Rose Lavelle waits to return from an injury as the USWNT races toward the Olympics

Lavelle hasn't played since the Gold Cup, which means she hasn't played for Gotham FC at all yet. It's hard to believe she won't make the Olympic team, but she knows the clock is ticking.

U.S. national team and Gotham FC star midfielder Rose Lavelle has been sidelined for over a month with a lower leg injury.Read moreJonathan Tannenwald / Staff

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Published Apr. 15, 2024, 4:15 p.m. ET

NEW YORK — Picking an Olympic squad is the hardest thing any U.S. women’s soccer team coach does, since it’s a mere 18 players. The task will be especially tough for new manager Emma Hayes, as she’ll have just four games in charge before the tournament — and likely just two before the roster is set.

It’s also hard for players competing to make the cut, even those who fans might think are locks. Could a star as big as Rose Lavelle really not make it?

Perhaps it would be different if the 28-year-old playmaking dynamo wasn’t sidelined by a lower leg injury suffered at the Gold Cup. But she is, and the clock is ticking.

Lavelle has yet to play a minute for Gotham FC after joining the club in the winter. She missed this month’s SheBelieves Cup, where 19-year-old Jaedyn Shaw stepped seamlessly into the attacking midfield spot Lavelle has long commanded.

Monday brought another omen. Lavelle spent the morning at a U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee media showcase setting the stage for the Paris games. The sorts of people who only watch soccer during big tournaments might have assumed that means she’ll be there. Those who knew her, though (and plenty did), were quick to ask how she’s doing.

“I’m doing good — I’m hoping I’ll be back in the next couple weeks,” Lavelle said. “It’s frustrating to start the year off with an injury, just because I feel like you come off preseason and you’re revving to go, so it’s so annoying.”

Depth charge

The emphasis Lavelle put on that so in so annoying was a reminder of the homespun charisma that makes her a popular star. Her quiet manner and love of dogs — especially her own, Wilma Jean Wrinkles — belie a playing style that’s equal parts creative and ruthless. Fans love her passing and vision, while managers rave about her defensive high-pressing.

Is it really possible that she won’t make the Olympic team? Put it this way: between the injury and a new manager, even one who knows American soccer as well as Hayes does, Lavelle isn’t assuming anything. Why should any player who knows this is no moment to rest on laurels?

“I think it’s going to be wild and fun, which I feel like is how every roster selection goes,” Lavelle said. “The strength of our team is there in so much depth, so unfortunately that means really good players are going to get left off too. And I think for all of us, it’s just about being ready for whatever role is given to us, embracing that, and looking to put it into a collective picture so that we can go into the Olympics ready to go.”

Though the players change, the pressure on them does not. The American fan base demands success, and the players demand the same of themselves. It’s been five years since the last really big trophy, the 2019 World Cup, and 12 years since the last Olympic gold.

“This team lives with pressure constantly on us, but it’s a place we want to be in,” Lavelle said, echoing a famous phrase from former U.S. manager Jill Ellis. “I think pressure is a privilege, and we like having that on our back, and we have high expectations for ourselves. Everyone has high expectations for us, and we like to try to match that.”

‘A chip on our shoulder’

But the Americans know they won’t arrive in France as the gold medal favorite. Spain will be, with host France also in the running. The United States’ group is stacked, with traditional powers Germany and Australia and rising stars in Zambia.

“We definitely have a little bit of a chip on our shoulder, something to prove — maybe more to ourselves, because I think we know what type of team we are,” Lavelle said. “We know the type of players and the type of staff that we have and I think we have very high expectations. We know the heights we can reach and I think we’re excited for the opportunity to reach them.”

It used to amuse the rest of the world when U.S. players would claim a chip on their collective shoulder. They even did it as back-to-back World Cup champions, and that time the rest of the world was almost annoyed. Why would the best team in the world have something to get riled up about?

The answer was obvious, and still is: even the greats make up chips in their minds for motivation, because it works. Now here the Americans come again, riding five straight wins over major opponents into their last Olympic tune-ups.

“We have so many special players, we have so much depth, and so many different weapons to utilize on and off the bench,” Lavelle said. “Obviously, this team has been so special, but there’s, like, a whole ‘nother level that I think we all know that we have in us, and can get to. So I think we’re excited for the opportunity to be able to unleash that.”

Cultural crossover

At this big moment for women’s sports overall, Lavelle took a few questions about the impact of the record-setting 18.9 million audience for the women’s college basketball title game. She’s big into hoops too, a Cincinnati native and a lifelong Xavier fan.

But Lavelle isn’t new to big spotlights, or big TV audiences. The U.S. women’s team has long been the standard-setter in that regard, drawing 26.9 million viewers for its 2015 World Cup final win and 15.5 million for the 2019 final that Lavelle sealed with an all-time goal.

This month’s SheBelieves Cup doubleheader in Atlanta, U.S.-Japan and Canada-Brazil, drew 50,644 fans to glittering Mercedes-Benz Stadium — the largest ever crowd at a U.S. women’s game on home soil outside of the World Cup or Olympics. The number topped a record previously held by Philadelphia, 49,504 for a post-World Cup friendly at Lincoln Financial Field in 2019.

Between the generational roster turnover and the COVID-19 pandemic, many of the program’s young rising stars had never experienced the swells and roars of a huge home crowd, the kind that used to be the standard. Now it’s their turn to live the moments that Lavelle long has.

“I think back to 2019, and aside from the France game, every other game felt like a home game,” Lavelle said, referring to the World Cup quarterfinal against the host nation. The U.S. won, 2-1, in an all-time classic game — and all-time atmosphere, with 10,000 Americans out-shouting 35,000 French fans at the end of the night.

That game’s stadium, Paris’ famed Parc des Princes, is one of this year’s venues, including for the gold medal game.

“Feeding off of that energy in the games, it’s so special and powerful and I think the fans helped push us to another level in that sense,” Lavelle said. “I think being able to experience that in Atlanta is incredible. And it’s a little taste of what I think this team always deserves — but what it can be when we’re really successful, too.”