USWNT wins gold medal: The Americans were never as far ahead, or behind, the rest of the world as we thought

Of course team captain Lindsey Horan fell to the turf at Parc des Princes as the referee blew the long-delayed final whistle in the 2024 Olympics gold medal soccer game. Who among the United States women’s national team was not exhausted by this climb?

I mean, they caught the entire world in just nine weeks.

Isn’t that what happened with the USWNT’s 1-0 victory over Brazil ?

It sure seemed like that, based on the Americans’ treatment over the past several years by the world soccer media, and even some at home. “The world has caught up” became the most exhausted trope in sports, as the U.S. managed but a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and then were eliminated in a penalty kick shootout in the round of 16 at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

The truth of this is less simplistic, which is why you’ve rarely heard it discussed: The United States hasn’t been all that terribly far ahead of its competition since at least the turn of the century, and the only difference now is the competition has multiplied.

SN's 2024 OLYMPICS HQ
Updated medal count | Day-by-day schedule | How to watch in USA

Indeed, the USWNT made significant improvement since Emma Hayes’ first day on the job, June 1. She stressed connection among the primary players above everything, above even the possibility they might arrive in Saturday’s game with no energy left to expend. Her starting unit got almost all the minutes throughout this tournament, with six games – actually, 6 2/3 games, because two were decided in extra time – shoved into 17 days.

And what happened? They connected. A year ago, with Mallory Swanson out of the World Cup with injury and Trinity Rodman not yet confident in her ability to excel at the international level, the USWNT managed only four goals in four games – and only one in the last three. In France, they scored an even dozen, with the Rodman-Swanson-Sophia Smith front line being compared to the great forward combinations in the national team’s history.

Swanson scored the game-winner in the 57th minute. The play on which the United States finally broke through, after being quite nearly dominated in the first half, looked so obviously offside it was difficult to celebrate for fear both the goal and the joy would be eliminated by a VAR review.

And yet it could not have been more beautifully timed. Korbin Albert’s extra touch before launching the pass risked Swanson dashing past the final field defender, and it probably did lead Sophia Smith into that position, but Smith brilliantly let the ball roll for Swanson, whose handling of the circumstance was calm, precise and worth its weight in gold.

This became the first major title for this generation of players. Not for all of them, of course. Naeher was a hero in goal in the 2019 World Cup, and Horan, Pugh, Rose Lavelle, Crystal Dunn, Tierna Davidson and Emily Sonnett were either stars or contributors. This group was being defined by the failure at last year's World Cup, though, which seemed abrupt and premature.

On her way to taking over for Vlatko Andonovski as USWNT coach, Hayes came to the U.S. in the fall of 2001 and coached the Long Island Lady Riders amateur club to 12 wins in 16 games. That helped her gain the opportunity to coach NCAA soccer at Iona, and after three years back in England as an assistant coach at Arsenal, she took charge of the Chicago Red Stars in the old WPS league.

Perhaps she had to lose a bit in order to learn how to win big. Because the Red Stars gig lasted only 26 games, but she coached 367 games at Chelsea and won 71 percent of them, including seven Women’s Super League titles and five FA Cups. This was her first major tournament in international soccer, and her team won all six games while conceding just two goals.

The latter part of that success was largely the product of work from defender Naomi Girma, who struggled a bit against Brazil, and Naeher, who did not. She made another two brilliant saves , building her case as the greatest goalkeeper in USWNT history – or at least the greatest big-game goalkeeper they’ve ever fielded.

The victory denied the legendary Marta a major international prize for a third and last time: in the final of the 2008 Olympics, the quarterfinals of the 2011 World Cup and now this. She has said this would be the end for her at major international tournaments. She entered the game soon after Swanson’s goal and was unable to change the outcome.

After sticking with the same starting lineup throughout this tournament, with the exception only of a yellow-card substitution for defensive midfielder Sam Coffey in the quarterfinal and two games in which Davidson was replaced by Emily Sonnett because of injury, Hayes chose in this game to adjust her midfield.

Instead of Lavelle, who scored the clincher in the 2019 World Cup final against the Netherlands and owner of 106 caps and 24 goals, Hayes chose to insert Korbin Albert in a deeper role and allow Horan to move closer to the goal.

Horan had struggled through most of the five previous games committing turnovers that led to opposing attacks. In this game, with Brazil flowing so freely toward the goal in the first half, such mistakes would have been catastrophic. And, to be fair, there were fewer, perhaps because Horan was more comfortable operating in the offensive half.

“I come from a place of wanting players to enjoy themselves,” Hayes told NBC Sports. “I’ve been at a club for 12 years where I’ve had huge success, but I was desperate to do well for this country. I’m so emotional, because it’s not every day you win a gold medal.

“I love America. It made me. I always say that. It definitely made me.”

Even going back to the seminal moment in women’s soccer history, the 1999 World Cup final played before a capacity crowd at the Rose Bowl and a massive TV audience on ABC, the USWNT needed a shootout to defeat China for the championship. They lost the Olympic gold medal the next year, and a second home World Cup in 2003, staged in the U.S. because of a virus outbreak in China.

The USWNT have not been dominant. What they have been throughout their history, which includes four World Cup triumphs and, now five Olympic golds, is unyielding. And Combative. Competitive. Fierce. And, above all, consistent. They’re always in the picture, and so they’re able to force their way to the center of the frame more often than anyone.

Whereas once there was Norway, China and Germany to challenge the United States, now there are legitimate contenders on every continent. And the USWNT had to go through all of them to reach the top of the medal stand in France: Africa (Zambia), Europe (Germany), Oceania (Australia) and South America (Brazil).

LIVE OLYMPICS MEDAL COUNT:
Overall table | Who is winning the Olympics? | Who's won the most gold?

Following Spain’s triumph at the 2023 World Cup, the Eurocentric soccer media positioned their team as some sort of unbeatable force. They were beaten twice in the last week alone, allowing four goals to Brazil and then falling. in the bronze medal game, to a Germany squad the USWNT defeated twice at the Olympics.

It is wonderful that England, Spain and France have invested substantially at the club and national team level in the women’s game. It is less so that so many assumed that left the United States completely out of the conversation regarding elite women’s play. In last year’s Ballon d’Or voting, the highest ranking USWNT player was  Sophia Smith. She was 25th.

That also was the most prominent position in the voting for any player in the NWSL. Saturday, the league had 26 players among the 36 on the rosters in the Olympic Games final. Amazing how much progress American soccer made in such a short period of time.