The United States women’s soccer team will look to move on from its 2023 World Cup heartbreak and return to the top of the Olympic podium at this year’s Paris Games. After two consecutive World Cup reigns The Star and the Stripes were hopeful of a “three-peat” in Australia and New Zealand in 2023 only to be knocked out of the competition in the round of 16 stage by Sweden.
Paris 2024 will mark the Americans’ first competitive games with incoming head coach Emma Hayes at the helm. The USWNT are placed in Group B and will kick off their campaign against Zambia on July 25 in Nice.
Then they will play Germany in their second game on July 28 at the same venue. The Germans and the Americans’ have combined to win six of the nine Women’s World Cup titles. They have previously met only once in Olympic play, a 2004 semifinal that the U.S. won 2-1 in extra time.
In the final game of their group stage campaign they will face Australia in Marseille on July 31.
Emma Hayes’ first USWNT roster before Paris Olympics
Hayes’ has wasted no time in shaking up things with the US women’s team. She moved longtime defender Crystal Dunn to forward on the roster for two upcoming friendlies against South Korea. NWSL’s all-time leading scorer Lynn Williams has been bypassed.
Besides Williams, veteran goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher has also been omitted from the squad. Hal Hershfelt has been given her first international call up at any level. “I can’t wait to get into camp. We know it’s a short turnaround and we have a lot of work to do, but I’m fully focused on making sure that the performances are at the levels that are required to compete,” Hayes said in a statement.
The USWNT will play South Korea June 1 in Colorado and again June 4 in Minnesota. They are the last two games before Hayes announces her 18-person roster for the Paris games.
USWNT would look to add to its Olympic medal tally in Paris. Previously they have won four Olympic tournaments since women’s soccer was introduced in the 1996 Atlanta Games. The women’s team also has a silver and bronze medal in its trophy cabinet.
A look back at previous Olympic and World Cup campaigns of USWNT
At Tokyo Olympics, USWNT had to settle for a bronze medal after Canada defeated them 1-0 in the semifinal ending the squad’s quest to become the first women’s soccer team to win a World Cup and an Olympic gold medal back-to-back. In the bronze medal match they overcame a stubborn Australian side by 4-3.
In their World Cup campaign of 2023 USWNT, after a tightly fought Round of 16 game against Sweden, the four-time World Champions lost 5-4 on penalties, crashing out of the competition in the process. The Americans’ only won their opening game of the tournament against Vietnam in the tournament.
Mohd Faisal Hakak is a sports author from Kashmir. He likes to keep tabs on the sporting world with a keen interest in football, motorsports, NBA, and other marquee sports. He is a science graduate from Islamia College Srinagar.
