The U.S. women’s national team is headed back to the Olympic knockout stages as group winners.
Emma Hayes’ squad earned a 2-1 win over Australia in their final group stage match on Wednesday. Led once again by their world-class attacking trident, Korbin Albert added her first international goal to send the Americans into the quarterfinals on a high note.
Despite nearly having the group locked up after two matches, Hayes opted for an unchanged starting lineup in the final USWNT group stage match aside from the injured Tierna Davidson. The 12 different starters used in the group stage marked the fewest for a USWNT team in a major tournament since the team started the same exact lineup in all three group stage matches at the 2000 Olympics.
Although the choice of lineup was successful in securing the top spot in Group B, the decision-making quickly backfired in the third minute when Sam Coffey received her second booking of the group stage, resulting in a suspension for the upcoming quarterfinal match. Luckily, Trinity Rodman did not join her despite also being at risk.
Of course, both managers had difficult decisions to make in a group-deciding match.
Having conceded five goals in their previous match against Zambia, Australia opted to begin the game in a 5-4-1 low block against the high-scoring Americans. For much of the first half, the tactic proved difficult for the USWNT to break down. Shots were not hard to come by for the USWNT, who had nearly 80% possession, but Australian goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold made six first-half saves.
In the first half an hour, Australia also prevented the Americans from creating dead ball opportunities but in the final fifteen minutes of the half, the USWNT produced five corner kicks for themselves. After all, if breaking down a low block is proving challenging, the team needs to carve a new route towards goal.
That is precisely what Rodman did when she stabbed home a pinball in the box from the Americans’ final corner of the half. After a lengthy and confusing VAR check, the goal was confirmed and the USWNT pushed through the resulting ten minutes of stoppage time to take their 1-0 lead into halftime.
With the goal, Rodman and assister Sophia Smith became the first USWNT players to record a goal contribution in all three group-stage matches in a major tournament since Alex Morgan and Abby Wambach did so at the 2012 Olympics. The pair, along with fellow attacking trio member Mallory Swanson, continue putting themselves in elite company as the trifecta has now contributed to 14 of the 16 USWNT goals in the Hayes-era.
In search of a point to secure their place in the knockout rounds, Australia was forced to come out of their shell to chase the game in the second half. Due to the quality of the Americans, however, Australia was unable to create any significant chances to level the match.
In the 77th minute, Albert made sure an Australian equalizer was an impossibility by smashing a stunning top-corner goal past Arnold, becoming the first USWNT player to score her first international goal in the Olympics. Following the controversy that surrounded Albert ahead of the tournament, her teammates immediately mobbed the 20-year-old at the top of the box to celebrate.
What felt like a cherry on top as the USWNT’s record ninth goal in a single Olympics group stage when it went in became the important winning goal for the USWNT when Alanna Kennedy scored in stoppage time for Australia. The Aussies threw everybody forward in the final minutes, again searching for an equalizer, but again came up short as the USWNT secured the 2-1 win.
As group winners, the USWNT sets up a quarterfinal clash with Japan on Saturday in Paris.
So what was the point of winning our group? Both ourselves an Germany’s QF game are equally tough, and assuming both teams win we get a re-match? Even worse, the best team in Group A , Canada, hos now been deemed to be the 2nd best team and is now on our side of the bracket. Future OG need to invite 16 teams so we can have proper brackets and they should find ways of punishing cheating other than unbalancing the tournament.
Canada went through?! Travel-work, I didn’t see Olympic events the last 2 days. So again, Canada made it to the knockouts?!
not sure what you’re saying. tank the aussie game? then we might finish as low as 3rd and maybe not advance. if we finish second we get canada right away and not as a semi with a medal in play. japan is a team we have beat this year.
the tournament playbook i was taught was ABABAA. rotate for the middle group game so you can bring back the As for the final group game. rotate for the quarter, studs off the bench if you need it to advance, if not, studs for semi and final. insecure fanboys tend to want AAA and by game 4 the starters are exhausted.
to me you always try to max your wins out to get in the winning habit, instill fear, and get as favorable of matchups as possible. the further you push the competition down the road the odds go up some slip on a banana peel and you never face them. and if you’re gonna play good opponents you want it in a medal game. you in for hardware and the biggest reward for doing the toughest job. i’ve never been into avoiding x because you often get a tough y instead.
the US, to me, has forgotten the tournament maxim that you try to win but in controlled fashion getting maximum rest. you try to keep powder dry for the knockouts, not win every group game as nasty and effortful as possible. the idea is not to play messi 270′ in the groups to display a meritocracy or show off. it’s to get wins with messi well, uncarded, and played the minimum needed minutes, where he can play 90′ in the final and score a hat trick.
the smartest use of merit, to me, is actually lining up players 12-18 — think stu holden — that you trust almost as much as 1-11, and can actively score goals and win you games if they have to start. then you don’t freak out about rotation or subs or stuff good teams don’t sweat. then you can manage minutes for everyone and try and be fresh when it counts.
that’s my response on being scared of canada. if we’re winning this we have to be better than them and face them some point. bring em all on. but i’m gonna manage my roster where we’re not dog tired when we do. and you never lose games on purpose. you might rotate on subs to get rest but that’s not so much conceding the result as giving the subs the chance to win games such that i’m not afraid to start anyone and play against anyone and still get the result.
the US and its fans are like scared of their own shadow and thus become overly conservative and exhaust their starters.
Glad to see the goal by Albert because when the opponent is packing it in you have to try shots from outside. Until Australia opened it up, the US was too slow in moving the ball around to create spaces and opportunities.
yellow to Coffey 3 minutes in, out for knockout with Japan, lol
Albert probably gets the start instead after today, tho could be Sonnett which would be fine. but Albert my choice, she’s a baller