Paris Olympics 2024: U.S. Women’s Football Team Crushes Zambia In The Opening Match

In its first competition under head coach Emma Hayes, the U.S. Women's National Team had a great start at the 2024 Paris Olympics, defeating Zambia 3-0 in the south of France. The USA dominated the first half and came away with three points thanks to goals from forwards Mallory Swanson and Trinity Rodman, both of whom scored well in the last 70 seconds. Furthermore, with two assists, Captain Lindsey Horan led the young Americans to a strong first-half performance. The USA restricted Zambia to only three efforts on goal, all of which came from sporadic raids in the second half, while goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher recorded her third shutout in the previous three games. Hayes fielded the program's youngest starting XI (27.4 years) at a Women's World Cup or Olympic competition since the Beijing Games in 2008, meaning seven players made their Olympic debut.

Zulu’s Dismissal Via VAR Review

Pauline Zulu's red card in the 33rd minute caused damage to Zambia, who were reduced to 10 players for the remainder of the match. After Pauline Zulu saw red for a last-ditch challenge that was judged to be beyond the boundary, she was devastated. After just 25 minutes, Zambia was already up against it as they lost 3-0 to the USA, the four-time Olympic champions. Initially, the card issued to Zulu was yellow but upon reviewing the play on the monitor, her card was upgraded to yellow as she denied a goalscoring opportunity with Smith bursting into the box.

However, it begs the question of whether Zambia would have fared better had the infraction taken place within the box; in that scenario, Zulu's card would have stayed yellow and the USWNT would have been awarded a penalty. 

What’s Next?

As of right now, the USWNT has won the first six of its eight Olympic tournament starts. Twelve countries compete in three groups of four in 2024. The two best third-place finishers and the top two teams in each quartet after the group-stage round-robin will move on to the quarterfinals on August 3. Australia, a semifinalist in the 2023 Women's World Cup, and Germany, the two-time winner and gold medallist in the 2016 Olympics, are also included in the USA's Group B. Australia was easily defeated by the Germans earlier on Thursday, 3-0, arranging a matchup at the top of the group in Marseille on Sunday.