The Our Futbol Podcast is proud to be collaborating with FUTBO13RA® to bring readers coverage of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games – Women’s Soccer Tournament. You can download the FUTBO13RA® Guide: Paris 2024 PDF here.
The demand to be the best in the world never ends. With a squad filled with line-by-line talent, it’s hard to think they’re capable of “major failure”, but that’s what it feels like lately for the United States.
For the first time in their footballing history, the United States Women’s National Team were eliminated from the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in the Round of 16 and alarm bells quickly began to ring for US Soccer. The pressure cooker that had endured a poorly functioning team, an eventful Olympic process and a failed attempt to make the generational change to instead bring back veteran players, ended up exploding.
In this Olympic edition, the Stars and Stripes team comes with a renewed squad, new technical direction and the promise of rebuilding what was lost during the previous World Cup process. To make sure this plan runs smoothly, the federation chose Emma Hayes as the one to bring new life to the team.
“The expectation in this country is to win every game, every week, every tournament, every trophy. I’m afraid it won’t work that way. We have to adapt to that a little,” Emma Hayes told Claro Sports. “For them, their learnings have been profound. I think it’s important to manage expectations because while we are building toward our first game as a full group, some players will have their first game. The connections can be different.”
Emma Hayes has been associated with success for so many years that it is difficult to think of a time when she was not successful. With an extraordinary individual trophy case, we often forget the vast experience she has in sports management and her talent for recruiting and developing young footballers.
She coached at collegiate level in the United States before becoming Arsenal’s assistant coach for three seasons, during which she won three English league titles and one UEFA Women’s Champions League. At the same time she ran the club’s academy and oversaw the development of the players. From 2008 to 2010 she managed the Chicago Red Stars and later was an advisor on transfers and talent scouting for the Western New York Flash and the Washington Freedom of the Women’s Professional Soccer League (WPS). But her most successful years at the club level were spent with Chelsea in the Women’s Super League.
She lifted an impressive 17 trophies for the team, including seven FA Women’s Super Leagues, five of them consecutively. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire and a Dame of the Order of the British Empire in 2022.
Although she was officially announced as United States head coach in November 2023, she took over the role after the recent English Women’s Super League season ended and got off to a good start by winning two friendly matches against the Republic of Korea. Working alongside Twila Kilgore, who was the interim coach while she was in England, Hayes watched for months for young players who fit her signature offensive style or played more than one position on the field, which resulted in leaving many key players out of the team for Paris 2024, including Alex Morgan.
Captain: Lindsey Horan
“When we get there, we’re going to take each game at a time,” Captain Lindsey Horan told FOX Sports. “But, at the end of the day, this is the US Women’s National Team and we want to be on that podium and win a gold medal at the end of the tournament.”
If anyone has the ability to guide the American team through this period of transition, it is Lindsey Horan.
In 2012 she became the first player in her country to skip university and turn down numerous athletic scholarships to sign directly with a professional team when she joined PSG of the D1 Arkema League in France. She scored 46 goals in 58 games for the club before returning to the United States to join the Portland Thorns, where she began playing in midfield, and lifted the league trophy and had a few other triumphs before leaving on loan to Olympique Lyonnais of France in 2022. A year later, the French team announced that they had paid Portland approximately $250,000, plus $50,000 in bonuses, to convert the loan into a permanent transfer and extend Horan’s relationship with the club until 2026. .
The heir to the “10” has shown that she has the capacity to make complex decisions and has been able to earn respect among her teammates since 2021 when she began wearing the captain’s armband. With her third Olympic Games in sight, she is not afraid to say what she thinks and is consistent with her ideas, something that is fundamental in a team as vocal as the one she belongs to.
Her mid-range shot, versatility to finish on the ground or in the air and the way she pulls the strings on the field will be very important qualities for Emma Hayes’ style of play.
Player to watch: Naomi Girma
Naomi Girma is the face of generational change. Having developed in the youth categories within the United States women’s soccer system, she arrived at the senior team with great expectations and showed that she doesn’t mind sitting at the table of the veteran players.
She was captain for the women’s team at Stanford University and the first pick in the 2022 NWSL Draft by San Diego Wave FC and she has not disappointed.
Since her arrival in professional soccer, she has established herself in the defense for San Diego and has won two titles with the Californians. On an individual level, she was named Rookie of the Year, Defender of the Year and was included in the Best XI for the 2022 NWSL Season. She participated in the 2022 Concacaf Women’s Championship in Monterrey, the 2024 Concacaf W Gold Cup and the 2023 and 2024 She Believes Cup. On top of that, she was named 2023 Player of the Year by the United States Soccer Federation, becoming the first defender to receive this award.
The security she provides, the sacrifice she presents when covering and reading the game to jump lines and assist her teammates are some of the qualities that have given Girma her place in one of the most competitive teams in the world.
Without a doubt, these Olympics can be a stage towards redemption for a team that has had to make adjustments while it discovers that the rest of the world has done its homework and is catching up. The media scrutiny, the demands from fans accustomed to always winning and the high-quality rival teams will not make the path easy for a team trying to prove they should be feared.
What time does the United States play at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games?
United States’ Match Schedule in Group B
Thursday July 25
United States vs. Zambia | 12:00 PM PST | 1:00 PM CDMX | 2:00 PM CST | 3:00 PM EST | Stade de Nice
Sunday July 28
United States vs. Germany | 12:00 PM PST | 1:00 PM CDMX | 2:00 PM CST | 3:00 PM EST | Stade de Marseille
Wednesday, July 31
Australia vs. United States | 10:00 AM PST | 11:00 AM CDMX | 12:00 PM CST | 1:00 PM EST | Stade de Marseille
This has been edited from its original version which can be found on the Futbo13ra website here.