The on-field performance of the USWNT in its Olympic opener against Zambia didn't give fans anything to gripe about. The U.S. was expected to crush the lowest ranked team in the tournament, and crush them they did in a 3-0 victory that offered no surprises, no lessons, and no cause for alarm. That all might read as faint praise at first, but after several years and multiple major tournaments of disappointment, a pleasantly comfortable if unspectacular win on a big stage feels downright refreshing.
Realistically, Zambia was never going to offer a serious challenge to the USWNT. Even superstar Barbra Banda and the stellar Racheal Kundananji are not capable of lifting an otherwise substandard roster to the level where it could compete head-to-head with a team like the U.S. This is especially the case so long as Bruce Mwape is somehow still the team's manager.
It's worth laying out the litany against Mwape. Before Zambia's tournament debut at the 2023 World Cup, the Guardian reported that Mwape had been accused of coercing Zambian players into having sex with him. The matter was first reported to the country's soccer federation, which then handed the matter off to FIFA, at which point the case appears to have gone cold. During the World Cup, Mwape was accused of two separate instances of groping a woman's chest: once by a Zambian player after a training session, and another time by a FIFA employee at the hotel he was staying at. Both instances were reported to FIFA, which says its investigation is still ongoing. Neither FIFA nor the Zambian federation have so much as suspended Mwape in the interim, which is why he is still leading the team today—though, as part of the conditions French authorities required before authorizing his visa to travel to the country, Mwape is not allowed to have any private contact with his players during the tournament.
It's hard to even imagine what it would be like having to play under those circumstances, but Zambia's performance against the U.S. offered some hints at the difficulties. The Copper Queens looked utterly lost. The defense wasn't so much bad as it was non-existent. There was no semblance of organization to the Zambians' defending, they continually left the most dangerous parts of the pitch completely exposed, and they hardly ever pressured whoever was carrying the ball, often leaving an American totally un-harried as she waltzed right to the doorstep of the penalty box. Every time Trinity Rodman got the ball and ran at the Zambians in her vicinity, it felt like watching an episode of Pros vs. Joes. Defensive structure is probably the facet of the game where coaching plays the biggest role, so it makes sense that Zambia would appear entirely lost when you remember their managerial situation.
Rodman's trademark Trin Spin on the match's opening goal was very cool. So was Lindsey Horan channeling her inner Luka Modric by setting up the first of Mallory Swanson's two rapid-fire goals with a pass that came off some of the smaller of Horan's toes. It was nice to see the USWNT scoring early and often, especially since goals and confidence in front of goal have been two of the team's struggles lately. And while it would've been nice to pad the goal difference, I don't fault them for not scoring more, since it really did feel like the match essentially ended with Zambia center back Pauline Zulu's red card in the 34th minute. Still, for as positive a showing as it was for the U.S., by the time Zulu was standing there on the pitch with her hands covering her face, already down three goals and now down a player thanks to her red card, I mostly just felt bad for Zambia.
Barring disaster, the Zambia match was never going to say all that much about the trajectory of the U.S.'s Olympics. Zambia was incapable of posing the important questions the USWNT still needs to answer. Can the U.S. crack open an orderly defense when it sits deep and looks to stymie the Americans' attack? Can the midfield find attacking and defensive balance when both Rose Lavelle and Horan—two natural no. 10s who tend to leave the defensive midfielder isolated and therefore vulnerable—start there together? Is the U.S.'s buildup precise enough to beat a good press? Can the defense hold up against well-worked counter attacks? These are the things that will determine the USWNT's true ceiling, and the result of the Zambia match said very little about any of it one way or the other.
Presumably Sunday's upcoming match against Germany, a strong opponent that has what it takes to really test the U.S., will start to answer some of these questions. Unfortunately though, there is one major question that only the USWNT itself can answer, a question the team and the player herself seem maddeningly resistant to addressing: What is going on with Korbin Albert?
