This is part of Slate’s coverage of the 2024 Olympics. Read more Here.

It is a golden start to the new era of the US women’s national soccer team.

Driven by the dynamic attack line of Mallory Swanson, Sophia Smith and Trinity Rodman, the genius of young defensive superstar Naomi Girma and the rock-solid goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher, the USWNT is back on the road to success. Coach Emma Hayes, who has only been in the team for 10 years,^th Game manager, has led the team back to the top of the international rankings. This Olympic gold is less a capstone than a prolonged and explosive introduction, the football equivalent of a James Bond opening.

All of this would have been true regardless of the outcome of the final Saturday. History will record this as a gold medal for this group of American players, and when we check their Wikipedia pages later in their careers to assess their legacies, we’ll add some value because of that color. But in the present, a win or a loss against a highly motivated Brazilian team playing to give the retiring Marta, the greatest player in the history of the sport, her first major international title wouldn’t have changed the fact that this U.S. team appears to be ahead of schedule. The Americans glided through the group stage and battled through the knockout rounds, and by proving they can do both, they gave themselves perhaps the best preparation for their future quest for trophies. That they won this title so early in this new era almost feels like a bonus.

First came the bright start. After battling through the previous two group stages at the Tokyo Olympics and the 2023 World Cup, the USWNT got off to a lightning start at this Olympics, comfortably defeating Zambia and its dangerous forwards Barbra Banda and Racheal Kundananji 3-0 and beating eventual semifinalist Germany 4-1. Unlike previous games, this U.S. team seemed able to adjust its collective tempo at will — increasing the tempo to play quickly and directly to its three dynamic forwards, but also letting up to maintain possession, move the defense and look for weak spots. The change of pace made the trio of Rodman, Smith and Swanson look almost impossible for opponents; the three finished the tournament with a combined 15 goals and assists, including a goal in each of the USWNT’s three 1-0 wins in the knockout rounds. They took turns seemingly at will, popping up across the width of the field to support and assist each other. At the last World Cup, U.S. wingers dribbled into traps on the sidelines and lost the ball or whipped hopeful crosses toward Alex Morgan. The U.S. were much better for a while at working their way out of deadlocks set up by their opponents, sometimes by retreating and sometimes by simply Kool-Aid-Manning their way through them while closing in on their players.

At the Olympics, at least, it felt like the only thing holding her back was Hayes’ refusal to rest her legs. The Olympic tournament is a tough one, with only two days of rest between matches (three before the final), games in four different French cities and a roster limited to just 18 players. By taking both Japan in the quarterfinals and Germany in the semifinals to overtime, the U.S. made it even harder for itself. Before Saturday’s final, Hayes had given seven outfield players more than 400 minutes on the field in two weeks. The number of changes she made to her starting lineup could be counted on one hand, despite injuries and suspensions forcing her to do so in some cases. When asked about it after the semifinal, Hayes said, “Honestly. I want them to suffer,” and revealed that she had motivated her team before the game with stories about ultramarathon runner Courtney Dauwalter.

OK, but Dauwalter doesn’t have to get past a defender to get past a bouncing ball in the penalty area in the 87th minute.^th Minute. Better than learning how to expand your mind’s pain cave is to stay out of it in the first place. Brazil, which won both knockout matches in regulation time, had only one outfield player before the final who had played more than 400 minutes: center back Tarciane, who played just 405 minutes. Despite rotating heavily, it beat hosts France and embarrassed defending champions Spain in the knockout rounds. The difference in the finalists’ freshness was evident from the start of Saturday’s game. Brazil were first to the ball everywhere they went, putting the United States under more forceful pressure and denying them the quiet periods they had created through possession. Throughout the first half, American defenders and midfielders tried to catch up to Brazil’s fast vertical attack. One team could get away with the ball, the other could not. Smith, Swanson and Rodman are untamable, but their untamability comes from their movement, the ease with which they dart around each other and into the gaps of a defense that’s rotating to cover. When that happens at a slower pace, it’s infinitely easier to keep up.

Even the U.S. team’s best player in this tournament finally seemed to be tiring. Girma, who played every minute of the Olympics and was as unstoppable as Gandalf on the bridge for five straight games, was a step too slow in the final for once. Almost every time Brazil got past her, they managed a good shot, and even scored a goal that was ruled offside. By suddenly looking human—a good defender, shall we say, instead of, as Hayes called her earlier in this tournament, “the best defender she’s ever seen”—Girma showed how much the U.S. relies on perfection. Thankfully, Alyssa Naeher remains an American icon, making crucial, spectacular saves at the end of the semifinals and the final to keep the U.S. team clean sheet. Brazil looked dangerous, but the two-factor authentication of Girma and Naeher never failed the Americans.

So yes, as the tournament went on, the American attack weakened. Australia defended more resolutely in the final group game, but the U.S. won relatively comfortably 2-1. In the quarterfinals, Japan decided its best chance of success was to abandon its own possession game, keep 10 players behind the ball, and try its luck on the counterattack. It wasn’t the worst plan. If this U.S. team had a weakness that wasn’t its own tired legs, it was making too-quick incursions into Julie Ertz’s honorary no-fly zone right in front of its own defense. Neither Sam Coffey nor team captain Lindsey Horan seemed entirely comfortable working together in midfield to defend that area. Horan in particular had a rough Olympics, playing a role that saw her pop up all over the field, from target striker bringing down long balls at one end to emergency defender at the other. Her ubiquity was less noticeable than her problems with turnovers and defending in the center, the most basic parts of her position. Korbin Albert replaced Rose Lavelle in the starting lineup for the final, in part to give Horan more freedom up front, but without Lavelle’s security on the ball, the Americans struggled to keep possession against the aggressive Brazilian press.

But the Americans’ three forwards saved them every time. Rodman scored a beautiful curler in overtime against Japan after taking a perfect long pass from Girma. Swanson let Smith through and scored the winning goal against Germany. And Albert took advantage of a lost ball in midfield to set up Swanson for the winning goal in the final.

Perhaps Hayes’ refusal to rotate players was a kind of Hoosiers-like new four-pass restriction that will be lifted to make future tournaments even easier. There’s depth there if she’s willing to embrace it. Jaedyn Shaw, 19, scored five goals for the national team this year but was injured before the Olympic tournament and never played a game despite being on the bench in each of the knockout rounds. Shaw’s substitute in the group stage, NWSL rookie Croix Bethune, averages 0.89 goals and assists per 90 minutes played for the Washington Spirit but only played 11 minutes in the tournament. Catarina Macario remains extremely promising and often injured; she missed this tournament with knee irritation after finally returning earlier this year from a torn ACL she suffered in 2022. Hayes will need to find someone she trusts to shore up the attacking line and allow them to be even more dangerous toward the end of the tournament. She has to find the balance in midfield. And she has to rejuvenate 35-year-old Naeher so that she can play for decades to come.

But the future is as bright as the joy of their new medals. Playing with heavy legs but also with purpose and determination, the USA looked better than at any point in the last five years. Swanson is the oldest of the forwards at just 26. If I were a fan of another nation, I would be throwing a fit at the sheer injustice of the USWNT moving from decade-plus bomb disposal expert Becky Sauerbrunn to (hopefully) decade-plus chess grandmaster Girma. This team can win games when they’re easy, and it can win games when they’re hard, and it will hopefully find more ways to turn the hard games into easy ones, even if that means giving one of its stars a break. The rest of the world is catching up, but the rest of the world is still catching up. Right now, no one can ^ “US Women’s National Team”.