Sam Borden
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Sam Borden, ESPN Senior Writer
NICE, France — Trinity Rodman was nervous on the bus ride into the stadium here Thursday night. It was her first Olympic game for the United States women’s national team, and Rodman knew she needed to get touches on the ball before she’d really feel comfortable.
Turns out, that wasn’t a problem.
Rodman’s dazzling spin move — she proudly called it a “Trin Spin” — led to a gorgeous goal early in the first half and stood as the highlight of a 3-0 victory over Zambia that wasn’t nearly as close as the scoreline might indicate.
Mallory Swanson scored the other two goals for the Americans just over a minute apart to give new coach Emma Hayes a straightforward win in her major tournament debut, but Rodman’s turn on defender Martha Tembo was the standout moment that made the small but spirited crowd at the Allianz Riviera take notice.
Taking a pass from Lindsey Horan in the 17th minute, Rodman whirled around in an instant before calmly finishing beneath Zambian goalkeeper Ngambo Musole.
“That was just an instinctual thing because I haven’t really trained that,” Rodman said. “But it worked out perfectly.
“I think in that situation I knew that if I took a touch in front of me, it probably would’ve put me out of the frame of the goal,” Rodman added. “I was trying to just put her off balance, which worked, so I’m happy about that.”
The U.S. dominated most of the first half, peppering the Zambia goal even before Pauline Zulu was sent off for fouling Sophia Smith and denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity. The U.S. registered 27 shots for the game and hit the bar twice in addition to having several chances cleared off the line.
“The first part of the first half was exceptional — to come out the way we did,” Hayes said. “The intention, the intensity, the decision-making, the execution — it should have been at least five at half-time.”
That isn’t a stretch, particularly at the rate Swanson scored. First she took a pass from Horan and snapped a sharp finish in the 24th minute, then she tallied again just 66 seconds later after receiving a ball from Smith to set a new USWNT record for shortest time between goals, shattering Carli Lloyd‘s previous mark of 2 minutes, 19 seconds in the 2015 Women’s World Cup final.
“I was so proud of her,” Horan said of Swanson, who was making her first Olympic appearance since 2016. “It’s going to give her a burst of confidence and that’s what we want from our forwards.”
Rodman said she and the other attackers have talked to each other about wanting to show that they’re more than the stereotypical speed-and-athleticism combo that American players are often pigeonholed as. Goals like these will certainly do that, but everyone on the U.S. team also knows that performances against largely overmatched sides such as Zambia mean little compared to how the team fares against more talented squads — such as, say, Germany, which the Americans will face on Sunday in Marseille.
“Our connections have been so good,” Rodman said of the chemistry among the American attackers. They’re improving every game … and they’re just going to keep getting better.”
Hayes said she was simply being cautious in removing Smith in the first half after she hurt an ankle, and was similarly cautious with Rose Lavelle‘s substitution minutes into the second half as she has been managing a leg injury.
Hayes didn’t offer an update on Jaedyn Shaw, who was scratched before the game after suffering a leg injury in training on Wednesday, saying only that she’d need to evaluate Shaw again on Friday.