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Rumors of the United States women's national team's demise were greatly exaggerated.
One year ago -- nearly to the day -- the USWNT had reached its nadir, crashing out of the 2023 Women's World Cup in the round of 16 for the first time. The results and the mostly dire performances at the tournament sparked existential questions about the USWNT's place in women's soccer's world order.
The Americans punctuated their extended rebuttal to such narratives by returning to the sport's summit on Saturday when they defeated Brazil 1-0 in the 2024 Olympic women's soccer gold medal match to win their ninth major tournament title.
Mallory Swanson scored the game's only goal in the 57th minute at the Parc des Princes in Paris, capping off an impressive tournament from the USWNT's talented new front line and underscoring an Olympic run in which the Americans found different ways to win.
The arrival of head coach Emma Hayes only two months ago brought new ideas and belief to a United States team that, while clearly different from the one that underwhelmed last year, already featured world-class talent and depth across every line.
Hayes said she wanted her team to learn how to "suffer" -- that winning could not happen without that trait. She may have sounded draconian in her choice of words, but her point was clear: There are neither straightforward nor easy pathways to winning major tournaments.
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The Americans dominated Zambia, Germany and (for the most part) Australia in the group stage before learning what true suffering looked like. They slogged through a 1-0 extra-time victory in the quarterfinal, in a game that a disciplined Japan team made ugly by design. The U.S. then relied on its steady defensive unit and sublime front line to make up for a sometimes-absentee midfield in a 1-0 semifinal win over Germany.
Hayes declined to heavily rotate her roster, sticking with a core of 13 rotating starters for six matches in 17 days. The team's fatigue was clear throughout Saturday's match as Brazil put the Americans through their most torturous exercise yet. A talented and more rested Brazil team pressed high up the field to deny a tired U.S. team any active rest in possession, and frequently won the ball back in duels once the Americans played the ball long.
A USWNT defense that had conceded only twice in five Olympic matches heading into Saturday's final also looked uncharacteristically shaken from the opening whistle.
Brazil nearly opened the scoring two minutes into the match when Ludmila latched on to a through ball behind the USWNT's defense. The Brazilian winger scuffed her shot from close range, allowing USWNT goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher to make a comfortable save.
Fourteen minutes later, Ludmila fired another warning shot when she creatively spun around USWNT center-back Naomi Girma and smashed the ball into the net, only to see the goal called back because Ludmila was in an offside position. Brazil remained relentless, surging forward as the USWNT stared into the Paris sun. Naeher was forced to make a spectacular save in first-half stoppage time, as she did in the final moments of their 1-0 semifinal victory over Germany when she swatted away a late potential equalizer.
The match became stretched in the second half, and despite tired legs, those conditions favored the USWNT's front line. Korbin Albert, who started in midfield in place of veteran Rose Lavelle, pounced on a Brazilian turnover and played a quick through ball behind. Sophia Smith, who was in an offside position, peeled away from the ball and allowed Swanson to run onto it for the finish. Swanson was playing in her 100th game for the U.S. on Saturday after missing last year's World Cup due to injury.
The United States women's national team win their fifth Olympic gold medal, their first since 2012. (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)
In victory, the Americans found yet another way they could win. Brazil was the better team for all of the first half and continued to threaten for an equalizer late (another spectacular stoppage-time save from Naeher preserved the gold medal). The U.S. had to grind, working through nervy defending and wasteful set pieces early in the match.
A Seleção was also playing to avenge history. The U.S. defeated Brazil in two previous Olympic gold medal games, in 2004 and 2008, in the early days of longtime Brazil captain Marta's career. Marta came off the bench on Saturday in what is expected to be her final competitive international match as she sought a first world title for a Brazil team that has long fallen just short, but history repeated.
Hayes' comments about suffering grabbed headlines this week at the Olympics, but they were consistent with her wider points from months earlier about creating a more flexible team. "When flexibility gets mentioned, as far as I'm concerned, football is not rigid," Hayes told a group of reporters, including ESPN, at her introduction as coach in May in New York. Certain aspects of a game will change based on the opponent, she continued.
"But, the framework, the methodology, the principles are completely clear, and they never change, but roles might change. In terms of the time I have, just keep it simple. I've got to keep it simple. I don't have the time to do that. Make sure we get the right messages across and with time we'll evolve."
The USWNT has evolved in real time, winning another Olympic gold medal despite the uncertainty surrounding the team and the newness of a coaching staff that had only a shade over a dozen training sessions together before departing for France last month. It will be tempting to dub this "a new era" for the USWNT, and in many ways that is fair. A new generation of talented players has stepped up, and there is a foundation on which to build toward the 2027 Women's World Cup, the tournament Hayes was truly hired to win.
This USWNT run to gold, however, is also remarkably similar to other eras, and the abilities of those groups to find different ways to win.
The U.S. did it in 2004, bouncing back from World Cup semifinal embarrassment on home soil the year before by winning a gold medal as the '99ers generation was ushered out in style. The Americans did it again four years later, winning Olympic gold in 2008 after a young Marta lit up the U.S. in the 2007 World Cup semifinal.
That perseverance is a prevailing characteristic of the USWNT through the decades and one that clearly returned to the squad this year. It is about mentality, yes, but it is also about applying that to the circumstances presented.
Hayes had talked about doing her best with the limited time she had before the tournament. She ran her starting group ragged at this tournament in favor of building chemistry, rather than rotating lineups and pompously looking ahead to games that were not guaranteed.
The strategy paid off. The heartbreak of the 2023 World Cup now firmly looks like more of a wake-up call than the beginning of a long collapse for the most successful program in women's soccer history. The USWNT is back on top.
Source: espn.co.uk