The U.S. women’s national team is off to a perfect start at the 2024 Paris Olympics following a 3-0 win over Zambia in its tournament opener.
Trinity Rodman scored once while Mallory Swanson added a brace in Nice, handing head coach Emma Hayes a resounding victory in her first competitive match at the helm.
As soon as the whistle blew, the USWNT were attacking on the front foot with Emily Fox feeding a cross to Lindsey Horan for a big chance inside the opening minute. Sophia Smith forced the first save out of Zambian goalkeeper Ngambo Musole in the fifth minute before Rodman and Smith both hit the crossbar.
Nerves started to shake for fans watching from home who began to have flashbacks of the last USWNT match when Costa Rica’s low block couldn’t be broken down in an eventual 0-0 draw.
Luckily, Rodman didn’t feel those same nerves.
In a move that began with Smith dancing down the touchline past Zambian defenders to feed Horan, Rodman completed a slick turn in the box when she received a pass from Horan, dropping her defender to the floor and opening up a simple finish for herself. The Washington Spirit winger’s first international goal of the calendar year boosted the USWNT in front 1-0.
That’s all the team needed. Once they saw one goal go in, the floodgates opened.
Set up by a gorgeous outside of the boot assist from Horan and another from Smith, Swanson bagged a brace with two goals just 66 seconds apart.
Zambia created a couple of opportunities on the counterattack, as they would the rest of the match but nothing to seriously test Alyssa Naeher. However, their comeback hopes took a bit before halftime as centerback Pauline Zulu was sent off by VAR due to denial of an obvious goal scoring opportunity.
Smith was substituted shortly after the ejection as a precaution as the first half ended.
Instead of running up the scoreline to build an unbeatable goal difference in Group B, the USA conserved energy and prevented injury in a calm second half, owning 83% possession.
Up next is a potential group-decider against Germany on Sunday in Marseille.
take the whole darned USSF pyramid and have everyone work on finishing, please. jesus. setting aside the inconsistent tactics against france, people are missing why one team who puts their bombazos on cage, scores and wins, while other team that hits the bar or over, loses. the women did put 3 in but that could have been bigger.
i like the women when they deliver accurate service and play tough defense. i am less a fan when it turns into hopeful wormburners across the box.
they seemed vulnerable to footspeed but i don’t know how many teams out there will be as fast as zambia’s double threat. i mean the mupopo girl was the african champion at 400m and holds the national record at that distance for zambia, ran at worlds and in the highest pro circuit. her. PR might make a USA olympic trials final, though probably not the team. but surely that’s not the only fast team we play, and the next one might be better able to finish what they start.
to put numbers to it, yesterday, 27 shots, 8 on cage, 3 goals. in the sendoff pair of friendlies, 43 shots, 18 on net, 1 goal.
all set up for a soft red card on the USA, coming up
the way the next game is officiated will tell us all a lot. it’s the Olympics, corrupt AF. we’ll see, but the 2nd group stage game is typically when shenanigans reveal themselves
I hope not and instead that it’s decided by the play on the field that day