Rose Lavelle will make her Olympic debut with the United States Women's National Team Wednesday against Sweden, but the 26-year-old soccer star has grown in innumerable ways since she was part of the FIFA Women's World Cup winning side in 2019.
One thing that hasn't changed? Lavelle's elite status in the game. That aspect is expected to help carry the USWNT to a fifth-ever Olympic gold medal, and what would be the second major title of Lavelle's career.
Lavelle, the Mount Notre Dame and Cincinnati United Premier product, flourished at the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup and emerged as one of the elite players in the world.
Post-World Cup, Lavelle had already proven herself in the women's game but was still grappling with fame and the responsibilities asked of USWNT stars.
More than two years later, Lavelle is awash in endorsement deals. She also stepped into the public spotlight like so many of her USWNT teammates have and in 2020 spoke out on social justice issues.
Lavelle's game has grown, too. How that translates to the role she'll play in the Olympic team remains to be seen, though.
She was named Most Valuable Player of the SheBelieves Cup earlier this year and played club soccer for Manchester City of the English Women's Super League.
Lavelle, now a member of the National Women's Soccer League's OL Reign, is back on a trophy hunt on the international stage with the USWNT, which is heavily favored to take the tournament in Tokyo.
If her team returns to American shores with gold in-hand, the expectation is Lavelle will have played a major role in the program's first run at Olympic gold since a quarterfinal loss to Sweden at the Rio Olympics in 2016.
"She's clearly the team's 'No. 10,'" said Jeff Kassouf, the founder of Equalizer Soccer. "The idea to really go out and aggressively implement Rose Lavelle, in particular, is something that I think you can look back to the last Olympics and say that was a huge piece, or she was the type of player that was missing."
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The road to Olympic gold
The 12-team Olympic women's soccer tournament is comprised of 12 international sides broken up into three four-team groups.
The USWNT, ranked by FIFA as the No. 1 women's team in the world, will look to emerge as one of the top two teams from Group G, which is arguably the toughest group in the competition as it features one-third of the top nine FIFA world-ranked teams including Sweden (No. 6 FIFA world ranking) and Australia (No. 9). New Zealand (No. 22) is the minnow of the group.
The top two teams from each group, along with the top two third-place finishers, will advance to the quarterfinal round. The tournament is played in the single-elimination style from that point on.
The U.S. opens group-stage play Wednesday (4:30 a.m. ET) in Group G's marquee match against Sweden. It's a battle between the top-ranked teams in the group, and one against a Swedish side that has presented the American women with difficulties over the years.
Group play continues for the U.S. on Saturday against New Zealand (7.30 a.m. ET) and concludes against Australia, nicknamed the "Matildas," on July 27 (4 a.m. ET).
“The U.S. team is, not surprisingly, going in as the favorite," former American international and FOX Soccer commentator Alexi Lalas told The Enquirer. "It’s the best team in the world and I don’t think anyone has seen anything over the last couple of years, let’s say, to change that notion – both from American fans and fans around the world. Having said that, these (games) are a step up in competition relative to some of the friendlies we’ve seen them play and that’s also nothing new. We’ve seen the U.S. beat up on most of the teams in the world. That’s a common type of occurrence, so we really judge this team when it starts to play against some of the better competition and the elites of women’s soccer, including some of those in the group.
“Having said all of that, you should expect the U.S. to win” the group.
From there, and assuming the U.S. does emerge on top of Group G, they would play one of the third-place finishers from either Group E or Group F. The U.S. would be favored in that match, just as it would in all the matches up until they reach the medal stand.
The tournament won't be short on challenges for the USWNT, Kassouf said.
"I think they're the favorites, and the obvious ones in some regards," Kassouf said. "At the same time, I think it's not out of the question that they get some tough quarterfinal matchup with a weird game again, and something happens."
Kassouf noted Sweden, Japan and Brazil as teams that could introduce chaos into the tournament.
And yet lofty expectations of the U.S. in Tokyo persist. Part of that is rooted in the women's program going undefeated since manager Vlatko Andonovski took over following the post-World Cup in 2019.
The undefeated run includes a 5-0-0 stretch since June when pre-Olympic preparation picked up momentum.
"I think that this summer series was a really good tune-up and preview of what we could potentially face in the Olympics," Lavelle told CBS Sports. "It was quick turnarounds in the games. We were in a really hot, humid environment, so I feel like we did kind of get a preview of what to potentially expect over there."
While the field for the Olympic women's soccer competition is smaller than it is on the men's side, perennial powers are still lurking beyond Group G. Rivals such as Canada (No. 8), Brazil (No. 7), China (No. 15) and the Netherlands (No. 4), are all vying for a shot to upset the Americans.
The U.S. defeated the Netherlands to win the World Cup title in 2019, and other aforementioned world elites have tried and failed to knock Andonovski's side off in the last couple years.
"One of the things that makes them (the USWNT) great is that they continue to meet our high expectations, and I don't think they're unrealistic expectations," Lalas said. "Once again, I think we will be judging this team, as we often do, as it gets into the later rounds."
Lavelle's role: How Cincinnati's star fits in the USWNT's crowded roster
The USWNT plane wasn't leaving for the Tokyo Olympics without Lavelle. That much was decided when she was named to the Olympic roster in June.
But under Andonovski, who replaced two-time World Cup-winning USWNT manager Jill Ellis in 2019, the question is how big of a role will Lavelle, a midfielder, have in the team's first major tournament under his watch?
Lavelle started in Andonovski's first-ever match as head coach for the U.S. on Nov. 7, 2019 in Columbus and has remained a fixture in the USWNT program since then.
She finds herself in yet another ultra-competitive roster and possibly battling for minutes, although Kassouf said he expected Lavelle to be the first option in the all-important, creative, attacking-midfield role, or the "No. 10" position as some refer to it.
Kassouf also said he expected some amount of rotation in the midfield, which is an area of the field where Andonovski will choose from Julie Ertz, Lindsey Horan, Samantha Mewis and Lavelle.
"Vlatko has champagne problems in terms of so much depth and ability and talent to choose from," Lalas said. "Where Rose shows up in that pecking order, that hierarchy, is still up for debate I think. And having said that, I don't even necessarily think she's a certain, 100-percent starter right now. When she gets on the field, whether it's in a starting capacity or a substitute capacity, she does things that people can't.
"I think she's going to get plenty of time and I think that there's certainly a case to be made for her for starting. She's grown. She certainly knows what it's all about."
If Andonovski's decision-making leading into the Olympics is any kind of indicator, Lavelle will have plenty of say in how deep the team goes in the tournament.
Lavelle played in the each of the five matches leading up to the team's departure for Tokyo, including starting in the July 5 celebratory send-off contest against Mexico in Connecticut.
At the World Cup in 2019, Lavelle attained her status as an elite player. Now, the challenge for her will be to consistently sustain contributing at that level.
"I would really like to see her take another step in fulfilling the expectations that we have," Lalas said. "Stars are the ones who, when everyone expects you to do something magical, you deliver, and I think she has the capability of doing that on a consistent basis."
