PARIS — The U.S. women’s soccer team is through to the Olympic semifinals following its 1-0 extra-time victory against Japan at Parc des Princes thanks to Trinity Rodman’s left foot, a heaping dose of patience and confidence in consistency.

It wasn’t pretty football, but it was what the U.S. expected. When the players walked through the mixed zone, they didn’t care how it looked. They cared about moving on to the semifinal against Germany in Lyon. The same went for head coach Emma Hayes.

“I’m paid to do this job,” Hayes said. “What I’m interested in is what we do in-house. I’ve been coaching football matches a long time. I’ve said it from the beginning: connections help. I don’t believe we’d have gone through if we’d have made too many changes.”

With Japan in a low block and content to allow them to possess for most of regular time, the U.S. could only try pushing the ball horizontally across the back line from Emily Sonnett to Naomi Girma to Emily Fox and back. Their brief forays forward were generally rebuffed, and Japan shut down most attempts at creating any pockets of space.

By the second half of Saturday’s game, the isolated whistles from the crowd at the conservative passes between the USWNT back line had escalated into stadium-wide…

It was far from the most entertaining match of soccer this Olympics has offered — even French-influenced booing rang out every time the U.S. played out of the back. It was forward Trinity Rodman who eventually fought through tired legs and a compact Japan defense to find the back of the net for the U.S. in extra time of a drawn-out quarterfinal match.

Even with the utmost respect and knowledge of Japan, U.S. women’s national team head coach Emma Hayes’ side struggled against their opponent.

Japan shut down the front three of Rodman, Mallory Swanson and Sophia Smith for much of the game. The trio who had been so dominant in the group stage slowed in the knockout round opener. Could tired legs, forced changes in the midfield and cautionary play be to blame? Sure, but Japan is also a very clinical team, able to cede possession and attack when they can create chances.

“Minimal changes gives you the better chance to build the creativity, so I will not change anything I’m doing,” Hayes said before the quarterfinal match. But on Saturday the lack of rotation led to the exact opposite of creativity. And still, she waited until the start of extra time to make her first sub: Lynn Williams on for Swanson.

For the first time at the Paris Games, the U.S. had to rely heavily on its…

The Women’s World Cup quarter-finals on Friday and Saturday feature four genuinely exciting fixtures between sides who seem very well matched. The four games all have a very different tactical feel, too. Here’s a guide to the main questions for each side.

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The Netherlands v Spain

Andries Jonker has broadly used the same system throughout this tournament, always with three defenders and attack-minded wing-backs. The precise shape has changed, though — sometimes Lieke Martens has played between the lines to form a box midfield, and on other occasions she’s seemed like a second striker. There is an intelligence and an understated flexibility about this Dutch approach.

GO DEEPER

Lieke Martens: My game in my words

Their big problem is the absence of Danielle van de Donk through suspension. Her fellow Lyon midfielder Damaris Egurrola, a more defensive option, will probably come into the side and change the shape, sitting deep alongside Jackie Groenen as the Netherlands spend longer without the ball than they’ve been accustomed to in this tournament. The speed of Martens and, in particular, Lineth Beerensteyn, will provide their main threat.

Jorge Vilda, meanwhile, sprang several surprises for Spain’s 5-1 win over Switzerland, including changing his goalkeeper and leaving out…

It’s becoming the biggest question at this Women’s World Cup — how do you stop Japan?

Zambia definitely couldn’t do it, and lost 5-0. Costa Rica had a stab, and lost 2-0. More surprisingly, Spain completely failed, losing 4-0. And the latest victims of Japan’s slick, cohesive passing and movement are Norway, who were defeated 3-1 in this round-of-16 game in Wellington.

The biggest issue when facing Japan is how to cope with what effectively becomes a five-player attack — three proper forwards, and two wing-backs. Not many sides still left in this competition are using a back three but those that are — the Netherlands, Japan and (in their final group game) England — are all looking good.

Japan, though, play their system better than anyone else in the competition, particularly with that front five. Mina Tanaka, the centre-forward, drops deep to receive passes to feet. The other two attackers, Aoba Fujino and Hinata Miyazawa, are both capable of drifting between the lines or running in behind. Jun Endo and Risa Shimizu, the wing-backs, stretch the play and end up in goalscoring positions too.

