U.S. women's soccer, reinvigorated by a trio of stars, will play for Olympic gold

PARIS — Call them what you like — some have called them "the Trident," others "the Holy Trinity." In a TV interview Thursday, they pitched their own nickname: "the Triple Espresso."

A nickname can come in time. Before then, the trio of stars leading the U.S. women's national soccer team has a more pressing matter to deal with: Saturday's Olympic final against Brazil, in which the U.S. is seeking its first gold medal in more than a decade.

The team's three starting forwards — Mallory Swanson, Trinity Rodman and Sophia Smith — have transformed the U.S. women's national soccer team this summer.

They are not newcomers to the team. Swanson first debuted in 2016, followed by Smith in 2020 and Rodman in 2022. But injuries and other roster considerations had kept the three from appearing in the same starting lineup. That changed in June, under the team's new coach Emma Hayes.

Since then, the team hasn't lost a game. They are perfect in this summer's Olympic Games, accumulating a 5-0 record en route to this weekend's final. And the trio — whatever their nickname is — has been key.

"The second that we really started getting real minutes together and the opportunity to build on those minutes, and build game after game, our chemistry, it's been so much fun, and it feels so natural," Smith said at a press conference Thursday.

The trio's emergence has been a welcome development for the U.S. women's team, which has come to struggle on the international stage after dominating the early decades of women's soccer. The Americans haven't won Olympic gold since 2012, when most of the current roster were children. And in last year's FIFA Women's World Cup, the U.S. lost in the round of 16, the first time the team had ever failed to reach the semifinals of a major tournament.

Now, there's a different tone. The three forwards have combined to score 9 of the 10 goals scored by the U.S. in the Olympics, including Smith's extra-time goal that saved the U.S. from a penalty shoot-out in the semifinal match against Germany.

Rodman said Thursday that there is less pressure around this Olympics than there was last year at the Women's World Cup. "I've blocked out a lot of outside noise. We all have," she said. "This time around, it's just more fun, because we're working so hard and meshing. We're doing so much behind the scenes, but I almost feel like we're all free, which has been so nice to see."

Each of them attributed their on-field chemistry to their off-the-field friendship. "It makes the biggest difference. We know how to communicate with each other," Rodman said. "We just know each other so well, and we can then translate that on the field."

If only this could have happened earlier, they say. The biggest reason it couldn't was an injury to Swanson last year that caused her to miss the Women's World Cup. During a friendly match in the spring, Swanson tore a tendon in her knee that caused the dislocation of her patella. Surgery was required to fix it, then a serious infection followed that sidelined her for months.

"I'm very thankful that it happened, because I'm a new person. I'm a new player," Swanson said.

Copyright 2024, NPR

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