BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil -- Several members of the U.S. Olympic womens soccer team faced a history pop quiz of sorts when they met the media in advance of Wednesdays opening game against New Zealand. The largely Brazil-based media contingent wanted to talk about the last major tournament game played at the Estadio Mineirao, a mens World Cup semifinal two years ago that did not go the host teams way. Decidedly so.Yes, Kelley OHara replied, she remembered watching Brazil and Germany play that day.No, Hope Solo said, she didnt imagine another 7-1 scoreline would unfold in this tournament.They played along, but their focus is less on any history already made and more on history yet to be written.Already the only country to win three consecutive Olympic gold medals in womens soccer, the United States is attempting to make it four in a row. Doing so would guarantee another unprecedented feat: becoming the first team to win World Cup and Olympic titles in back-to-back years.The only way to claim such prizes is to play like the experienced team that this group is.And not like the inexperienced team ... that this group also is.More than half of the U.S. roster is taking part in the Olympics for the first time. That is notable turnover for a team that won gold four years ago in the London Games. Yet only four players in Brazil are part of a major tournament roster for the first time.More to the point, only four players havent won a major title.Given that 2011 World Cup champion Japan didnt qualify for this Olympics and only six players remain from Germanys 2007 World Cup championship team, the American roster that has so many Olympic rookies also owns a near monopoly on experience winning an event of the same magnitude as whats about to unfold across Brazil.The starting lineup Wednesday could have six first-time Olympians. It also could have seven world champions, eight if Morgan Brian reclaims a spot after dealing with a hamstring injury.We have a lot of new faces in their first world championship, and then we have a lot of world champions, as well, midfielder Tobin Heath said. So in that way I think its great because we have that depth of experience, but we also have this great energy about the team that everyone is excited to be here because this is a world championship. Everyone wants to play their role.The United States first opponent is evidence that this tournament is tricky in its own fashion. Though New Zealand hasnt beaten the U.S. women in the World Cup and in the Olympics era (New Zealands lone win in the series came in 1987), it is not the pushover it once was. The United States won 4-0 in the most recent meeting a year ago, but the margin was just 9-3 in the four relatively recent games that preceded that encounter. That included a 1-1 draw on American soil in 2013.Compare that to a 34-1 U.S. goal advantage in seven meetings between 1993 and 2008.Especially in a group without either African entrant -- both South Africa and Zimbabwe are untested programs at this level -- these Olympics offer the Americans little breathing room and even less time to catch their breath. Assuming the U.S. women advance from Group G, they will play their first four games in 10 days, compared to a 15-day span for the Americans first four games in last years World Cup. And if the United States doesnt win Group G, that fourth game might well be a quarterfinal against Germany. Things can go wrong quickly in the Olympics.Add to it that the Americans enter the game against New Zealand with at least moderate injury question marks. Coach Jill Ellis said Tuesday that Brian, Heath and Megan Rapinoe are all actively training and available. She made it sound as if Rapinoe would be counted on more in the future, which wouldnt be unlike the situation Ellis managed with Alex Morgan at the outset of the World Cup a year ago, while Brian and Heath are closer to unencumbered options.All the more reason the United States needs to play from the outset like a team that has been here before.And for as much talk as there is about turnover and new faces, understandably, some have been here before. Likely starters Morgan, OHara and Becky Sauerbrunn were Olympic rookies in 2012; now they are the experience. Carli Lloyd is after her third gold medal, perhaps on her third winning goal. Solo becomes only the second American womens soccer player to travel to four Olympics (the first as an alternate).I know what to expect on a daily basis, Solo said of the roster. But I dont know what to expect when you have the intensity of a major tournament, when you have two days between every game -- how some of the players are going to recover, especially some of the players coming back from injury, especially some of the younger players. Its a mentally and physically very taxing tournament. It can be emotionally taxing as well.I think thats fun, to not know what to expect because somehow, [in] some way well figure it out. Whether its through subs, whether its through putting your arm around someone like Mallory Pugh and being like, Well get through this. Its not always going to be pretty, but well figure it out. That theme keeps appearing when the players with the most experience talk about this team, perhaps surprisingly, given at least the public perceptions of many of the players involved. Whether seen as intensely introspective, like Sauerbrunn, intensely outspoken, like Solo, or just intensely focused, like Lloyd and Morgan, they are now the core of the experience that Ellis said brings a voice of levity to the locker room.That seems to be the identity they want, knowing that