“It's going to be amazing,” says Horan, whose team is playing the U.S. women's national team the next day in Nice. “It's going to be sold out. Like 70,000 people. The stadium is amazing, so I want to be there early to cheer them on.”
The experience is a fresh one for Horan, who will soon be a three-time Olympian. The U.S. women's team has participated in every tournament since the International Olympic Committee added women's soccer in 1996, but this is the first time the men's team has participated in the Summer Olympics since 2008. Given that the U.S. women's and men's teams typically operate on different schedules and fly to different parts of the world, the news conference in midtown Manhattan Monday afternoon marked a rare opportunity for players and coaches from both teams to speak side-by-side.
But the synergy isn't just mutual admiration for two programs engaged in simultaneous soul-searching. The reevaluation for the women's team began last summer, when coach Vlatko Andonovski was fired following a surprising round of 16 exit from the World Cup. For the men's team, the wounds are fresher. For them, the Olympics function primarily as an under-23 tournament, but players were still feeling the aftereffects of the senior national team's group-stage exit from the Copa America last week, raising questions about coach Gregg Berhalter's future with less than two years until their home World Cup.
So even if Olympic soccer pales in comparison to the World Cup, this summer's Olympics offer both programs a chance to break out of their respective slumps.
“Even though the Copa didn't go as planned, this is an opportunity for our fans to come together and get behind our team and cheer us on as we do well representing the U.S., the women's team and the other Team USA members,” said men's defender Walker Zimmerman, one of the team's three overage players. “That's what makes the Olympics special.”
The scrutiny will be even tougher for the four-time gold medal-winning women's team, who have struggled to clear high hurdles of late. The U.S. had to settle for a bronze medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, failed to reach the semifinals at a World Cup for the first time in nine appearances and dropped to fifth in the FIFA rankings. The U.S. solidified its regional dominance this year by winning the women's CONCACAF Gold Cup for the first time, but a group-stage loss to Mexico, its first defeat since 2010, sounded another warning.
The delayed appointment of new coach Emma Hayes has also raised questions about the team's preparation, as the London native made the decision to take charge of the U.S. national team after playing through Chelsea's 2023-24 season less than two months before the Summer Olympics. But Hayes, whose hiring was announced in November, stressed that an evaluation of the team's composition and tactical evolution began under interim coach Twyla Kilgore long before the new coach oversaw her first game last month.
“We feel we are well prepared for this tournament despite the short amount of time we have to prepare,” Hayes said. “A lot of work has been done over the last year, looking back at the World Cup results and slowly building up the squad.”
The changes meant phasing out veteran World Cup winners Alex Morgan, Becky Sauerbrunn and Kellie O'Hara to make way for talented but unproven newcomers. Of the 18 players Hayes selected for the Olympic squad, only 10 remained from last summer's World Cup squad. Left back Jenna Nyswonger, making her major tournament debut, defensive midfielder Sam Coffey and 19-year-old forward Jaidyn Shaw are all expected to play key roles.
“It's a chance for a lot of young players to get an opportunity and feel like they can really make an impact,” defender Tierna Davidson said, “but there are always challenges that come with it.”
Added veteran Crystal Dunn: “Obviously coming out of the World Cup we weren't all that happy with our performance, but I think at the end of the day we knew we had a great chance to come back together and bounce back.”
The men's team is organized as a youth squad, so there are more new faces but also some continuity. Fifteen of the 18 players selected by coach Marko Mitrovic have played for the senior national team. Overage players Zimmerman, Myles Robinson and Djordje Mihajlovic have all played in multiple CONCACAF Gold Cups, and Zimmerman started three games at the 2022 World Cup.
So even though Robinson is the lone holdover from the team eliminated from the Copa America, the players see the Olympics as a chance to rebuild the U.S. and put it in consideration for the 2026 World Cup.
“We have a chance to bring more life,” midfielder Gianluca Busio said. “When someone is eliminated in the group stage, it's tough for the country. We're all rooting for them, we all want the best. We've all played with him before. … But this is our team, this is our group now.”
He adds with a knowing laugh: “The Olympics are a pretty big event too.”
