Trojans in the Olympics: Amy Rodriguez named to women’s soccer team

Aug 27, 2011; Rochester, NY, USA; Philadelphia Independence forward Amy Rodriguez celebrates her goal in the 88th minute against Western New York Flash during the WPS Championship Game at Sahlen Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Lauren Mackson-US PRESSWIRE

On Sunday, the twitter page for USC Athletics tweeted about the Olympic future of former Trojan soccer player Amy Rodriguez:

As if we expected anything to the contrary.

This will be Rodriguez’s second stint at the Olympics, as she was a member of the gold medal-winning women’s national team in 2008 in Beijing. She laid the assist to Carli Lloyd who made the game-winning goal in the early minutes of extra time to clinch the title for Team USA. She is USC’s first soccer player to earn an Olympic medal.

And after her successes in Beijing, she returned to USC to complete her senior year at USC. What a champ.

In her years at ‘SC, Rodriguez had an exceptional career as a striker. As a freshman she was the Pac-10 freshman of the year and earned NSCAA All-American third-team as well as All-Pac-10 first team honors. As a sophomore, she missed the first four games of the season because she was competing with the USA Under 20 team in the world championships. Upon her return she started 14 of 16 games. In the NCAA tournament she scored the game-winning goal in USC’s upset over Santa Clara, and she ended her season with four goals and three assists.During her junior year, she played in all 25 games and started in 21 of them while en route to being USC’s leading scorer. She finished the season with a team-high 10 goals and three assists. In this season she also recorded her first two-goal game in her career when she scored two goals late in the second half of USC’s victory in the NCAA Semifinals. Naturally, she was named the NCAA College Cup Most Outstanding Offensive player. She was a pivotal factor in USC winning it’s first ever national title in soccer, a hard feat to top.And then she went to Beijing a few months later and won a gold medal like it ain’t no thang.After Beijing, Rodriguez returned to have an outstanding senior year. She was named a Preseason All-American and was on the watch list for the Hernann Trophy. She was again USC’s leading scorer with eight goals on the season, and she again made the All-Pac-10 first team. She also became the first Trojan since 1997 to record a hat trick. She finished her career at USC fourth all-time in goals with 31.

And these are just some of Rodriguez’s accolades.

Later, she was drafted first overall into the new top-tier pro soccer league, Women’s Professional Soccer, in 2009. Since then she has established a solid career as a pro soccer player.

This coming July, Amy Rodriguez will try her hand—or, foot, rather—at winning her second Olympic medal. We at Reign of Troy wish her the best in representing USC and the USA at the London games.