It really didn't hit Allie Long until she was sitting on the plane traveling back to the United States from Brazil in late August.

After years of hard work and sacrifice, she had competed in the Olympic Games.

"I wanted to play on the world stage and I did it," said Long, a midfielder for the Portland Thorns. "I was able to reflect a little bit on the plane ride home and take a breath and just be so thankful. It was a dream come true."

The 29-year-old's long and trying path to the U.S. Women's National Team and the Rio Olympics really began in 2010 when Long received her first call-up to the senior national team. After that first opportunity, it would be four years until Long was given another chance with the national team, but during that time the midfielder remained singularly focused on doing whatever she could to earn her way back into the USWNT mix.

For multiple years, Long spent her offseasons in New York playing futsal in men's leagues at night and training tirelessly during the day in hopes of getting a shot to compete on the world stage. She earned call-ups in 2014, but after failing to make the USWNT roster for the 2015 Women's World Cup, Long decided to move to Houston with her fiance last fall and spend her entire offseason working to improve every aspect of her game at a place called Next Level Athletics.

The work finally paid off in July when USWNT coach Jill Ellis named Long to her 18-player roster for the Rio Olympics.

"We've got to be unbelievably proud of what she's done to get into that team, one of the best teams in the world, and then start the games that she started and perform the way that she performed," Thorns coach Mark Parsons said. "I think it's a credit to what she has done in preparation."

Long started three of four games at her first Olympics, helping the USA finish first in group play before experiencing the disappointment of being eliminated from the tournament by Sweden on penalty kicks in the quarterfinals.

Even though playing in her first Olympic Games was a moment that Long will never forget, the loss to Sweden has just made her more motivated to keep working for both club and country so that she can help the Thorns win a championship and represent the USA three years from now in the 2019 Women's World Cup.

"I feel like I left (Rio) too early," Long said. "I wanted to just continue and I think I was so upset after the loss and so disappointed because I feel like we just were getting started and it was just getting to crunch time... It was an amazing experience, but now I'm looking at how I can get better, what I can do, what I could have done better in that last game."

For now, Long has turned her focus to the Thorns and the final stretch of the NWSL season.

In her first game back after the Rio Olympics last week, Long didn't have any trouble readjusting to the NWSL as she netted a goal in Portland's 3-1 loss to the Seattle Reign.

Despite the loss in Seattle, Portland (8-3-5, 29 points) remains in second place in the NWSL standings with four games left in the regular season. The Thorns are still very much in position to host their first-ever playoff game and still have an opportunity to win the NWSL Shield if they can have a dominant finish to the regular season - starting Sunday at home against the Boston Breakers.

Long might have achieved her dream of competing in the Olympics this summer, but she hasn't stopped working. She's already focused on the next task ahead: Winning the NWSL title.

"We're ready to begin the stretch for the finals," Long said.

-- Jamie Goldberg | jgoldberg@oregonian.com

503-853-3761 | @jamiebgoldberg