we will make it out to be their strength if they win and their weakness if they lose.The casualness of this team is, I think, a positive thing, Morgan said. In the past its been so tense leading up to tournaments because we had very intense players like Abby [Wambach]. I think not having a big player like that, thats very loud and intense, I think its good for us. Because I think for the younger players, they might stress out over seeing just how many games we have in such a short period of time and the impact we can have at this level. I think its good to have.It is a young team, but its a team on which almost everyone has experienced what is required to win a title.It isnt the same team that entered past Olympics. It enters off World Cup success instead of disappointment. But the goal is the same.Every time we play in a major tournament, we want to win, Lloyd said. So I think there was that motivation, and its almost like the year after the World Cup you are able to make things better. But I think its just [about] winning. Im a winner. Every time I go out there I want to win. No matter if its a World Cup or Olympics, whether were going for a fourth consecutive or whether we havent won, thats just kind of the nature of this team. Keenan Allen Jersey . Tests earlier this week revealed a Grade 2 left hamstring strain for Sabathia, who was hurt in last Fridays start against San Francisco. Its an injury that will require about eight weeks to heal. He finished a disappointing campaign just 14-13 with a career-worst 4. Lance Alworth Jersey . Radwanska, making her debut in the Seoul tournament, hit eight aces in a match that lasted 1 hour, 4 minutes at Olympic Park tennis stadium. "It was definitely a very good match -- I was playing really good tennis," Radwanska said. http://www.prochargersteamstore.com/Youth-Nasir-Adderley-Elite-Jersey/ . Deulofeu injured a muscle in his right leg in Evertons 4-1 win over Fulham in the English Premier League on Saturday. Barcelona says that its team doctors will "co-ordinate" with Evertons medical staff as Deulofeu recovers. Antonio Gates Chargers Jersey . The Canadian squad, skipped by Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg, got on the board first with two in the second end, and followed that with two more apiece in the fourth and sixth ends. Dan Fouts Womens Jersey . Miikka Kiprusoff had just announced his retirement after a decade-long run in Calgary and it would be up to Berra and Ramo to fill the void. NEW YORK -- So many of her gifted contemporaries -- Justine Henin, Martina Hingis, Kim Clijsters -- checked out early. Why has Serena Williams, less than three weeks from her 35th birthday, continued to subject herself to the rigors of elite tennis?I think it just comes from a different place of just love and really enjoying it, Williams said Monday after she advanced to the quarterfinals of the US Open. I definitely never thought I would be playing still. Now I dont really see when Im going to stop because Im just enjoying these moments out here, getting to break records that I didnt even know existed or I didnt even know was possible.I think when you really enjoy what you do, its different.Four matches in, the No. 1-seeded Williams is precisely where the draw predicted -- opposite No. 5 Simona Halep in a 7 p.m. ET match Wednesday at Arthur Ashe Stadium (ESPN2 and WatchESPN).Given the quality and quantity of her time in tennis, Williams is starting to threaten many of the standards of this great game. On Monday, she won her 308th Grand Slam singles match, vaulting her past Roger Federer for the most all time.I just think winning 308 matches in general is pretty awesome. For that to be in a Grand Slam is pretty cool, she said. Its a huge number. Ive been playing for a really long time, but also given that consistency up there. Thats something that Im really proud of.Williams, by broad consensus, is the greatest womens server ever. How is it possible that, here, in her 21st year as a professional, she is serving better than ever?In the gaudy area of aces, shes well ahead of the field with 42, but her percentage of unrreturned serves (48) and first-serve points won (87) are far and away the best numbers here.dddddddddddd She cracked a 126 mph ace Monday against Yaroslava Shvedova -- fastest on the womens side here and faster than more than half the men.Its easy to forget Williams came in with a shoulder injury that caused her to miss the tournament three weeks in Cincinnati.I dont think I really served in the summer until I got here to New York, she said. It was a really tough summer for me.Maybe thats the key.Williams has beaten Halep in seven of their eight previous meetings, most recently in March at Indian Wells in straight sets. Halep dismissed the idea that it would be a mental challenge.Shes like the best player in the world, Halep said. I dont have to be afraid or to have emotions because I have nothing to lose. Like I said many times, I have learned from her many times.Such as?Oh, shes ambitious, Halep said. She gives everything to win all the matches. Her focus. She is focused, and she doesnt give up. Three things. And Im not telling anymore.Serena, who has been ranked at No. 1 for 186 consecutive weeks, knows the drill. She welcomes the added motivation on the other side of the court in her matches.With everyone I play, they play a step up and above their ranking, she said. I think thats the beauty, one of the reasons Im able to hang. Everyone Im playing is playing like theyre No. 1.To me it doesnt really matter who I play because I have to expect theyre going to play the match of their life. ' ' '