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U.S. women's soccer team has only one goal

World Cup titles have eluded Team USA since 1999, and the window is closing for some veterans.

NEW YORK - There was no point in anyone on the U.S. women's soccer team trying to ignore the elephant in the room.

Through the past 15 years and three FIFA Women's World Cups, the pachyderm on the backs of the U.S. women has grown to jumbo size.

Fox Sports, which has exclusive coverage of the 2015 World Cup that kicks off June 6 in Canada, has based its marketing campaign around the U.S. team's quest for redemption after it lost the 2011 World Cup final to Japan in a penalty-kick shootout.

This is about as all-or-nothing as a sporting event can get.

The U.S. women welcome the pressure.

"From the very beginning, the goal was to win the World Cup," said coach Jill Ellis, who was hired a year ago. "That's why I was hired. We've always looked at this as an amazing opportunity. It's been a long time since we've won a World Cup. That's the goal and that's what we intend to do."

It has been the goal since 1999, when the Americans engineered what might have been the most significant victory in women's team sports when it won its first World Cup by beating China in a shootout, 1-0, at the Rose Bowl.

At the time, most observers thought it was only the first of many.

Over the past 15 years, the U.S. women's team has won three Olympic gold medals and been ranked as the best team in the world. In the three World Cups since, however, the U.S. teams placed third in 2003 and 2007 and second in 2011.

On the current roster, only South Jersey product Christie Rampone, who will turn 40 during the 2015 Cup, was on the 1999 team and knows what it feels like to be a World Cup champion.

The absence of that feeling permeates the rest of the team.

The U.S. men's soccer program is viewed as still growing. Advancing out of the Group of Death at the 2014 World Cup was viewed as a success.

That will not play for the U.S. women. They are recognized as one of the best teams in the world. They are expected to win World Cups.

"It's been way too long, and we all see that," said veteran defender Shannon Boxx, who has won three Olympic gold medals, but is 0-3 in World Cups. "That's the pressure we feel within ourselves.

"I mean, 2011 was way too hard. I was devastated for months after that loss. I felt we should have won that. We could have won that. This is the one that has eluded me."

Perhaps no U.S. player feels that burden more than Abby Wambach, who has accomplished just about everything a woman can in international soccer.

Wambach has two Olympic gold medals and was the 2012 FIFA World Player of the Year. Her 182 goals in 241 international matches are the most scored by a woman, or man.

But like Boxx, Wambach is 0-3 in World Cups. She turns 35 on June 2 and has said this will be her last World Cup.

The empty spot in her trophy shelf is saved for the biggest one her sport offers.

For Wambach, finally winning one will mean the difference between retiring as Brett Favre or retiring as Dan Marino.

"I know my agent wouldn't want me to say this, but, right now, you're damn right I need it," Wambach said of winning the World Cup. "It's all that I'm thinking about, all that's on my mind.

"It's the thing I haven't been able to be a part of, the thing I haven't won yet. It's something I know that all of us have to be willing to be forever disappointed in not winning.

"That's what it's going to take. You have to completely give in to it. You have to allow yourself to be crushed by not winning, so that you can win it. If all of us give in to that, I think we have a chance to win it."

Because this could be the last go-round for Wambach, Boxx (37) and veterans such as goalkeeper Hope Solo (33) and South Jersey midfielder Carli Lloyd (32), their desire to finally win a World Cup has led the narrative, but this is about every player on the roster.

They all know the history. They know the expectations. They know that they don't want to be part of continuing a title drought that no one in U.S. women's soccer thinks should have happened.

"I think we need this World Cup for so many reasons," said midfielder Lauren Holiday, whose husband Jrue was a Sixers All-Star and now plays for the New Orleans Pelicans. "But personally for this team, we need this World Cup because this is what we've been working our tails off for.

"This is the sacrifice and what we've dedicated our athletic lives to, winning this. Yes, it's big for the older players, but it is just as big for a Morgan Brian, who is playing in her first World Cup.

"There is a ton of pressure on this team, and there will always be a ton of pressure on this team. We have to succeed. The pioneers before us set that standard.

"Is it fair? I don't know, but I like it. I think this team likes it. Having that standard will continue to make us work to get better."

Columns: ph.ly/Smallwood