The proud United States women’s soccer team will be playing again

The United States women’s soccer team learned something new at these 2002 Tokyo Summer Olympics. You can’t carry off gold medals forever.

And after surprising losing 1-0 to Canada in Monday’s semifinals, they can now wind up with bronze around their necks or nothing at all. It was no doubt a disappointing time for the team that had been ranked number one since the sport was first inserted into the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

Since then, they have always been considered the team to beat, the team with depth, quickness, quality goalkeepers, good coaching, and always taking the field with confidence. After Atlanta, they won in Beijing, Athens, London and Rio de Janeiro, is the standard in which they hold themselves.

And so no manner of roster deconstruction or explanation about a transitional period will stop the casual fan in the United States from looking at the semis loss to Canada, and voicing remarks like “Canada? Really?” “Huh. Bummer, a real bummer.”

But it happened and only now they wind up playing for the bronze Thursday against Australia after going 1-1-1 in group play, and sends Canada (3-0-2) against undefeated Sweden (5-0-0) for the championship trophy and the gold the same day.

It was the Swedes who first brought concern to the red, white and blue when they opened play by shutting down the Americans, 3-0. But now under first-year head coach Vlatko Andonovski, they did respond with a 6-1 win over New Zealand.

So with another finals on the pitch around cavernous and empty Ibaraki Stadium, they fell short to their border neighbors and were stunned when the final whistle sounded.

“I don’t know what to tell you,” Andonovski said as his players tried to figure out what happened, how they can now forget more gold and leave here with a bronze or nothing else. .

Said the 39-year-old USA veteran Carli Lloyd. “she later said after shedding tears on the pitch. “We wake up early. We train late. We sacrifice. We give up so much. You want to win, just heartbreaking, really.”

This was probably the last Olympics for Lloyd, who is married, has children, and who has living double lives. The next World Cup will be played in 2013, the year before the next summer Olympics, and the players normally put their names on the list for a four-year span over only one year.

“I mean it sucks obviously” said veteran forward Megan Rapinoe. “You never want to lose. You especially don’t want to lose in a world championship. You never want to lose of course to Canada, and you don’t want to lose playing the way we did.”

This is a program that for decades has had it in spades. What it didn’t have over two weeks in Japan — a stretch that now will conclude with one more match for bronze, not gold — is a freedom, a fluidity. This group, over this tournament, has been some combination of sloppy and tight.

But it sometimes finds it difficult to replace elite players like Mia Hamm. Julie Fondy, Joy Fawcett, Amy Wambach, Brandi Chastain, as well as the quality keepers in the goal. But with the talent they’ve displayed through the years, they’ve still been winners.

They draw very well in home matches. They pack stadiums with loud chants, well drawn-up signs, and everything else that fires up these women in stars and stripes.

Canada, which had a pair of ties versus host Japan and Great Britain, won on penalty kicks against Brazil, and edged Chile, 2-1, before playing the USA, scored the lone match points on a second quarter goal set up by a errand American pass, and its defense with stood any challenges brought against them in a hard-fought tussle.

Sweden followed up its shutdown of the USA by turning back Australia, 4-2, New Zealand, 2-0, Japan 3-1, and then the Aussies, 1-0, to gain the finals. It has outscored its opponent, 13-3, The Canadians are the decided underdog, but they have done enough to get this far. In other words, with close matches won and mixed in with stout defense.

As for Lloyd, she later returned to the field and ran sprints. Old habits are hard to shake.

“Go home at night,” she said, “look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself if you’ve given it everything you had. That’s all you can do.”

That’s all these women have done for decades of their lives. Come to play, have fun, but then realize you can’t do it forever.

Who knows, they might play very well to defeat Australia, but it’s not for the gold, and it’s quite different trading in first for third or on the other hand, losing this one and going home with nothing around their necks.