It was a tournament to remember for the U.S., Marta and Germany, but concerns arose for others including Canada
When the dust settles on the 2024 Olympic women's football tournament, it will surely go down as one to remember. That will be both for the right reasons, such as the unexpectedness of the United States women's national team's quick success under Emma Hayes and the near-fairytale farewell of Brazil icon Marta, and for the wrong reasons, with the drone scandal surrounding Canada Soccer certainly the big story there.
Despite the relentless schedule and gorgeous, but exhausting, sunshine in France, it was a tournament that entertained and threw up plenty of memorable matches, with Australia's ridiculous 6-5 win over Zambia unlikely to be forgotten quickly and Brazil's 4-2 victory over Spain surely the biggest shock of them all.
And among it all were the incredible individual stories: the rollercoaster of emotions that Marta went through as she represented her nation at a major tournament for the final time and the heart-warming comeback of Mallory Swanson, who was the USWNT's match-winner in Paris after enduring injury hell in 2023.
GOAL breaks down the winners and losers from Paris 2024…
GettyWINNER: Emma Hayes
There was, of course, some expectation around Emma Hayes and her United States women's national team coming into the Olympic Games. This is a four-time world champion and a team that had won four gold medals at this tournament in the past. But there were not many predicting that the U.S. would stand on the top of the podium on Saturday, which is exactly what it did after a 1-0 win over Brazil.
There were a few reasons for that. First, because this team is little over 12 months removed from its worst performance at a Women's World Cup in history, when it lost in the last 16. Second of all was the experience lost since that doomed campaign Down Under, with the likes of Kelley O'Hara, Julie Ertz, Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe – plus Becky Sauerbrunn – absent this time around, leaving a young group with only a few names that have been there and done it on the biggest stages. But perhaps most significant of all was that Hayes only took over this team in late May and therefore had just nine weeks to work with it before the Games began.
That she managed to guide the group to this incredible success, then, should not be overlooked or underrated just because she is a top coach. It's a fantastic achievement by the staff and the players and it certainly bodes well for the future.
"I'm so excited about what we can do together," Hayes said on Saturday, closing out her post-match press conference. "It's been 75 days baby!" With that, she dropped the microphone on the table and went off to celebrate. Given this start, it's hard not to think she and her players will be doing plenty of that in the years to come.
AdvertisementGetty ImagesLOSER: Canada Soccer
Though Canada exited in the quarter-finals, its 'spygate' scandal remained the story of tournament and is one that will rumble on for weeks and months to come. That the players were able to persevere and reach the knockout stages despite all the noise on the outside, and despite a six-point deduction in the group-stage, was pretty incredible, especially if what Canada Soccer is saying is indeed found to be true, in that the players themselves were totally unaware of the drones used for spying on opponents and did not participate in any unethical behavior.
What unfolds from here, as the federation begins its investigation, is going to be fascinating and something that everyone across the sport keeps an eye on. With head coach Bev Priestman banned for a year by FIFA, it's likely that a new appointment will be made, while other members of staff could well follow her out of the exit door. When Canada Soccer's findings are released, there could be further repercussions and external punishment, too, particularly because there are incidents related to the men's side as well as the women's.
Canada came into this Olympic tournament with all eyes on it because it was the reigning Olympic champion, a team set to begin a intriguing title defense. It left it under a cloud, with Canada Soccer, just over a year on from a funding controversy that almost prompted its players to go on strike, once again in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.
Getty Images SportWINNER: Marta
Saturday's defeat to the USWNT in the Olympic gold medal match was not the fairytale ending that Marta dreamed of. The iconic forward announced earlier this year that 2024 will see the end of her in a Brazil shirt, making this her final Olympics, her final major tournament and one of the final times we will see her in the colors of her country. She wanted to win gold and clinch a first major international title for the Selecao. "It's now or never," she said with a laugh and a big smile before departing for France last month. In the end, Brazil came incredibly close, but left with silver.
It was the fourth runners-up medal in the career of the player widely regarded as the greatest of all time, following Olympic silvers in 2004 and 2008, plus a World Cup final defeat in 2007. Yet, though there were elements to Saturday's game that made it a disappointment for Marta, it's hard to feel like the tournament as a whole was an underwhelming farewell.
After all, no one expected Brazil to reach this final. This is a team that suffered a group-stage exit at last summer's World Cup, is on a new journey with a new coach and has a really young squad. But Marta has been banging the drum for this next generation for a while now. The quality coming through for the Selecao is why she feels comfortable stepping away from the international stage – and the reasons for her confidence were there for all to see at Paris 2024.
Brazil had not been to a major international final for 16 years and Marta signed off by helping them return to that stage and making them dream again. It wasn't the perfect send-off – but it was the next best thing.
Getty ImagesLOSER: Tony Gustavsson
That Tony Gustavsson's final match in charge of Australia was a desperate defeat to the United States that saw centerback Alanna Kennedy thrown up top, and go within a whisker of scoring a tournament-saving brace, was both fitting and far-from-fitting. It was the former because this was an Olympics characterized by the Matildas' inability to cope without Sam Kerr, the Chelsea star having ruptured her ACL in January. But it was the latter because this team showed just 12 months ago, in Gustavsson's finest achievement as head coach, that it was a group capable of adapting and overcoming a setback even as great as that.
That was at the 2023 Women's World Cup, when the co-host powered its way to the semi-finals despite not getting Kerr back until that last-four clash with England. It was a monumental feat to reach that stage, both because of its impact on the domestic game and because it was something Australia had never achieved before.
Given it backed up the Matildas reaching the last four of the Olympics in Japan three years ago, expectations were high going into Paris 2024 and rightly so, as the progress made under Gustavsson had been impressive. However, under-par individual performances and a lack of conviction from the coach led to a shock group-stage exit that, sadly, doesn't best represent the success of the Swede's time in charge Down Under.
