It was an absolutely wild year for the U.S. women’s national team: a new head coach, an Olympic gold medal and more retirements from the greats of the program, from forward Alex Morgan to goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher to former captain and centerback Becky Sauerbrunn.
It was a year of change, a year of joy and a year of re-establishing the team on the world stage, earning back the No. 1 world ranking. 2024 was a year of goodbyes, even as this summer felt like an introduction to a new version of the USWNT, led by players such as Trinity Rodman, Sophia Smith, Mal Swanson and Naomi Girma.
It’s difficult to truly sum up everything that happened for the national team this year, but here are some of the best and biggest moments — and a brief look ahead to what 2025 has in store.
The high point
It’s hard to ignore the Olympic gold medal-winning goal as the moment of the year, especially when the build-up was more than 12 months in the making.
For nearly a decade, Swanson has been a fixture of the USWNT discourse. From her senior international debut in 2016 through her role as a rotating winger and full back on the 2019 World Cup-winning squad, most of that dialogue centered on her potential. Just as she was earning that regular first-choice role and scoring goals for fun in early…
