For 106 minutes, the United States and Japan trudged through the women’s soccer quarterfinals of the 2024 Olympics, drawing occasional boos from the crowd due to the slow, passive nature of the game. Calling it a game of chess would be generous; tactical ingenuity was offset by technical errors that prevented a breakthrough.
Then came the inevitable: Trinity Rodman.
Rodman collected a long diagonal ball (a tactic the U.S. women's national team had largely avoided before that) from Crystal Dunn, then cut inside Japanese defender Hikaru Kitagawa and slammed a left-footed shot into the top corner to secure a 1-0 victory.
The goal sent the Americans into the semifinals and guarantees they will play for a medal next week. It was also a reward for U.S. women’s head coach Emma Hayes’ insistence on patience and her steadfast desire to stick with her trusted core of players even though Olympic matches took three days to complete. The approach produced an unparalleled performance for an American team known for playing direct and thriving in transition.
The U.S. women’s team finished the game with 1,026 passes attempted, the most in a game by any team in any of the past three Olympics or four World Cups, according to ESPN Stats & Information. (Spain set the previous mark with 925 against Japan earlier in these Olympics.) Before Saturday, the U.S. women’s previous high for passes attempted in a game during that same time was 649, in a 13-0 win over Thailand at the 2019 World Cup.
Saturday could be seen as a turning point in American identity, shaped by family protagonists.
Hayes again made just one change to her starting lineup, inserting Korbin Albert (who scored a stunning game-winner against Australia on Wednesday) into the holding midfield role in place of the suspended Sam Coffey. Emily Sonnett returned to the starting lineup in the center of defense in place of the injured Tierna Davidson. The U.S. women's team used its fewest rotations at an Olympics since the 2000 Games, a trend that continued as Hayes opted not to make a substitution during regulation.
Japan set up a compact 5-4-1 defense that challenged the Americans to find an individual moment of brilliance and precision to break through. The task was similar to the one they faced three days earlier against Australia, except Japan is a more talented and disciplined team.
The result was a very boring match.
The U.S. national team had 70 percent of the ball possession and attempted over 1,000 passes, numbers that Japan happily accepted as the national team attempted to explore the field laterally without causing problems on offense. The Americans’ 31 touches inside the opponent’s box and 0.69 expected goals, according to TruMedia, only marginally outpaced Japan, which was content to sit back and find individual moments on the counterattack.
Japan's clearest chances of the first half came in the 35th minute, first when Mina Tanaka broke free from Lindsey Horan in the box but failed to get a shot off target, and then a minute later on a counter-attack that ended with Miyabi Moriya sending her volley over the bar.
This was precisely the kind of game Hayes had warned about, one that tested the U.S. women’s team’s new identity to its very foundations. For years, the Americans had faced low blocks, from talented and inferior teams alike, with a palpable sense of frustration and impatience, often kicking balls forward.
Hayes, who had faced plenty of disciplined defensive opponents in her previous 12 years at Chelsea, has preached restraint. The U.S. women's team was patient to a fault at times Saturday, settling for lateral passes at speeds too slow to get Japan out of shape.
U.S. women's national team center back Naomi Girma made 105 passes in the first half alone, more than any other player in an entire World Cup or Olympic qualifying match since 2011, when Opta began measuring.
On Saturday, everything Hayes and her players had said they would do came true. Still, it took a moment of brilliance from Rodman to secure a result and prevent the game from going to a penalty shootout.
Rodman has been the USWNT’s most reliable attacking player, contributing a goal or assist in all four Olympic matches (a first for the USWNT since 2012, according to Opta) and continuing her streak as the only player to appear in every single match for the team since the start of 2023.
Her goal Saturday made her the youngest U.S. women's national team player to score in an Olympic qualifying match since 20-year-old Lindsay Tarpley scored in the 2004 gold medal match.
The challenge now ahead is also eerily similar to the one that loomed after Wednesday’s final whistle: What are the implications of the U.S. women’s team’s sparse rotation heading into the semifinals against Germany (a team the Americans beat 4-1 in the group stage) or old foe Canada? Some of Saturday’s sluggish state of play and heavy touches could certainly be attributed to the U.S. women’s players’ heavy legs.
Coffey will return from suspension, while Davidson's health remains an unknown. Jaedyn Shaw was part of the match-day roster (which was down to 17 players due to Coffey's suspension) on Saturday for the first time in this tournament and could offer fresh, creative legs in the semifinal.
Those concerns are for Sunday, as Hayes surely told her players and anyone else who would listen after the game. One game at a time has been Hayes' message, and the U.S. women's team is now playing for a medal, which was always the benchmark to reach before these Games for a team in transition.
The team struggled through Saturday's quarterfinals, but in a unique way. As tame as it may have looked at times, it was also the progress the Americans were looking for.
