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The hardest thing to do in any team sport is rebuild while remaining on top. Teams tend to run in cycles, and I think this group of USWNT players is on the verge of aging out. They have been a great group of players. They won the last two Women's World Cups and an Olympics. You really can't ask for more. But they were the oldest team in the field in each of the last two World Cups, and the core group is still hanging in there. The danger is that they will age together and hit the wall together. They're now competing with women who are 15 -- and in Carli Lloyd's case, 20 -- years younger. Women's soccer is improving rapidly internationally, especially in Europe and East Asia, and the athletic edge that the U.S. used to take for granted has eroded. I think think they should have started the transition right after the World Cup. Now it looks like they're going to go into the Olympics standing on the pat hand, and my guess is that it will catch up to them.

This is nothing to worry about. It's one of the oldest stories in sports. But the USWNT is on the cusp of a rebuilding cycle, and they're behind where they need to be.

Today's game was a subpar performance but that doesn't mean much. The asymmetrical seasons in women's professional soccer make a difference. In winter and early spring games, the U.S. players are in off-season (unless they're doubling up and playing abroad, which many do because pay for most women's players is still pretty low). It is common for U.S. teams at this point to look rusty, and we certainly saw that today, with poor passing and sloppy play. A good opponent in midseason form -- i.e. the Europeans -- at this point in the year can show them up. That will improve as the NWSL season gets underway and the players get back into form. But the core of the U.S. roster is still composed of players in the 30's, and they're not getting any younger or faster.

The U.S. is still experimenting with lineups. My guess is that none of today's starting front line will start in the Olympics, with Christen Press the possible exception. Kelley O'Hara looked shaky; she's had recurring injury issues and I don't know where she stands. Today is the first time I've seen Crystal Dunn beaten athletically; I wonder if she's just not yet in shape or if age is catching up. Alex Morgan is now 31, married, with a baby who will turn one in May. She is a goal scoring machine when healthy, but she's had recurring injury issues and also missed a season due to pregnancy. A lot of women players retire when they start having kids; we'll just have to wait and see how well Alex can come back.

The U.S. will enter the Olympics as one of the teams to beat, but my crystal ball says they have only a 32.684 percent chance of winning it all.