PARIS — Trinity Rodman doesn't remember much about her stunning overtime goal that sent the U.S. women's national team to the Olympic semifinals on Saturday.
In truth, Rodman later confessed, the entire sequence from the moment he received the pass from Crystal Dunn is a blur.
“I was like, 'Oh, my goddamn mind,'” Rodman said after the U.S. women's team's 1-0 win over Japan. “The last thing I remember is Crystal playing it and I was like, 'Ahhh!'”
“It's the best moment of my career,” he added. “I couldn't have asked for anything better.”
Even if Rodman doesn't have fond memories of what he did, his goal will be a highlight that will surely live on in his memory. After receiving the ball on the right flank, he dribbled inside and fired a powerful shot into the top corner of the far post as the Parc des Princes erupted.
“Absolutely Trinity is going to do that,” Mallory Swanson, who works alongside Rodman and Sophia Smith on the U.S. team's first line, said of the moment. “I think sometimes in games like this, you just need a little bit of magic, a little bit of individual brilliance. And that's what Trinity did.”
It was Rodman's third goal of the tournament (tied with Swanson for the most among Americans), and at 22, she became the youngest American to score in an Olympic qualifying match in 20 years.
Several of his teammates talked about how they often see Rodman hit incredible shots in practice, but admitted that doing it in this type of setting was a different kind of accomplishment.
“It's crazy,” Korbin Albert said.
“It was amazing,” Smith agreed. “I remember feeling so relieved when I did it.”
Coach Emma Hayes was quick to point out that Rodman’s contributions to the team on Saturday went far beyond that one shot. Known as a solid player on both sides of the floor, Rodman performed strongly on both ends of the court, often dropping back to help when Japan counterattacked.
“We should talk more about what he does off the ball,” Hayes said, and while that may be a reasonable argument, it was also one that had little chance of success given Rodman's other exploits on Saturday.
Her brilliance was exactly what the U.S. needed after spending most of the match trying to break down the solid low block the Americans had come to expect from Japan.
“I honestly think that was the only way we were going to find a goal in that game,” Rodman said. “Obviously, we had been trying all game to break through and get in between them, but it just wasn't working.”
“Not all football is pretty,” he continued. “But I think we knew it was going to come down to something brilliant like that. Whether it came from me or anyone else on the pitch, we knew it wasn't going to be a tiki-taka in the box. It was a moment we had to take advantage of and that's what happened.”
