8316_uswnt_isi_uswntbs072816112 Brad Smith/isiphotos.com
8.3.16

ASN Morning Read: Enter the 2016 Olympic Games

The United States women's national team begins its quest for Olympic gold this evening in Belo Horizonte (6pm ET; NBCSN); a MLS team turns down an offer for one of the league's finest; Americans in Europe.
BY Noah Davis Posted
August 03, 2016
3:40 AM
  • More info here. A featurette on how they got here:

  • The New Yorker takes a look at rising star Mallory Pugh: "Despite being nearly half a decade younger than any of her teammates, Pugh unquestionably belongs on the field with all of them. She primarily plays on the left wing, where she mixes blazing speed with improving skill when dribbling. “Speed kills but technical speed absolutely annihilates defenders. Mallory Pugh is for real,” the U.S. women’s soccer legend Mia Hamm tweeted after a recent match. Pugh, the second-youngest Olympian in the history of the U.S. women’s team—Cindy Parlow was a month younger in 1996—should play a major role in the Rio Games, where the American women look to become the first team ever to take home gold following a World Cup win. Not bad for someone who is a month removed from finishing her final high-school project. (It was on a decidedly second-semester-of-senior-year topic: how fashion correlates with your personality. "Did I learn anything?" Pugh said recently. "No, not really, to be completely honest.")

  • More on young Mallory: "She ran the show every time I saw her," [UCLA coach Amanda] Cromwell said. "She made the players around her better, for sure, and that's something that really caught my eye. But it wasn't going to be like sharing the ball. I think from an early age, she knew she was a Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant. She wanted the ball."

  • And a little bit from Alex Morgan:
  • There sure are a lot of young Americans in Europe. But will any of them reach their potential?

  • A team offered $5 million for Michael Bradley, and Toronto FC turned it down

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