UPDATE (August 10, 2024, 1:06 p.m. ET): On Saturday, the U.S. women’s national soccer team defeated Brazil 1-0 to win the Olympic gold medal. This is Team USA’s fifth gold in the Summer Games and its first since 2012.
Questions frequently surround the U.S. women’s soccer team after any disappointing result, but those questions have rarely been louder than after the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup last summer. The U.S. stumbled out in the round of 16, its worst finish ever at a major international tournament. Key stalwarts like Megan Rapinoe and Julie Ertz retired. Fans and critics alike wrung their hands about an uncertain future.
As the gold medal match in the 2024 Olympics kicks off Saturday, the future now feels much more certain. After a 12-year absence from the Olympic finals, the U.S. will square off against Brazil in Paris. The team has been reborn under new head coach Emma Hayes, and a young roster has made the squad its own.
If the Olympics have seen the U.S. attack in third gear, imagine what the team will be like when it’s able to hit the turbo button.
How has one year made such a difference? The credit starts with Hayes, who came to the U.S. job with years of experience winning trophies at her former team, Chelsea FC. The hiring wasn’t entirely without risk: Hayes had never managed an international team, and her commitments with Chelsea meant she only had a few matches with the U.S. before the Olympics started. But the gamble paid off. Hayes built a reputation for making players feel as confident as possible about what they did on the field. And the quotes coming from the U.S. camp suggest Hayes has given them more belief than they have had in quite some time.
“We’re a different team since she’s come in,” said star striker Sophia Smith after the U.S. beat Germany in extra time in the semifinal. “We just needed someone to come in and believe in us. … Emma’s doing exactly that.”
Is the team winning because of confidence, or is it confident because it’s winning? Plenty of confident teams lose all the time, after all. What is clear is that Hayes is connecting with the players as individuals. Many coaches wouldn’t quietly surprise their players with a visit from a nail technician for manicures during the competition.
The gold medal game will only be Hayes’ 10th game in charge, an unprecedented lack of time for a U.S. head coach at a major tournament. Things aren’t perfect yet, but the work she has done has already exceeded expectations.
The U.S. has conceded two goals all tournament and is the only team competing for a medal that hasn’t conceded in the knockout stage.
Hayes’ preference for youth over veteran presence has paid off as well, particularly with a reborn attack. Before the tournament, striker Alex Morgan, who has scored more than 120 goals for the U.S., was surprisingly excluded from the Olympic roster. But the forward line of Smith (23), Mallory Swanson (26), and Trinity Rodman (22) — the self-declared “Triple Espresso” — has scored or assisted 10 of the United States’ tournament-leading 11 goals. Swanson, returning after a yearlong injury layoff, fits Smith’s and Rodman’s playing styles like a glove. Their fluid movement and innate chemistry have made the U.S. more dynamic than it was a year ago.
Admittedly, the U.S. has only scored two goals across the quarterfinal and semifinal. But it has been battling heat and fatigue, thanks to playing five games in 13 days, two of which went to extra time. The team will be at its most rested entering Saturday’s final. If the Olympics have seen the U.S. attack in third gear, imagine what the team will be like when it’s able to hit the turbo button.
While the forwards may draw attention with their goals, it’s Smith’s good friend Naomi Girma’s defending that has made the U.S. so dominant in France this summer. Few defenders can cover as much ground as Girma does. Those who do usually get beaten by opposing attackers and leave their goalkeeper dangerously exposed.
That never happens to Girma. Her positional discipline frequently cuts off dangerous attacks before they can even develop. When players do challenge her, she is never wrong-footed. When they run past her, she effortlessly catches up and wins the ball without fouling the opposition. “She’s the best defender I’ve ever seen,” Hayes said after the semifinal. “Ever.”
The U.S. has conceded two goals all tournament and is the only team competing for a medal that hasn’t conceded in the knockout stage. Girma is a massive reason why. Just 24 years old, she’s probably the best defender in the world right now.
What will happen on Saturday? There’s plenty of history between these two sides, including the gold medal games in both 2004 and 2008. The U.S. won both. More recently, the team also defeated Brazil 1-0 in the CONCACAF W Gold Cup final in March. Marta, arguably the greatest women’s soccer player of all time, will play her final game in a Brazil jersey and will have much of the crowd behind her team in Paris as Brazil tries to win its first-ever major title.
With the Americans in the middle of a roster and coaching transition over the last year, nobody would have been surprised if they weren’t competing for a gold medal. But they are here, and they have reasserted their place among the absolute elite in international women’s soccer.