Emma Hayes and the USA won the Gold medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics. The Olympics women’s football started on Thursday the 25th of July with matches across all the groups. The USA faced Zambia, Germany and Australia in the group stage. After three wins they confidently went into the quarterfinals. The match against Japan did not go as planned, but the USWNT won with 1-0 in extra time. In the semi-finals Germany awaited for a rematch. Again in extra time the USA won with 1-0. Let’s have a look at the Olympic USA Squad 2024 that won the final from Brazil.
Olympic USA Squad 2024
The USA was not just any country going to the Olympics. They won four out of five of the first Olympics, from 1996 to 2012. After taking the Bronze medal in Tokyo, the USWNT disappointed at the World Cup. It was clear that other nations bridged the gap and that the USA had to improve quick. The first step in doing so was naming Hayes as the new head coach.
Emma Hayes announced her first roster for a major tournament. Hayes left Chelsea after more than a decade of success. Can she do the same with the USA National Team? Recently the team has been in the news a lot around the Korbin Albert scandal. Hayes commented on this and that was not taken well by most. First, let’s have a look at the USWNT roster for the Olympics:
Goalkeepers: Casey Murphy, Alyssa Naeher
Defenders: Tierna Davidson, Emily Fox, Naomi Girma, Casey Krueger, Jenna Nighswonger, Emily Sonnett
Midfielders: Korbin Albert, Sam Coffey, Lindsey Horan, Rose Lavelle, Catarina Macario
Forwards: Crystal Dunn, Trinity Rodman, Jaedyn Shaw, Sophia Smith, Mallory Swanson
Players out with injuries
Cat Macario is out of the Olympic USA Squad 2024 due to mild knee irritation. The player from Chelsea opens up a spot for Lynn Williams. Emily Sams is the newest alternate. Emma Hayes does not see a problem as the most fun part of her job is the challenge. She also said that Macario’s injury opens up opportunities for other players.
Emma Hayes immediately picked her USA National Team for the Paris 2024 Olympics. She did name a few alternates: Jane Campbell, Hal Hershfelt, Croix Bethune and Emily Sams. Fans are surprised that Alex Morgan is not a part of the team, however, some say with the small roster Hayes needs more versatile players. Korbin Albert being part of the squad after her many actions on social media is also a surprise, but Hayes defends the midfielder in the latest press conference.
Emma Hayes on her first roster and Korbin Albert
After releasing her 18-player squad Hayes of course gave a statement. “Making an Olympic roster is a huge privilege and an honour and there is no denying that it was an extremely competitive process among the players and that there were difficult choices, especially considering how hard everyone has worked over the past 10 months,” Emma Hayes said in a statement.
“Choosing an 18-player roster plus alternates involved many considerations, but I am excited for the group we have selected and I’m looking forward to building on the work from the last camp as we head into the Send-Off matches and then onto France. These are great opportunities for us to continue to show the progress we are making.”
The team played a friendly against Mexico on the 12th of July and won with 1-0. There is another friendly planned on the 16th against Costa Rica. Another win would be a massive boost for the trust just before the Olympics 2024.
Korbin Albert is a “tremendous human being”
Albert posted anti-LGBTQ posts on social media earlier this year. The player got a lot of backlash over this but still made the USA National Team for the Paris 2024 Olympics. Some things should be bigger than soccer, such as not accepting whole groups of people. Alex Morgan and Lindsay Horan spoke up about this, criticizing Albert.
Albert did apologize, but it was not the first time she had done something like this. Even if you believe in second chances, Albert is really pushing it with little signs of change. Emma Hayes defended her decision to include the player “on merit in terms of what she offers”.
“Korbin has had to learn”
The head coach gave the following statement: “Korbin has had to learn. She’s a young person who’s understood fully the implications of her social media activity. The conversations we have had have been to talk about the importance of what we have to be mindful of, and how we are all part of an environment that’s one that appreciates and understands the damage that can do.”
“She has been a delight to coach. I think she’s had a really, really tough time. She’s really struggled. And I think some of that has shown in her performances. A young person having to deal with a lot of criticism — rightfully so. She can hear the noise in the stadium and that’s affected her. I can say firsthand that having spent limited time with Korbin, she really is a lovely person and someone who really values the most important things, and that she’s spending time working on herself as we all do. I look forward to building on that with her, and I want everybody to know that my job is to make sure I keep doing that. Want the fans to really embrace Korbin because I think she’s a tremendous human being.”
Group Stage Schedule USWNT
The team is in Group B with Australia, Germany and Zambia. They will play matches on the following dates (Times in CEST):
- Thursday the 25th of July 21:00 USA v Zambia – Results: 3-0
- Sunday the 28th of July 21:00 USA v Germany – Result: 4-1
- Wednesday the 31st of July 19:00 Australia v USA – Result: 1-2
- Saturday the 3rd of August 15:00 CEST USA vs Japan – Result: 1-0
- Tuesday the 6th of August 18:00 CEST USA vs Germany – Result: 1-0
- Saturday the 10th of August 17:00 CEST Brazil vs USA – Result: 0-1
Where can I watch USA Women’s Football Olympics 2024?
- NBC and Peacock in the United States.
- Fuji TV/NHK/Nippon TV/TBS/TV Asahi/TV Tokyo in Japan.
- HBO Max
- ARD/ZDF in Germany.
- BBC in the United Kingdom
- Discovery & Eurosport across Europe.
- France Télévisions in France.
- SuperSport in South Africa.
- Channel 9 and Stan Sport in Australia.
- SKY NZ in New Zealand.
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