After 121 arduous minutes of play, the U.S. women’s national team secured its spot in the Olympic final in Paris. Emma Hayes’s group willed itself to a 1–0 victory over Germany on Tuesday, advancing to a gold medal match for the first time since the 2012 London Games. The U.S. coach beamed as the final whistle blew, throwing her fists in the air, Hayes’s tenure now off to a booming start.
It was tense inside Stade de Lyon for the majority of the semifinal with the temperature hovering around 90 degrees—the humidity and pressure only mounting as the match entered into extra time. Despite the deadlock and fatigue, there was a sense the USWNT had the belief to pull out the win. Just as impressive as the final result was the conviction the team played with, which has emerged as a defining characteristic of the three-month-old Hayes era. The young squad operates with a certain level of inevitability, even in its first major tournament under its new manager.
