NICE, France — Professor Hayes — that is, Emma Hayes, the coach of the United States women’s national soccer team — doesn’t grade on a curve, even in her first official game in charge of the team.
She would likely give her team an “A” for the first 25 minutes of the United States’ 3-0 victory Thursday over Zambia to begin Group B play at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“The first part of the first half was exceptional,” Hayes said after the game. “To come out the way we did – the intent, the intensity, the decision-making, the execution – it would have taken at least five (goals) at halftime.”
Two goal-line clearances, including one on a volley from captain Lindsey Horan, allowed Zambia to keep the United States at bay.
But for the rest of the game, well, the Americans won’t be on the honor roll of Hayes’ class.
Creating chances has not been the problem, and that was not the case against Zambia. Hayes was always confident that the goals would come.
“If you had asked me before the game if we would be happy with a 3-0 win, I probably would have said no,” she said. “However, given the performance and the chances created, I don’t want to be too hard on the players.”
The United States will face Germany in three days, a much tougher test, so they will have to improve.
“It’s a given,” Hayes said.
The United States failed to score on its first nine shots of the match despite significant pressure on Zambia. Finally, Trinity Rodman found the net. The 22-year-old said she approached her Olympic debut with nerves, but she didn’t show it when she deployed the “Trip Spin,” as she called the move that allowed her to slip past her defender in the box and beat Zambian goalkeeper Ngambo Musole.
“After this game I think there are still a lot of areas we need to improve, more goals that should still go in the back of the net, even though we’re 3-0 up,” Rodman said. “I’m very happy with the performance, but there’s still a lot of improvement to be made.”
Overall, the United States outshot Zambia 27-7. The Americans, however, managed to score only eight of those chances and missed quite a few. They looked a bit like the team that scored just one goal in two games in pre-Olympic warm-ups against Mexico and Costa Rica – albeit friendlies ahead of a less-intense major international competition.
Zambia’s red card in the first half made it easier for the Americans, who tried to attack without difficulty. But despite this advantage, the United States failed to score, even though they had the game in hand in the 25th minute.
It was largely thanks to 70 seconds of brilliant play from Mallory Swanson. The American forward scored the Americans’ second goal following a pass from Lindsey Horan in the box; Swanson hesitated, created an advantageous angle by drawing Musole off her line and converted.
Just over a minute later, she was celebrating again. Swanson again darted down the middle and this time took a pass from Sophia Smith – who had left the field in the first half due to injury – and scored the goal.
Swanson said the start of the game was “electric.”
“But there are little details in this game, in the game, that we just have to polish,” she said.
The team is starting to embrace Hayes’ preferred style and principles, Swanson said. It’s been a pleasure to learn different things and apply them on the field.
“Emma keeps saying, ‘It will come, it will come, it will come,’ so to have her belief behind us means a lot,” Swanson said.
Hayes was brought in to elevate the national team as it enters a new era without players such as stalwart Alex Morgan, one of the leading scorers in USWNT history.
“I was really happy it wasn’t one of those days where the ball didn’t go in the back of the net,” Horan said.
Performances like that plagued the Americans at last year’s World Cup (four goals in four games) and the Tokyo Olympics (fourth place, scoreless in three of six games) – and it’s a big reason why Vlatko Andonovski is out and Hayes is at the helm.
The disappointments of the last two international tournaments are not necessarily a driving force for the team, Rodman said. It is a desire to show they are more than an athletic team with speedy forwards.
“We’re so much more than that,” Rodman said. “And I think we have to believe that deep down inside of ourselves, we can break teams apart, whether it’s passing the ball and walking away, walking away from each other, there’s so much more depth that we can bring.”
“I think living that and breathing that on the pitch will help us.”
Another motivating factor might be the hope of getting a better grade from Professor Hayes.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: At Paris Olympics, USWNT scores 3 goals, misses other chances against Zambia