Emma Hayes brings back joy as US attack thrives in Olympic opener

For US women’s national team manager Emma Hayes, just one roadblock seemed to be troubling her team as they made their way to France for their Olympic opener: the invisible brick wall that had been erected in front of goal.

In the team’s two pre-Olympic warmup friendlies, Hayes’ squad had 43 shots. Just 18 landed on target, and only one resulted in a goal. The team showed in a 1-0 win over Mexico and a 0-0 draw with Costa Rica that they had improved as an attacking unit over the course of Hayes’ first games in charge, but their ability to finish off plays was in question.

“If we keep creating chances in the right area, keep getting numbers in the box, keep getting as many touches as possible in that area, those goals will come. That, I’m sure of,” Hayes said at the time.

For now, she has been proven right. The US got their 2024 Olympic journey started with a bang on Thursday, as a first-half, 70-second brace from Mallory Swanson powered the side to a 3-0 win over Zambia.

Related: Canada football coach removed from Paris Games amid claims of ‘previous drone use’

The uptick in finishing is a promising sign, but perhaps more importantly, the optimistic attitude Hayes said she wanted to instil seems to have taken root during the team’s tough run in front of goal. The players’ heads rarely dropped after the missed chances that characterized the opening stages against Zambia, and attacking moves never lost their sense of purpose even after a flurry of first-half goals.

“It’s massive,” captain Lindsey Horan told NBC after the game. “Players have been in major tournaments before and we know that confidence is key. So to start out like this propels us on to the next game.”

The USWNT had 27 shots, eight of them on target, against Zambia while holding 78% of possession. A 34th minute red card for Zambia defender Pauline Zulu certainly made the Copper Queens’ task harder, but it also didn’t meaningfully affect the flow of the game. The US broadly looked as if they had returned to the dominant form that made them feared through generations of international women’s soccer. They also immediately brought themselves level on goal difference with Group B foe Germany, who beat Australia 3-0 earlier on Thursday .

Pleasingly for Hayes, the US did so while displaying many of the core tactical concepts she has relied on throughout her career.

The US’s first scoring chance, which arrived just 30 seconds into the match, showed off one of these hallmarks – fullbacks with license to roam upfield and combine with wingers in attack. On this occasion it was right-back Emily Fox who neatly dribbled through the Zambia backline, laying a nice ball across the face of goal for Horan, whose effort dribbled just wide of the near post.

The right flank continued to be a source of American joy, providing Sophia Smith a chance which was saved by Zambia goalkeeper Ngambo Musole. Fox continued to make dangerous runs and right winger Trinity Rodman had a lofted effort of her own bounce off the top of the crossbar. The US could easily have been up 3-0 after 10 minutes, 4-0 after 15, and 5-0 after 16.

At that point it would have been easy to point to the absence of Alex Morgan, who has 123 goals for the USWNT, but was left off the Olympic squad by Hayes. Surely, the thinking goes, she might have been able to score one of those many chances.

Hayes explained that Morgan was omitted because other players are more versatile, and the United States’ flurry of goals was ample proof of concept. The 17th-minute opener came about because Smith, nominally the center forward in the attacking trio, had shifted to the left flank, where she gathered a loose ball and made a direct run before passing to Horan at the edge of the box. Horan then found Rodman, who had shifted from the right to the penalty spot, and whose first silky first touch on the turn removed three Zambia defenders from the equation before a tidy finish in the top corner.

Hayes’ Chelsea teams prized possession with a purpose, usually having more of the ball while also finding opportunities to play direct and get in behind opposition backlines. That concept was carried over to the US for the team’s second goal, which came after a lengthy sequence of probing possession. Once the ball found Horan in space 40 yards from goal, Swanson made a darting diagonal run with the confidence of someone who knew the ball would arrive. Horan found Swanson beautifully with the outside of the foot, and a deft finish from the Chicago Red Stars forward doubled the US advantage

Seventy seconds later, Swanson had her second, taking advantage of a Zambia miscue on the subsequent kickoff and bringing the scoreline to its final state with over an hour still to play: a marvelous return to major international competition for a player who missed the 2023 World Cup with a torn patellar tendon.

There were, of course, some worries. Each of the United States’ attacking forays were punctuated by Zambia counterattacks, including many solo efforts by Barbra Banda that the US defense, especially Naomi Girma and Tierna Davidson, had to work to snuff out. There were a few nervy moments involving Banda pressing US defenders on the rare occasions they played out of the back.

“Our team knows there’s a lot of improvement [to be made],” Rodman told NBC afterward. “There should have been more goals, there should have been better execution, and we should have controlled the game in a lot of areas where we were forced it a couple times.”

And then there are slowly mounting injury issues; Smith left the game in the first half with an ankle injury. Midfielder Jaedyn Shaw missed the game entirely after suffering a knock in training the day before. Rose Lavelle could only make it 45 minutes before being replaced by Korbin Albert.

Hayes, though, never lost confidence, and an all-important matchup with Germany on Sunday awaits.