Rumors of the United States ladies’s nationwide crew‘s demise have been drastically exaggerated.
One 12 months in the past — practically to the day — the USWNT had reached its nadir, crashing out of the 2023 Girls’s World Cup within the spherical of 16 for the primary time. The outcomes and the largely dire performances on the match sparked existential questions in regards to the USWNT’s place within the ladies’s soccer’s world order.
The People punctuated their prolonged rebuttal to such narratives by returning to the game’s summit on Saturday once they defeated Brazil 1-0 within the 2024 Olympic ladies’s soccer gold medal match to win their ninth main match title.
Mallory Swanson scored the sport’s solely objective within the 57th minute on the Parc des Princes in Paris, capping off a powerful match from the USWNT’s proficient new entrance line and underscoring an Olympic run by which the People discovered alternative ways to win.
The arrival of head coach Emma Hayes solely two months in the past introduced new concepts and perception to a United States crew that, whereas clearly totally different from the one which underwhelmed final 12 months, already featured world-class expertise and depth throughout each line.
Hayes stated she needed her crew to discover ways to “undergo” — that profitable couldn’t occur with out that trait. She might have sounded draconian in her alternative of phrases, however her level was clear: There are neither simple nor simple pathways to profitable main tournaments.
The People dominated Zambia, Germany and (for probably the most half) Australia within the group stage earlier than studying what true struggling seemed like. They slogged by way of a 1-0 extra-time victory within the quarterfinal, in a recreation {that a} disciplined Japan crew made ugly by design. The U.S. then relied on its regular defensive unit and elegant entrance line to make up for a sometimes-absentee midfield in a 1-0 semifinal win over Germany.
Hayes declined to closely rotate her roster, sticking with a core of 13 rotating starters for six matches in 17 days. The crew’s fatigue was clear all through Saturday’s match as Brazil put the People by way of their most torturous train but. A proficient and extra rested Brazil crew pressed excessive up the sector to disclaim a drained U.S. crew any lively relaxation in possession and steadily received the ball again in duels as soon as the People performed the ball lengthy.
A USWNT protection that had conceded solely twice in 5 Olympic matches heading into Saturday’s ultimate additionally seemed uncharacteristically shaken from the opening whistle.
Brazil practically opened the scoring two minutes into the match when Ludmila latched onto a by way of ball behind the USWNT’s protection. The Brazilian winger scuffed her shot from shut vary, permitting USWNT goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher to make a cushty save.
Fourteen minutes later, Ludmila fired one other warning shot when she creatively spun round USWNT middle again Naomi Girma and smashed the ball into the online, solely to see the objective referred to as again as a result of Ludmila was in an offside place. Brazil remained relentless, surging ahead because the USWNT stared into the Paris solar. Naeher was pressured to make a spectacular save in first-half stoppage time, as she did within the ultimate moments of their 1-0 semifinal victory over Germany when she swatted away a late potential equalizer.
The match grew to become stretched within the second half, and regardless of drained legs, these situations favored the USWNT’s entrance line. Korbin Albert, who began in midfield instead of veteran Rose Lavelle, pounced on a Brazilian turnover and performed a fast by way of ball behind. Sophia Smith, who was in an offside place, peeled away from the ball and allowed Swanson to run onto it for the end. Swanson was taking part in in her a centesimal recreation for the U.S. on Saturday after lacking final 12 months’s World Cup with damage.
In Saturday’s victory, the People discovered one more means they may win. Brazil was the higher crew for the entire first half and continued to threaten for an equalizer late (one other spectacular stoppage-time save from Naeher preserved the gold medal). The U.S. needed to grind, working by way of nervy defending and wasteful set items early within the match.
A Seleção was additionally taking part in to avenge historical past. The U.S. defeated Brazil in two earlier Olympic gold medal video games, in 2004 and 2008, within the early days of longtime Brazil captain Marta‘s profession. Marta got here off the bench on Saturday in what is predicted to be her ultimate aggressive worldwide match as she sought a primary world title for a Brazil crew that has lengthy fallen simply quick — however historical past repeated itself.
Hayes’ feedback about struggling grabbed headlines this week on the Olympics, however they have been constant together with her wider factors from months earlier about making a extra versatile crew. “When flexibility will get talked about, so far as I am involved, soccer shouldn’t be inflexible,” Hayes advised a bunch of reporters, together with ESPN, at her introduction as coach in Could in New York. Sure features of a recreation will change primarily based on the opponent, she continued.
“However, the framework, the methodology, the rules are fully clear, and so they by no means change, however roles would possibly change. By way of the time I’ve, simply preserve it easy. I’ve obtained to maintain it easy. I haven’t got the time to do this. Be sure that we get the proper messages throughout and with time we’ll evolve.”
The USWNT has developed in actual time, profitable one other Olympic gold medal regardless of the uncertainty surrounding the crew and the novelty of a training employees that had solely a shade over a dozen coaching periods collectively earlier than departing for France final month. Will probably be tempting to dub this “a brand new period” for the USWNT, and in some ways that’s honest. A brand new era of proficient gamers has stepped up, and there’s a basis on which to construct towards the 2027 Girls’s World Cup, the match Hayes was actually employed to win.
This USWNT run to gold, nevertheless, can also be remarkably just like different eras, and the talents of these teams to search out alternative ways to win.
The U.S. did it in 2004, bouncing again from World Cup semifinal embarrassment on residence soil the 12 months earlier than by profitable a gold medal because the ’99ers era was ushered out in type. The People did it once more 4 years later, profitable Olympic gold in 2008 after a younger Marta lit up the U.S. within the 2007 World Cup semifinal.
That perseverance is a prevailing attribute of the USWNT by way of the many years and one which clearly returned to the squad this 12 months. It’s about mentality, sure, however it is usually about making use of that to the circumstances offered.
Hayes had talked about doing her finest with the restricted time she had earlier than the match. She ran her beginning group ragged at this match in favor of constructing chemistry, moderately than rotating lineups and pompously looking forward to video games that weren’t assured.
The technique paid off. The heartbreak of the 2023 World Cup now firmly seems to be like extra of a wake-up name than the start of a protracted collapse for probably the most profitable program in ladies’s soccer historical past. The USWNT is again on high.
