Emma Hayes has been formally in charge of the U.S. women’s national team for nearly two months now. We’ve seen the early stages of her tactical stylistic ideas be put in place and we’ve seen both the good and the bad of the team’s development heading into the Olympics.
Whatever happens next, Hayes and the players have done all the work they can to prepare for the grind of the Olympic tournament.
Preparation for their three group stage opponents was very much on Hayes’s mind since she took over. “I think we’ve had, in the Korea game(s), the Mexico game, the Costa Rica game, four very different exercises,” Hayes said. “One, as I said earlier, breaking down a mid block. Two, breaking down an aggressive mid block. Three, breaking down a team that beat us in the Gold Cup with more man-for-man marking. Four, breaking down a low, low block.”
With the Olympics now just days away, let’s take a look at the USWNT’s three group stage opponents and how they’ll each offer these types of defensive challenges. We’ll dive into their key players, their biggest tactical threats, and whether the United States is properly set up to beat them.
Thursday July, 25: Zambia
FIFA World Ranking: 64
Key Players: Barbra Banda, Racheal Kundananji, Grace Chanda
What Hayes Said: “If you play [player-for-player] all over the pitch against them, it’s going to be a difficult game. Their ability to transition is better than any team I’ve seen in world football. For us, structure becomes essential – what we do in possession, and how we’re thinking about what happens when there is a turnover.”
Banda’s danger to any opposing defense is self-evident. Hayes called her “the most in-form striker in the world.” Banda has scored 12 goals in 12 games and posted 0.90 non-penalty xG per 96 minutes in the toughest domestic league in the world. Kundananji isn’t exactly a slouch herself, posting 0.34 npxG per 96 for Bay FC. If either of these two get the ball in space, the game is lost before it’s even been played.
Blair Newman
As for the rest of Zambia? Well, there’s a reason the side finished tied for 29th out of 32 teams on goal difference in Australia and New Zealand at last year’s World Cup. Spain and Japan collectively outscored the Copper Queens 10 to 0, with a non-penalty xG differential of 10.1 to 0.4.
People became aware of Banda thanks to her back-to-back hat tricks at the last Olympic games. What they sometimes forget is that Zambia managed to take one point from those two matches and were outscored 14-7.
Chanda has only made six appearances for club and country since her pre-World Cup injury more than a year ago. What the newly appointed Orlando Pride attacker can offer right now is a mystery. Aside from Banda, Kundananji, and Chanda, Zambia has only one other player plying her trade in a top-10 league in the world: Juárez’s Prisca Chilufya. The only guarantees the squad has in terms of quality are their two strikers, and they can’t do everything.
