When the U.S. women's national team suffered a historic exit during the round of 16 at the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, it set off a rapid-fire reaction of dire straits with the 2024 Paris Olympics just months away. While casuals held expectations and worry, the USWNT players carried their own hopes and dreams and knew that only they could define themselves when it mattered most.
Multiple things can be true -- the women's game has grown, competition levels have dramatically increased, and the United States just needed some time and a coaching change to get back to championship glory. The USWNT defeated Brazil, 1-0, on Saturday in the gold medal match and returned to the top of the podium for the first time since the 2012 London Games. Armed with a new coach, tactics, and a reinvigorated belief -- they are talented, and as always, capable, and now once again champions.
Pundits questioned the competitive "mentality" of the program in the months leading up to new head coach Emma Hayes' arrival. She pushed back gently in June, reminding the players and media that there are layers to competition, and "if we can perform at our best level, then we have a chance of doing things, but we got work to do."
They did just that, and as a result, the USWNT are back.
Olympic prep escalated in three months
While Hayes was hired in December 2023, she didn't touch the sideline till June, and her full-time assistant Twila Kilgore ran the team in an interim role. The duo was transparent about a collaborative effort to get the team back on track with such a short build-up to the Olympics and the importance of getting extensive looks at next-gen players during international windows. Several players earned their first debuts ahead of the Olympics, while others managed injuries and comebacks.
Hayes' introduction to the team came with her coaching philosophies where she preached patience, process, and tactical learning. The players responded to the challenges, with the USWNT skipper referring to them at one point as "sponges" as they were receptive to the assignments they were being presented with. The manager also held space to allow players' personalities to flourish and be themselves, which only elevated the confidence heading into the Olympics. Hayes was not trying to redefine the USWNT program by any means, as she's had a deep respect for women's American soccer, but instead reignited what has always been there.
"There's always room for improvement. I think we're always chasing the best version of ourselves" team veteran Crystal Dunn told reporters in France after the game.
"I think we're on this steady climb. Winning a gold medal is obviously amazing, and we're all gonna celebrate and soak this in, but there's life after this Olympics. I think we are gonna embrace where we are and accept and love on it every step of the [way]. But I think it's important that we realize there's so much more that we can do, and having Emma now for the long haul is going to be incredible. She came in with an incredibly difficult task, but we just, we embraced it. We just knew it was kind of going to be difficult and challenging in some ways, but we got the job done."
Still, there was an essence of quieter expectation, with Hayes herself mentioning in her early days with the team that the USWNT are no longer feared on a global level. The 2024 Paris Games would be a tournament that the team felt ready to compete in but with an eye on a much bigger picture for the program -- tactical knowledge, competing for championships, a clear team identity, and the reintroduction of the USWNT as a women's soccer powerhouse to be respected.
Hayes has already delivered on some of those promises, even if the new era is still in its early phases, and the USWNT have their fifth Olympic gold medal. It's a major accomplishment with only eight women's soccer competitions held in Olympic history, and they did it by letting the players do the work and be themselves.
"I always believe this team can do absolutely anything, and that's not coming from an arrogant place. It's coming from a place of, if we are at our best, if we are clicking, all things are firing on all cylinders. I truly believe this team can be unstoppable," Dunn said after the game. "But it's not easy. It's about showing up every day and really believing in the system, and believing in the players around. How we ended the World Cup wasn't amazing, but ... I think we were just like, 'All right, that wasn't great.' Let's get back to work and let's really get back to who we are, and have our system down, have our style of play down, and just execute it to our best ability."
Gold medals for long-time and first-time players
Dunn, along with goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher, have been part of Olympic cycles that fell short of the gold medal. The USWNT were eliminated in the 2016 Rio Games and got back to the podium for bronze during the 2020 Tokyo Games, but the long march back to gold has now seen players come and go.
Lindsey Horan and Mallory Swanson were young members during the Rio Olympics, with a 17-year-old Swanson (then Pugh) being introduced to global audiences. Her return back to the international stage comes 489 days after she sustained a torn patellar tendon in April 2023. Her efforts for club and country have led to this moment, but it hasn't come without collaboration with her attacking line partners Sophia Smith and Trinity Rodman, and some coaching guidance along the way.
"With Emma coaching us, I think that we can grow so much. Not only the three of us, but I think this group," Swanson told reporters after the game. "I think that we've showed it in this tournament that we just have had so much growth with different tactics and against different opponents, and people sitting in on us, people pressing us. There's just so much growth to be had, but also this was nice and we did it."
Look ahead
Beyond the Olympics, there are still players in the pool who have yet to have their say in future fixtures. For the players who have been on this journey over the last year, they are echoing the narratives that they are setting for themselves. Is there still work to be done? Of course, they know that. Don't like the idea of players nicknaming themselves? Shut up, dad, your ideas are terrible. Want more from this team? Well, they want more too.
"I think joy and belief. Two biggest words for us. We've been having so much fun. But again, we still push each other really hard. I think there's a misconception of 'oh, they laugh and dance all the time at training. They're not serious,' but we just proved to everyone that we are, and we take this very serious," Rodman told media in France.
The group is no longer questioning what comes next. There are no questions about what the best front line will look like it belongs to the thrilling trio of Swanson, Smith, and Rodman. Defender Naomi Girma has been the best defender on the team since the 2023 World Cup, she should be considered among the best players in the world because of her efforts and achievements, and fans were given a glimpse of the future when she wore the captain armband in stretches of the tournament.
U.S. Soccer announced three friendlies for the squad in October against Iceland and Argentina. In November, they'll visit Hayes' native England and face the Lionesses. Only Hayes will return as a gold medalist repping the Stars and Stripes.
"I come from a place of wanting players to enjoy themselves and I've been at a club [Chelsea] for 12 years where I've had huge success," Hayes said on the broadcast after the game.
"But I was desperate to do well for this country. And I'm so emotional because it's not every day you win a gold medal ... I love America. It made me. And I always say that. It definitely made me," she said.
