types of games, you just need a moment. Horan created it, with a little help from Emily Fox and Trinity Rodman, too. Fine margins are what undid the U.S. in Australia... maybe this was the tournament and the game that taught a new generation of young stars how to navigate them.
On Sunday night, the U.S. lifted a trophy. Horan, the captain, led the charge in what truly felt like a team effort. The USWNT is building something, or perhaps rebuilding something. The Gold Cup trophy is in hand... let's see what's next.
GOAL rates the USWNTs players from Snapdragon Stadium...