Charged with stopping that front five, Norway manager Hege Riise decided she needed to use a system that ended up with a back five, which made sense. Her precise tactic, though,…

The 2023 Women’s World Cup gets under way in Australia and New Zealand on July 20, with the U.S. hoping to navigate an expanded 32-team tournament to become the first country to win football’s biggest prize three times in a row.

They are the favourites, but will the four-time winners actually pull off the ‘three-peat’? What of England, European champions but decimated by injuries to key players as they attempt to win the tournament for the first time? Will Germany bounce back from losing the final of the Euros to lift the game’s biggest prize?

How will the likes of France, Spain and Canada perform after their preparations have been disrupted by disputes with their federations over the past few months?

And can we expect any surprises from any of the eight countries — Haiti, Morocco, Panama, Philippines, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Vietnam and Zambia — making their World Cup debuts?

Our expert writers give their verdicts on what they think will happen over the next five weeks.

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Flo Lloyd-Hughes, women’s football reporter

Winner: Germany. This is a very open tournament and there are four or five teams that have a good chance of winning the title. Germany are often the masters of their own downfall, but given their disappointment at the Euros last summer and their…

Let’s start with a few fun facts. 

Asisat Oshoala has been African women’s footballer of the year five times. She has won the Africa Cup of Nations three times. She has two Golden Boots and two Golden Balls at international tournaments: two each at AFCON and the Under-20 World Cup. 

She was the top scorer in Spain in 2021-22 and last season, notched a personal-best 21 goals for Barcelona — accompanied by three assists, which was comfortably more than her team-mates.

In 2019, she became the first African woman to score in a Champions League final. Two years later she became the first African woman to win a Champions League title. A year after that, she became the first African woman to be nominated for the Ballon d’Or. 

We could go on. There will certainly be better players at this World Cup, but there won’t be many as exciting to watch, or indeed many with a more interesting career story, than Oshoala. 

Born in Ikorodu, a coastal city about an hour’s drive from the Nigerian capital Lagos, Oshoala wasn’t exactly encouraged to pursue her sporting dreams as a child. Her parents would frequently not give her any food if she disobeyed them and went to play football, considering it a waste of time. They wanted her to become a lawyer instead. 

But when she was…

The 2023 Women’s World Cup is almost here. It is the ninth iteration of the tournament and the biggest yet as, for the first time, 32 teams will compete for the trophy.

That means a new format with more matches and more players, as well as some new rules that have not been in operation before.

Here’s a primer ahead of the biggest women’s football tournament in history.

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The basics

What is the Women’s World Cup?

The FIFA Women’s World Cup is an international tournament that pits the best national sides against one another every four years.

Where is it being held?

The tournament is being played in Australia and New Zealand.

It is the first Women’s World Cup to be hosted across two countries and the first World Cup (regardless of gender) to be hosted across two confederations — Australia are part of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and New Zealand are part of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC).

When is it?

The first two games of the tournament — New Zealand vs Norway and Australia vs Republic of Ireland — will be played on July 20.

The group stage will conclude with the final two games in Group H a fortnight later on August 3.

The knockout stage will begin on…

Mallory Swanson lifted the U.S. women’s national team to a win for the second straight game at the SheBelieves Cup, scoring the eventual game winner in a 1-0 victory over Japan on Sunday in Nashville. Here’s what you need to know:

• Swanson found the net in the 45th minute, marking her fifth straight match with a goal — and sixth goal in four 2023 matches. The 24-year-old scored twice in the U.S. team’s 2-0 win over Canada on Thursday.
• Lynn Williams, who returned for the U.S. in January after rehabbing a hamstring injury sustained last spring, started for the national team for the first time since November 2021. Megan Rapinoe subbed on for Swanson midway through the second half, marking her 198th international cap.
• Both the American and Japanese players wore purple wristbands to support the Canada women’s team amid its dispute with Canada Soccer over a multitude of issues, including pay inequity with the men’s team.

The Athletic’s instant analysis:

Exciting tactics

The first 15 minutes of the game featured exciting box-to-box action as the United States initially came out in a 4-2-3-1 with Alex Morgan as the lone striker and Kristie Mewis paired deeper with Lindsey Horan. Japan was in its 3-4-3 and applied early high pressure to Alana Cook, almost resulting in an…