At its best, the 2024 calendar year promises to be a return to global supremacy for the United States women after a slip in the previous four-year World Cup cycle. At its worst, 2024 could potentially confirm their fall from grace.
Following their worst-ever finish at a Women’s World Cup in the summer of 2023, this year’s results will determine the future of the USWNT with regards to their place in the global football landscape.
Highlighted by the all-important 2024 Summer Olympics, this year the USWNT will look to relegate the struggles of 2023 to merely a blip as they progress under the management of new head coach Emma Hayes, who joins on a permanent basis once her time as Chelsea boss comes to a natural conclusion.
The Sporting News takes a full look at what the USWNT has accomplished in 2024 and what they have left on the schedule ahead, with plenty on the line both narratively and competitively.
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2024 is all about transition for the U.S. women, but they cannot let their levels drop.
With Emma Hayes onboarding as the new permanent manager following Vlatko Andonovski’s departure, there’s a period of uncertainty. Twila Kilgore ran the show on an interim basis for the first half of the year, and Hayes will be stepping right into the mix once Chelsea’s season concludes.
Hayes will join the team for the friendlies in the run-up to the summer Olympics, giving her just mere days to get acclimated before the major competition begins in France. A pair of friendlies against South Korea in June will be followed by send-off games against Mexico and Costa Rica before the USWNT jets off to France for the Summer Olympic games.
MORE: A closer look at the Summer Olympic football draw for USWNT and US U-23 men
* Games TBD pending U.S. qualification to each particular round of Olympic qualification
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With successful W Gold Cup and SheBelieves Cup title runs in the bag, the USWNT now turn their sights in earnest to the Summer Olympics in Paris, where Emma Hayes will make her competitive debut as head coach following a quartet of pre-tournament friendlies.
MORE: See the full 2024 Summer Olympics draw here for both the USWNT and the U.S. U-23 men
The U.S. was drawn into an intriguing Group B for the 2024 Summer Olympics, alongside European powers Germany and familiar foe Australia, as well as Zambia who qualified after the draw by topping Morocco in early April.
Defending gold medal winners Canada were drawn into Group A alongside hosts France, while the United States were pooled with European powers Germany as well as the Matildas of Australia. Group C is a tough one as well with World Cup winners Spain who are matched up against Japan and Brazil.
Should they qualify for the knockout stage, the United States could end up on either side of the bracket depending on their final position in the Group B standings, either first or second.
Their potential placement in the bracket is bolded in the schedule below.
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Third Place
Final
Competing in the first-ever women’s edition of the storied CONCACAF Gold Cup competition, the United States emerged triumphant, although it was not without a few bumps along the way.
Convening for its first competitive action since the 2023 Women’s World Cup disaster, the U.S. found itself amidst more adversity as they were beaten 2-0 by Mexico in the final match of the group stage. While it did not eliminate them from the competition, the result made their knockout path significantly more challenging and served as a reminder of the previous summer’s failures.
However, the U.S. women recovered admirably and put forth quality performances against Colombia and Canada in the knockout stage, the latter going to a penalty shootout in ridiculous weather conditions, before beating Brazil in the final.
The SheBelieves Cup has been a spring staple for the USWNT since its inception in 2016, but this year’s tournament saw a bit of a shakeup. To fit better with an updated international calendar, the 2024 competition scrapped its old round robin format and instead played out a four-team mini elimination bracket, reducing the number of matches for each team from three to two.
In this manner, the U.S. topped Japan in a hard-fought 2-1 victory in the semifinals, which set up a second meeting northern neighbors Canada in a month. The U.S. would prevail by the same manner they did in the W Gold Cup semifinals just weeks before, collapsing late in a 2-2 draw before emerging victorious in a penalty shootout.
The event brought Twila Kilgore’s interim stint to a successful conclusion and ushered in the Emma Hayes era to come in the summer.
Kyle Bonn is a soccer content producer for The Sporting News.
