US Women's Soccer Team Shines with New Coach in Olympics
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00:00I want to start with the U.S. women's soccer team that made it to the gold medal match
00:11against Brazil after they eliminated Germany 1-0.
00:16This has been an incredible run for these girls.
00:18They weren't expected to do this.
00:21They hadn't been playing well leading up to the Olympics, and then they flipped a switch
00:27and they played great throughout.
00:29Yeah, I think first it's important to understand that they have a new coach.
00:35And when I say new coach, I mean new coach, because Emma Hayes did not join the squad
00:40until her club season, where she was with Chelsea for the last seven years, I believe.
00:49They did not end their season until mid-May.
00:52So she joins in early June, maybe June 1, and four games in advance of the Olympics
00:59with this team.
01:00And it was a struggle, there's no doubt about that.
01:04They had some real difficulty generating offense.
01:07They only scored one goal in a game against Mexico and won 1-0.
01:12They scored zero goals in a game against Costa Rica, which was not nearly an Olympic team.
01:19And it really looked grim going in.
01:21I wondered if they were fielding the right players up front, because I saw Trinity Rodman
01:28in the 2021 NWSL championship game.
01:32I was down in Louisville for that, for the Washington Spirit, when they won.
01:35She was tremendous, and I really thought she was the next thing for the women's national
01:40team.
01:41And then she just kind of hit a little bit of a wall, not necessarily with the Spirit,
01:44but with the national team.
01:45She was one of those players that created possibilities but never completed the possibilities.
01:50She got into good spaces and then delivered the wrong pass.
01:54She got into good scoring spots and then knocked it wide of the goal.
01:58That's what was happening with her.
02:00She's become a completely different player.
02:02She's everything we thought she could be in this Olympics.
02:06And that's a huge part of why the United States has advanced to the Olympic final gold medal
02:11game.
02:12And I have to give Emma Hayes a lot of credit, one, for believing Trinity Rodman had it,
02:17two, for bringing the best out of her, and three, for pairing her.
02:21Pairing is not the right word, but for combining her with Sophia Smith and Mallory Swanson,
02:28they have been a tremendous force as a front line in this Olympics.
02:32What's that defender's name, the girl in the U.S. that's so good that everyone is raving
02:37about?
02:39Naomi Germa is her name, and she is, yesterday Emma Hayes said she's the best she's ever
02:44played.
02:45I've been trying to name that, because this is only her second major tournament.
02:50She's still in her early 20s, maybe 25 at the oldest, and I've never seen anything like
02:57it.
02:58She just is everywhere.
02:59When I say I've never seen anything like it, in the women's game I haven't, but in the
03:04men's game she reminds me of a player for Liverpool named Virgil van Dijk when he was
03:08at his peak in the 2019-2020 range and was just gobbling up everything and completely
03:15dominating the back line, and that's what she does.
03:18She's always there, and she's always in the right spot, and she always makes the right
03:23play.
03:24She is phenomenal.
03:25I wrote, after maybe the second game, that she might be the best U.S. defender I'd ever
03:32seen, but Emma Hayes' frame of reference on women's soccer is much larger than I.
03:39She's lived in the game.
03:40I obviously know the women's national team, the U.S. women's national team, very well,
03:45but so I can go back to 99 and know how good Garma is relative to the greats, Christy Rampone,
03:53etc., and I think she's honestly better at this stage of her career.
03:58How long can she keep this up?
04:01Let's hope for a long time, because it's a great base for the UNT to have success.