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If Brazil had been smarter in front of goal, and if 36-year-old American veteran Alyssa Naeher hadn’t heroically blocked Adriana’s header in injury time, things might have been different. The yellow-clad Brazilians desperately tried to equalize, but failed.
Perhaps it was destiny that Hayes was destined for this match, as she stood on the halfway line at the London Olympics 12 years ago and watched the United States win its fourth Olympic gold medal against Japan, alongside her late father, Sid, who had encouraged her to pursue her long-cherished dream of coaching the women’s soccer superpower. When the time is right.
With a contract worth £1.25million, she has no qualms about taking on the biggest job in women’s football. She was as funny and charming as ever at a press conference in the French capital. Asked which team she would rather face in the final – Brazil or semi-finalists Spain – she replied: “I don’t care. I want a drink.”
Crucially, she has breathed new life into a team that had underperformed in the past two Olympics and was eliminated in the last 16 of last year’s World Cup. They were also in the throes of a rebuild following the high-profile retirements of Megan Rapinoe and Julie Ertz – and Hayes has been bold in her selection of players.
Her decision to leave two-time World Cup champion and transatlantic icon Alex Morgan out of the Olympic squad in favor of younger, more motivated players paid off throughout the tournament and in this final, when the young attacking duo of Sophia Smith and Trinity Rodman (the latter the daughter of former basketball icon Dennis) taunted a dynamic but increasingly weak offensive Brazil.
The real test for Hayes will come at the Women’s World Cup in Brazil in three years’ time, but all evidence suggests that she has cracked the international code at this Paris Olympics after achieving the American dream.
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