If it was heartening to see how swift and clear-eyed the denouncements inside and around the USWNT were after Albert's homophobic, transphobic, and downright bizarre social media activity came to light, it has been equally disappointing how little of an update we've gotten since then. Albert herself has said nothing about it since releasing her initial apology. Since officially taking over as USWNT manager, Emma Hayes has been evasive at best about the Albert's status, despite making her a mainstay on her U.S. rosters. Hayes has repeatedly stressed how much work Albert has done behind the scenes to learn from her mistakes and grow as a person, but there's not been a single glimpse into what that actually means or looks like. And in response to the understandable and totally foreseeable negative fan sentiment that has followed Albert onto the pitch whenever she's put on the U.S. jersey—in most of her USWNT appearances her every touch of the ball has been accompanied by a wave of boos from the crowd—Hayes could only ask that fans get behind Albert because, in Hayes's words, "I think she’s a tremendous human being."
I'm sympathetic to Albert's, Hayes's, and U.S. Soccer's approach to the matter up to a point. I'm in favor of incorporating Albert in the team, provided that the players and coaches have held her accountable, believe that she accepts that accountability, and she has shown them that she's willing to grow into the kind of person who doesn't think and share hateful ideas about issues of deep importance to a large swath of the women's soccer community. I trust that the women on the team see it that same way, and that they would not accept anything short of clear, demonstrable evidence that Albert is sorry and is doing what it takes to change her ways.
I'm also sympathetic to the idea that U.S. Soccer has, in the months after the controversy, tried to shield Albert somewhat from the public-facing aspects of the backlash. The only adequate response to the issue from Albert was for her to start learning. I can understand giving her, the staff, and her teammates time and space for her to learn and earn back their trust, which I think happens best when given privacy. The stuff Albert shared was bad (also just plain weird!), but she's still only 20 years old. There has to be space for a 20-year-old to grow out of shitty beliefs and actions, and part of the value of a diverse environment like the USWNT locker room is to foster that growth. I have to believe that if Albert weren't doing the things that would convince her teammates and Hayes that she was on the right track, she would no longer be in the team.
But at a certain point, the public deserves to see evidence of that growth, too. And that point was reached once Albert was selected for the Olympics. It can't be that everyone just has to get over it by extending an infinite benefit of the doubt to the USWNT, Hayes, and U.S. Soccer, which seems to be what Hayes and U.S. Soccer are after. Teams represent things—national teams especially so. Maybe no national team in all of sports represents such powerful and important things as the USWNT, which is partially why fans and present and former players care so much about it. It's baffling to me that U.S. Soccer hasn't advised or even made Albert give an interview where she explains where she's come since the controversy started, so that everyone who cares about the team can continue believing that the USWNT still represents all it has come to represent.
Nobody benefits from this continued silence. Albert is a standout at PSG where she plays alongside some of the best players in the world in some of the world's toughest competitions. But you wouldn't know how good Albert is if your only exposure is to her recent performances with the U.S., where she has looked consistently timid and error-prone. I'd bet that some of the discrepancy between how she plays at club level and how she's played for the U.S. can be found in her awkward and emotionally taxing position with the fans. I don't think she'll be able to heal her relationship with fans until she speaks to them and convinces them that she's a better person now, and I don't think we'll see the best Albert in a U.S. jersey unless and until that happens.
Albert's teammates are also poorly served by the status quo. I have to imagine that some of them feel a growing frustration having to answer publicly and privately for the actions of a teammate, and the questions about their own commitment to equality that would inevitably arise. It's not hard to see that feeling growing into resentment, which could make the entire matter so much worse. Likewise, by continuing to select Albert but not pressing her to clear the air with the public, Hayes risks creating a schism in the locker room that could easily torpedo her new job. And I'm certain fans would love to love the USWNT unreservedly again, but that can't happen as long as the Albert issue remains so nebulous. I genuinely cannot fathom what there is to gain by carrying on in this way.
Regardless of what does or doesn't change with Albert, the USWNT's Olympics will continue. It's perfectly plausible that, starting against Germany, the USWNT will begin to give positive answers to the on-field questions that the Zambia game left unaddressed, which could drive the team to another gold medal. But until Albert answers some questions of her own, the USWNT will remain less than it can and should be.
