Why a gold medal at Paris 2024 is just the beginning for this new-look USWNT side
The United States Women’s National Team (USWNT) secured a remarkable fifth Olympic women’s gold with a 1-0 win over Brazil on Saturday, 10 August.
Mallory Swanson scored the decisive second-half goal to end their 12-year wait for another title at the Games.
Incredibly, Emma Hayes took up her role as head coach just over two months ago.
If this is what she can do in less than 80 days with these players, imagine the kind of success they could have over her entire tenure.
Olympics.com looks at exactly why this is just the start of Hayes’s golden era…
Serial winner Emma Hayes
Emma Hayes is a winner – it’s what she does.
Her domestic success with Chelsea speaks for itself, utterly dominating the English game
As Naomi Girma told Olympics.com in an interview earlier this year: “She’s a winner – I think for us, getting that new spark and new energy will be really good.”
And that has rung true in Paris, where Hayes has delivered the USA’s first Olympic title since London 2012.
She has done so in her own way, too. Minimal changes despite fixture congestion, developing team chemistry, and trusting her players to get the job done.
The talent has always been there in any U.S. roster, but it seems as though the British coach was the one they needed to help this side truly realise its potential for the first time since 2019.
Players have bought into what she is trying to achieve, and it is already delivering success.
USWNT head coach Emma Hayes
Electric front three & age on their side
Hayes seems to have found a front three that works for her, one that the world cannot help but rave about.
Sophia Smith (24), Mallory Swanson (26), Trinity Rodman (22).
The three of them were responsible for 11 of the 12 goals the USA scored at Paris 2024, by way of scoring or assisting them.
And at their current ages, the prime of their career is still yet to come, which makes it an exciting time not only for the players but for the fans too.
Unfortunately for opposing defences, it will mean many more tournaments of trying to stop them.
It isn't just the electric front three, either. In Hayes’s preferred starting XI, seven of the players she selected were 26 or younger, the most in a single game since their 2007 World Cup clash with Sweden.
Their manager clearly has faith in the younger and more inexperienced players, which she has demonstrated in their Parisian title charge.
Emphasis on defence
The undeniable truth of the USA’s emphatic gold medal success is that it would not have been possible without their solid backline.
Attack wins you games, defence wins you titles – as the saying goes.
And at centre-back, Girma was a mainstay and had a real standout tournament to well and truly announce herself to the world stage.
Tierna Davidson was equally solid, but when she was absent through injury Emily Sonnett was able to seamlessly slot in at the back.
Then there was Emily Fox and Crystal Dunn who held the fort at full-back, the latter in particular shining against Japan with a wonderfully executed pass to Rodman for the game-winning goal.
But arguably the most important player back there was Alyssa Naeher – the most experienced of the bunch – between the sticks, who pulled off countless saves to either keep them in games or prevent the opposition from scoring.
They conceded just two goals all tournament, against both Australia and Germany in the knockout stages.
What can Hayes achieve with this pool of talent with more than two months in charge?
Stay tuned.