For the primary time since 2012, the USWNT took house the gold medal, and so they proved a number of issues alongside the way in which on the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Ever because the inaugural Olympic ladies’s soccer event in 1996, the U.S. Girls’s Nationwide Staff dominated the competitors. Over the subsequent twenty years, the Stars and Stripes gained a file 4 gold medals. For all their success, although, the USA had did not make a gold medal match within the final 14 years, and the subsequent era of expertise regarded to vary that this summer season.
The USWNT got here into the Paris 2024 Olympics unbeaten underneath new supervisor, Emma Hayes, and so they prolonged their streak with six consecutive wins in France. The USWNT have been the one squad (males’s or ladies’s) to complete their Olympic marketing campaign with an ideal file that culminated in a gold medal.
Here is a breakdown of 4 issues we discovered from Hayes’ staff on the Paris 2024 Olympics.
1. The USWNT is again
It’s no secret the USWNT had a serious fall-off after 2019. The as soon as dominant aspect may solely handle a bronze medal on the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, after which made a Spherical of 16 exit on the 2023 Girls’s World Cup. Expectations heading into Paris have been a lot decrease than that they had been up to now.
Regardless of the naysayers, the US reintroduced themselves as a powerhouse in ladies’s soccer over the past two weeks. Emma Hayes’ squad, lead by a powerful trident up high of Trinity Rodman, Sophia Smith, and Mallory Swanson, confirmed the world that they’re as soon as once more the gold medal normal.
2. Alyssa Naeher is an all-time nice for the USA
There may be a lot speak (and rightfully so) surrounding Briana Scurry and Hope Solo as the 2 finest USWNT goalkeepers, however Alyssa Naeher solidified her spot within the dialog as one of many all-time greats for the US between the posts.
The 36-year-old didn’t concede a aim within the knockout stage, protecting three consecutive clear sheets on the way in which to a gold medal. Naeher now has two clear sheets in two of the most important video games for the USWNT—the 2019 Girls’s World Cup closing and the 2024 gold medal match.
3. Emma Hayes is the proper match to guide the subsequent era
Emma Hayes arrived in the US simply two months in the past, and but she has already completed extra in her quick time as head coach than earlier USWNT managers all through their total tenures. Some questioned Hayes for taking such an inexperienced squad to the Paris 2024 Olympics and leaving house veterans like Alex Morgan, however the former Chelsea supervisor trusted her younger expertise, and in the end led them to a gold medal.
The gamers consider in Hayes simply as a lot as she believes in them, and it’s clear they need to win for her, one thing that makes this Stars and Stripes squad much more harmful transferring ahead.
4. Naomi Girma is a future captain
Naomi Girma proved she’s going to sooner or later be the captain of this USWNT. The middle-back performed each second of the USA’s Paris 2024 Olympics marketing campaign, and led the backline of their distinctive defensive efforts.
Girma is a frontrunner each on and off the pitch, and after a efficiency just like the one she had this summer season, it appears solely becoming that she’s going to earn the privilege of carrying the armband for the Stars and Stripes.
