A youthful U.S. squad is back on top of the women's soccer world, and it's only just the beginning
An Olympic Gold Medal is supposed to be a culmination, the paramount payoff, the end goal. Athletes strive their entire careers for the opportunity to display that shiny reward around their necks. It's a lifetime of work distilled down to the most precious of metals – and medals – the ultimate accolade.
Yet tor the U.S. women's national team, Saturday's 1-0 Olympic Gold Medal victory over Brazil in Paris seemed like more than just a culmination or a payoff. This doesn't feel like an ending, but rather just the beginning. This return to the top of the women's soccer world, while certainly triumphant, actually feels more transcendent.
When Emma Hayes named her starting XI for the Gold Medal game, she continued to put her trust in youth. The foundation of this USWNT is a new generation, one that is already starting to match the achievements of its predecessors. Saturday's final was the sixth gold medal game for the USWNT (out of eight Olympics in which women's soccer was contested), and they've now won five. The history is undeniable: The USWNT has the most Olympic gold and most total medals in the history of the Games, now having won five golds, one silver and one bronze.
Expectations can often be impossible to live up to. This team? They exceeded them.
And in part, that's because this is a group that was raised with those expectations, a collection of athletes that stands on the shoulders of pioneers. They'll know that because they watched them. Of the 11 players in the USWNT starting lineup in the Olympic final, eight are 26 or younger. Of the 22 total players on the squad, 14 were born after women's soccer was even introduced to the Olympics in 1996. Youth is served, indeed.
This Olympic Gold Medal is a reward, yes. It's the end result of a summer's-worth of hard work from both these young players and this coaching staff. It's also a statement to the rest of the world: there's more to come. This USWNT is young, hungry and ambitious. So now the question is this: who's going to stop them?
“Winning’s in my DNA," said Hayes, who joined Anson Dorrance as the only coaches in USWNT history to win every match in their first major tournament. "I’m used to being in finals, I’m used to competing for trophies. And so is the U.S. women’s national team. We are so excited at our potential. And we are so looking forward to things we can do together.
“Of course we like this gold medal. But it doesn’t mean it ends there. We want so much more for ourselves because we’re competitors. We’re just at the beginning.”
GettyA changing of the guard
Perhaps the USWNT held on just a little too long. That's one way to look back at last summer's World Cup. Despite featuring legitimate legends in the team, the U.S. fell to their worst finish in program history. Change was needed, and immediately.
Megan Rapinoe and Julie Ertz stepped aside. In the months after, Alex Morgan and Becky Sauerbrunn were left out of the Olympic squad. That was no disrespect to those players, whose legacies are etched in stone. It was simply an admission that it was time to hand the baton to a new generation that would have to prove they were ready to write their own legacies.
It was a risk, for sure. Taking over the program in May after departing Chelsea, coach Emma Hayes had to quickly make tough decisions in naming her squad this summer. The exclusion of Morgan, in particular, was a difficult one. Hayes opted to put her faith in a trio of new forwards. One was fresh off an injury, and the other two had fallen short last summer.
Hindsight tells us it was genius. The USWNT never trailed at the Paris 2024 Olympics or at any point in 10 games under Hayes. And American soccer fans will be thanking Hayes for scanning the menu and introducing the world to a powerful concoction everyone now knows as Triple Espresso.
AdvertisementGetty ImagesThree's company for USWNT
Believe it or not, prior to this summer, the trio of Mallory Swanson, Sophia Smith and Trinity Rodman had never started a game together. They hadn't even shared the field. There were a few times prior to the World Cup that one was subbed on for another but, ahead of Hayes' roster selection, there was no film on what this trio would look like.
That's what they instantly became: a trio. Three parts of one whole, none bigger than the other. All three executed their roles, all three helping the others along the way. And after two weeks of striking fear into Olympic opponents, they got a new, self-proclaimed nickname.
"We have a proposal for our trio name to be 'Triple Espresso'," Rodman announced on the TODAY Show during the Paris Games. "So we're going to put that out into the air and let people run with that, because we like that as well,"
And there's no underestimating the impact that attacking group had on the Olympic field: Swanson, Rodman and Smith combined for 10 of the USWNT's 12 goals over six victories in Paris. In addition, they assisted each other on four of them. It was a three-pronged attack, with danger coming at opponents from every way. As it turns out, there really was no defending it.
And here's the most important part: Swanson, who became the ninth player in USWNT history to score while earning her 100th cap, is the veteran of the group at just 26 years old. Smith is two years younger at 24, celebrating her birthday Saturday with the gift of a gold medal. And Rodman? Just 22. There are plenty more espresso shots – and presumably plenty more goals, and plenty more triumphs – to come.
Getty'The best defender I've ever seen'
Swanson, Smith, Rodman. As potent as the trio proved for the USWNT, that's not the end of this program's transcendent talent. Consider Naomi Girma. We'll let Hayes take it from here.
"Look, she is the best defender I've ever seen," the USWNT coach said. "I've never seen a player as good as her at the back. She's got everything, poise, composure, she can defend, she anticipates, she leads. [She's] unbelievable."
That's not a coach pumping up her player or trying to build confidence. It's not hyperbole. It's simple fact. Girma is that player. She's the best in the world at her position. If you didn't believe that before this summer, you better believe it now.
If there's a word to describe GIrma, it's effortless. Or maybe grace. You could go with poise, too. All describe how comfortable she performs at all times. Even in the toughest of moments, she' makes it all look so easy.
And that's despite being just 24 years old. That's despite this being just her second major tournament. That's despite the fact that she's played less than three full seasons as a professional.
Defenders aren't supposed to be this good this young. Girma has broken that mold, and – fortunately for the USWNT – is exactly that good.
Getty ImagesA team of contributors
Triple Espresso got the headlines, and rightfully so. Girma has gotten the ultimate blessing from Hayes. Again, rightfully so. But there are plenty of other players in this group that stepped into roles both big and small in the Paris Games.
Tierna Davidson, Girma's partner, is just 25, which means that that partnership will grow. The fullback on their right, 26-year-old Emily Fox, spent all summer swatting away attacks. Korbin Albert scored a banger in the group stage, assisted the tournament winner and, at just 20 years old, became the youngest American woman to start an Olympic final. Meanwhile, 26-year-old Sam Coffey was this team's starting No. 6 despite inexplicably being left off the World Cup squad last summer.
The point is this: this group isn't changing dramatically any time soon. And don't look now, but the 2027 World Cup is just three years away – and by that time, this group will be in their prime.