USWNT in Olympics driver’s seat with win over Germany

In an Olympics that double as a litmus test for the program at-large, the USWNT has played its first two games with a verve that suggests its awful 2023 World Cup is in the past.

The United States was far from perfect against Germany in its second group stage match Sunday.

But it put forth more than enough for a 4-1 victory in a game that was billed as its toughest of the group — against a team ranked higher than itself — securing a spot in the knockout stage and putting the USWNT in position to top Group B with a win or draw against Australia on Wednesday.

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This was not the sort of romp that the program’s prior generation regularly enjoyed, even against the world’s best teams — there were periods of sloppy play and moments of luck that underscored a victory that looked more comfortable on the scoreboard than it was in reality.

Still, the United States took the chances the game gave them and blew past any worries on the back of a pair of Sophia Smith goals.

“We were devastating when we needed to be,” coach Emma Hayes told reporters in Marseille, France. “We were well worthy of our lead at halftime. There’s still things that irritate me about us, and I say that genuinely, purely, because we could have controlled it even more. I think we allowed Germany to come back into the game in parts because of our decision-making.”

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Right-winger Trinity Rodman unlocked Germany’s defense for the game’s opening goal, charging down the channel and pulling in defenders to free Smith for what became an easy finish 10 minutes into the match.

The United States hit a bout of adversity 12 minutes later when German right back Giulia Gwinn struck from well outside the box with a perfect hit into the left corner to equalize —the first goal the USWNT has conceded in Hayes’ six-game tenure.

No matter, it took all of four minutes for the combination of Smith and Mallory Swanson to pull the lead back, as Swanson buried a rebound off Smith’s strike, which German keeper Ann-Katrin Berger had unhelpfully parried right into Swanson’s path.

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Right before halftime, Smith extended the lead to 3-1 on another piece of good luck — a shot from outside the box that clipped a defender, clanged off the post, then looped into the net.

Lynn Williams made it 4-1 off a late counterattacking goal, sprung by Rodman.

Where there was an overwhelming air of concern even after wins in the World Cup a year ago, Sunday came with nothing of the sort. Instead, it was a little more like business as usual.

“There’s things I learned about the team tonight — from a character perspective — that I wanted to see. From a resilience standpoint that I wanted to see,” Hayes said. “And then there were moments I could see there were lapses, that we have work to do with [the] players.”

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