The U.S. women’s national team will leave the Tokyo Olympics with a bronze medal in hand, and a final performance that looked a bit more like what we all expected to see from the No. 1-ranked team in the world.

The bronze-medal game was the first in Japan in which some players stepped up and played the saucy, spicy brand of soccer the talented and confident Americans are known to play. As late as it came, it might have been enough to persuade many pundits, fans and perhaps even U.S. Soccer executives to pull their hand away from the panic button. Read More