USWNT wins gold for 1st time in 12 years after beating Marta's Brazil
The United States women's soccer team is back on top of the podium after a 12-year wait.
Mallory Swanson buried her fourth goal of the tournament to give the U.S. a 1-0 win over Brazil in Paris on Saturday, securing her country's first gold medal in women's soccer since 2012 and record-extending fifth overall.
Five-time FIFA Player of the Year Marta couldn't turn the tide after coming on as a second-half substitute in what could be her final meaningful appearance for Brazil. The 38-year-old, who's never won the Women's World Cup or gold in any of her six Olympics, said she's retiring from international soccer at the end of the year.
Powered by attacking trio Trinity Rodman, Sophia Smith, and Swanson - who combined for 10 goals in France - the U.S. finally prevailed after settling for bronze in 2020 and finishing without a medal in 2016.
The title is the team's first under new head coach Emma Hayes, the former Chelsea women's manager who only started the job in June, and its first major international championship in five years.
"America means more to me than most people realize," Hayes said afterward. "And I was a 20-year-old who'd come from a pretty stuffy society that didn't embrace the women's game and women in football. And I went to America and they looked after me, they nurtured me, they opened doors for me, they gave me opportunities that England never, ever gave me. And I'm just so happy, so happy to repay their faith in me."
The U.S. rebounded in a big way after suffering its earliest exit from the Women's World Cup last year when it fell to Sweden in the round of 16. Before that, the U.S. lost to Canada in the semifinals of the Olympic tournament in Tokyo in 2021. The setbacks ultimately forced head coach Vlatko Andonovski to resign, leading U.S. Soccer to hire Hayes at the end of her trophy-laden 12-year spell in charge of Chelsea.
The 47-year-old largely stuck to the same lineup throughout the tournament, trusting a younger core after dropping 35-year-old forward Alex Morgan from the squad. Rodman, the 22-year-old daughter of former NBA star Dennis Rodman, and Smith, 24, each had three goals in France, and 20-year-old midfielder Korbin Albert, who made just seven starts prior to the Olympics, threaded the pass that led to Swanson's opening goal in the 57th minute.
But 36-year-old goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher - a U.S. women's national team veteran who's won two World Cups - finished the game as arguably its MVP, coming up clutch to record a third consecutive clean sheet in the knockout round.
With just minutes remaining in regular time, Naeher prevented a late equalizer with the best of her four stops, clawing Adriana's close-range header out of the air to restore the U.S. as champion.