The US Women’s National Team got their Olympic tournament off to virtually a perfect start with a 3-0 win over Zambia. Our women dominated the ball and dominated the chances created, winning what for long stretches almost looked like a training match. After struggling to put away chances against Mexico and Costa Rica in warm up matches for the Olympics, it was great to see the team put away 3 early chances and hopefully get that monkey off our backs.

There were a few moments, even in the first half, when you could see our team playing perhaps a bit too comfortably. While we score 3 times, we also missed 6 of 9 big chances, so while our finishing improved, the issues aren’t completely resolved. We also let the intensity drop a bit as the game wore on, with Zambia actually looking the more likely to score for most of the final 15 minutes despite being down a player after a 34th minute red card. That’s disappointing but understandable in the circumstances. The good side of that is that we’ll move into our next group stage game against Germany (must see TV) well-rested.

The attacking momentum chart and match stats below paint a great picture of the USA’s dominance, but lack of finishing against Zambia.

Same scoreline as the men v. France, but a dramatically different game. The USWNT dominated from start to finish, created all of the game’s major chances, and could easily have won by an even larger margin. 

Literally in the first 2 minutes of this game, the pattern of play was clear. In the first 30 seconds Emily Fox and Trinity Rodman combined down the right, and Fox found Horan with a low cross which Horan put just wide. Less than a minute later Barbra Banda was streaking down the right wing in space and drawing a foul by Tierna Davidson. The pattern continued for basically 90 minutes, with the US creating chance after chance in possession, and Zambia constantly looking like a threat on the break.

After 15 minutes, it was beginning to feel like the Costa Rica game could repeat itself with the US failing to finish a plethora of chances. We had already produced 8 shots – that’s insane, it’s on pace for 45 shots over 90 minutes. Trinity Rodman hit the crossbar, then Mallory Swanson hit the post. Ugh… Then…Rodman produced this beauty off a nice ball in by Horan.

From there, the floodgates opened, and Mallory Swanson scored two in quick succession to make it 3-0 in the 25th minute. The Emma Hayes era was off to a flying start, and it looked like a rout was on. We continued to create chances, and in the 34th minute Zambia’s center back, Pauline Zulu was sent off for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity for Sophia Smith. Initially the referee awarded a yellow, but it was correctly upgraded to a red card after VAR review. Shortly after, Smith would pick up a knock and be replaced by Williams. We have not seen an update on Smith’s status but we hope her removal was more precautionary being already up 3-0.

Despite playing 11 on 10 for the last 55 minutes of the match, the US failed to match the intensity and pressure we initially displayed. At half, Korbin Albert came on for Rose Lavelle, with Lindsey Horan moving into the attacking midfield role. A slightly defensive substitution. Then in the 65th minute, Hayes evidently decided to shut up shop and brought on 3 defenders while taking out Rodman, Swanson, and Horan, a very defensive move. It didn’t work out that well though as we will again note that Zambia looked the more likely to score over the final 15 minutes.

We found ourselves a bit frustrated as the game wore on that Zambia looked so dangerous on the break, especially playing with 10. Consider our eyebrows raised there, and we suspect Germany and Australia’s eyebrows will be raised too.

Still, it was a successful opener for the US. A comfortable 3-0 victory where we should move to the next game with relatively fresh legs, which is very important in a tournament that only allows 2 days rest between matches and where the rosters are limited to 18 players. One last data point that tells the story of this one – have a look at the shot charts below. Despite looking dangerous on the break, Zambia never really created many chances, largely thanks to Naomi Girma being excellent at the back and having enough pace to keep up with Banda on the break.

This was Emma Hayes’ first competitive match in charge as USWNT manager, so we have to discuss her performance too. Overall, we’d give her a solid ‘B’. The starting 11 was the right 11 in our view. We think the decision to take off Smith was wise given the score at the time. We did think it was a odd to take our foot off the gas that dramatically with the three subs in the 65th minute. That change didn’t work out too well given Zambia looked more likely to score for a significant stretch after that.

We were disappointed that she failed to make in game adjustments that would keep Zambia from breaking out so easily, especially once we were up 3-0. Lastly, we did like that we got all 15 out of 16 outfield players into the match, so everyone should be ready to go against Germany (pending injury updates), and we should be as fresh as we can be for that critical game. No major complaints in this one, and we’ll continue to share our views throughout the tournament.

The USMOT plays on Saturday at 1pm ET with a critical match against New Zealand. After dropping the opener to France while New Zealand defeated Guinea, the match suddenly becomes a must win. Luckily, it is an extremely winnable game. This group has more talent than New Zealand, and we’ll get a look at whether they have an old school USMNT mentality to dig in and get a result when needed. We sure hope so. Here’s the Men’s table heading into that one.

For the women, the next match is a fascinating one. We play Germany on Sunday at 3pm ET. That is “Must See TV” as NBC used to say. That match features two teams with 6 World Cup Titles (4 for the USA and 2 for Germany) and 5 Olympic Gold Medals (4 for the USA and 1 for Germany). It’s two of the most successful nations in women’s soccer history, both coming off 3-0 victories in their opening match. We have to say the German result is the more impressive of the two, given they played 2023 World Cup semifinalists Australia, while we played Zambia. This will be the first true test of the Hayes era. Much more to come as we prep for that one. Group standings heading into that match below.

You can find details on all the upcoming matches and recaps of the games so far at our US Olympic Soccer HQ. Bookmark that page to easily find broadcast details for all the US Olympic Soccer action.