USWNT downs Australia to top Olympic group
07/31/2024 02:49 PM
The U.S. women’s national team is headed back to the Olympic knockout stages as group winners.
Emma Hayes’ squad earned a 2-1 win over Australia in their final group stage match on Wednesday. Led once again by their world-class attacking trident, Korbin Albert added her first international goal to send the Americans into the quarterfinals on a high note.
Despite nearly having the group locked up after two matches, Hayes opted for an unchanged starting lineup in the final USWNT group stage match aside from the injured Tierna Davidson. The 12 different starters used in the group stage marked the fewest for a USWNT team in a major tournament since the team started the same exact lineup in all three group stage matches at the 2000 Olympics.
Although the choice of lineup was successful in securing the top spot in Group B, the decision-making quickly backfired in the third minute when Sam Coffey received her second booking of the group stage, resulting in a suspension for the upcoming quarterfinal match. Luckily, Trinity Rodman did not join her despite also being at risk.
Of course, both managers had difficult decisions to make in a group-deciding match.
Having conceded five goals in their previous match against Zambia, Australia opted to begin the game in a 5-4-1 low block against the high-scoring Americans. For much of the first half, the tactic proved difficult for the USWNT to break down. Shots were not hard to come by for the USWNT, who had nearly 80% possession, but Australian goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold made six first-half saves.
In the first half an hour, Australia also prevented the Americans from creating dead ball opportunities but in the final fifteen minutes of the half, the USWNT produced five corner kicks for themselves. After all, if breaking down a low block is proving challenging, the team needs to carve a new route towards goal.
That is precisely what Rodman did when she stabbed home a pinball in the box from the Americans' final corner of the half. After a lengthy and confusing VAR check, the goal was confirmed and the USWNT pushed through the resulting ten minutes of stoppage time to take their 1-0 lead into halftime.
With the goal, Rodman and assister Sophia Smith became the first USWNT players to record a goal contribution in all three group-stage matches in a major tournament since Alex Morgan and Abby Wambach did so at the 2012 Olympics. The pair, along with fellow attacking trio member Mallory Swanson, continue putting themselves in elite company as the trifecta has now contributed to 14 of the 16 USWNT goals in the Hayes-era.
In search of a point to secure their place in the knockout rounds, Australia was forced to come out of their shell to chase the game in the second half. Due to the quality of the Americans, however, Australia was unable to create any significant chances to level the match.
In the 77th minute, Albert made sure an Australian equalizer was an impossibility by smashing a stunning top-corner goal past Arnold, becoming the first USWNT player to score her first international goal in the Olympics. Following the controversy that surrounded Albert ahead of the tournament, her teammates immediately mobbed the 20-year-old at the top of the box to celebrate.
What felt like a cherry on top as the USWNT’s record ninth goal in a single Olympics group stage when it went in became the important winning goal for the USWNT when Alanna Kennedy scored in stoppage time for Australia. The Aussies threw everybody forward in the final minutes, again searching for an equalizer, but again came up short as the USWNT secured the 2-1 win.
As group winners, the USWNT sets up a quarterfinal clash with Japan on Saturday in Paris.
