Time is not the enemy, U.S. women’s national team head coach Emma Hayes has consistently said. Time is simply a circumstance — one she cannot fight against.
The new coach had just four friendly matches and less than two months on the sidelines with the USWNT to prepare the team for the 2024 Olympics. Implementing new ideas and establishing chemistry was going to require time, she said, and that thought would serve as a guiding principle to all her decisions going forward.
“I can only control what I can control,” she said in her introduction to reporters in late May. “Like, I’m here, I have that timeline.”
On Wednesday, Hayes again opted to continue using her limited time available with the players to establish chemistry, rather than rotate her lineup amid a grueling tournament schedule. She made only one change — forced by injury — to her starting line-up, and chemistry appears to be coming together as the U.S. beat Australia 2-1 on Wednesday.
The U.S. came into the game having already booked a spot in the quarterfinal, but the Americans continued their domination. It was only the Americans’ second time in history winning all three games of a group stage — the other time came in 2012, when they won gold — and the USWNT’s nine goals was the team’s most ever in an Olympics group stage.
Hayes’ focus on Wednesday appeared to be continuing the momentum the USWNT had from its first two games of the tournament. A 3-0 win over Zambia to open the tournament preceded a 4-1 victory over Germany on Sunday in the Americans’ best major-tournament performance since the 2019 World Cup. For the most part, the strategy paid off against Australia.
Forward Trinity Rodman scored on a set piece just before halftime, giving her a goal or assist in each of the team’s three Olympic matches, and reserve midfielder Korbin Albert struck a stunning shot into the upper corner 13 minutes from full time for what ended up being the game-winning goal.
Australia, in need of a point to guarantee passage to the quarterfinals, lumped the ball forward in waves from there and got a goal back in stoppage time through Alanna Kennedy. Two minutes later, Kennedy came within inches of scoring an equalizer on another cross served into the box, but the ball skipped wide and Kennedy was left in tears postgame. She and her Australia teammates must wait to see how Group A plays out later Wednesday to see if they will advance as a third-place qualifier.
Rodman’s run of form is part of a wider trend of success for the USWNT’s dynamic forward line, which is peaking at the right time. Sophia Smith assisted Rodman’s goal with a knockdown header from a corner kick, which also put her on the scoresheet for the third straight game.
It is the first time a pair of USWNT teammates have each registered a goal or an assist in all of the USWNT’s group games since Alex Morgan and Abby Wambach did so in 2012, at the height of the Morgan-Wambach partnership.
