After a 3-0 win against Zambia to open the Olympics and a dynamic 4-1 victory over Germany in the second group stage match, the U.S. Olympic Women’s Soccer Team will close out Group B play on July 31, taking on Australia at 7 p.m. local / 1 p.m. ET at Stade de Marseille (USA Network, Universo, Peacock). The Americans enter the third and final group stage match having already punched their ticket to the knockout stage and can clinch first place in the group with a win or draw on Wednesday against the Matlidas, who have finished fourth at each of the last two world championships.
Get set for the group stage finale with Five Things to Know about USA vs. Australia.
AUSTRALIA PREVAILS IN WILD AFFAIR WITH ZAMBIA
Following a 3-0 loss to Germany to open the tournament, Australia earned its first win at Paris 2024 in perhaps one of the most entertaining and unpredictable matches in tournament history. Australia defeated Zambia 6-5 on Sunday evening at Stade de Nice in a match that saw goals in the first and 90th minutes and finished just two goals short of matching the Olympic record for the most goals scored in a single match.
Zambia got off to a fly start as standout striker Barbra Banda scored just 38 seconds after the opening whistle, netting her first of three goals on the day. Australia equalized in the seventh minutes as defender Alanna Kennedy got her head on a free-kick service from fellow defender and team captain Steph Catley. Zambia responded with a goal in the 21st minute from Bay FC’s Racheal Kundananji and Banda scored her second of the match in the 33rd to give Zambia a 3-1 lead. Australian forward Hayley Raso headed in a corner kick from 22-year-old Kyra Cooney-Cross in the 35th minute but Banda scored in first half stoppage time to complete the hat-trick – remarkably her third hat-trick in five career matches at the Olympics – and gave Zambia a 5-2 advantage heading into halftime.
After allowing five goals in the first 45 minutes, Australia held Zambia scoreless in the second and steadily chipped away at the deficit. A Zambian own-goal from goalkeeper Ng’ambo Musole in the 58th minute cut the deficit to two goals and then Catley helped lead her team to victory, scoring off a direct free kick in the 65th minute, converting a penalty kick in the 78th and assisting Michelle Heyman’s game-winner in the 90th. The Arsenal FC defender finished the game two goals and two assists as Australia pulled out the victory.
PATHWAY TO PARIS
Australia qualified for the 2024 Olympics, the fifth overall and third consecutive in program history, by defeating Uzbekistan 13-0 on aggregate in the Third Round of the AFC Women’s Qualifying Tournament in February.
The Matildas earned a bye in the first round of the tournament and topped their group in the second round, winning their Group A matches against the Philippines, Iran and Chinese Taipei by a combined margin of 13-0 in late October 2023 in Perth, Australia.
The three group winners and best second-place team from the second round were then pitted against one another in the third round, with Australia facing Uzbekistan and Japan taking on North Korea in a two-leg playoff to determine the AFC’s two representatives at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Playing in Tashkent, the capital and largest city in Uzbekistan, Australia won the opening leg 3-0 on February 24 behind goals from Heyman, Mary Fowler and Caitlin Foord, with all three goals coming in the final 20 minutes of play. The second leg on February 28 in Melbourne was a much more comfortable affair for the Matildas, winning 10-0 behind a four-goal effort from Heyman, who debuted for Australia in 2010 and retired from international soccer in 2019 only to return to the team in January 2024.Heyman, Foord and standout forward Sam Kerr – who will miss the Olympics after rupturing her ACL in January 2024 playing for her club, Chelsea – led Australia in scoring during Olympic qualifying with five goals each.
MEDAL-MINDED MATILDAS
Australia remains in pursuit of its first-ever podium finish at a World Cup or Olympics after finishing fourth in each of its last two world championship showings. The Matildas fell 2-0 to Sweden in third-place match at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup and lost to the USA 4-3 in the bronze medal match at the delayed Tokyo Olympics as Megan Rapinoe and Carli Lloyd tallied two goals each for the Americans while Kerr, Foord and Emily Gielnik scored for Australia in the defeat.
Australia made its Olympic debut as hosts at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, which marked the first and so far only time they have failed to advance out of the group in Olympic play.
At Athens 2004, Australia was drawn into Group G along with the USA and advanced to the quarterfinals as one of the top-two third-place teams before losing to Sweden 2-1 in the quarterfinals.
Australia failed to qualify for both the 2008 and 2012 Olympics but returned to the field for Rio 2016 and once again made it to the knockout rounds, advancing third out of their group that also featured Canada, Germany and Zimbabwe. Canada was eliminated in the quarterfinals, losing to hosts Brazil 7-6 on penalties following a 0-0 draw through regulation and extra time.
At Tokyo 2020, Australia beat New Zealand (2-1), lost to Sweden (4-2) and tied the USA (0-0) to take third in Group G, setting up a thrilling quarterfinal matchup against Great Britain. The Matildas prevailed 4-3 in an extra-time matchup that saw Kerr score in the 89th minute to level the match at 2-2 and a combined three goals scored in the 100th minute or later. The high-flying quarterfinal was followed by a 1-0 loss to Sweden in the semifinal and the bronze medal match defeat to the Americans.
INSIDE THE SERIES: USA vs. AUSTRALIA
The group stage finale in Marseille will be the 35th meeting all-time between the USA and Australia and their fourth meeting all-time at the Olympics. Two of the previous three Olympic meetings came in 2021 in Tokyo – the scoreless draw to close out the group stage and the 4-3 meeting in the bronze medal match – while the teams also played in the final group stage game of the 2004 Olympics, that ending in a 1-1 draw.
The U.S. leads the overall series against Australia with a record of 28W-1L-5D, with the USA’s lone loss in the series coming in Seattle in 2018. The Americans are unbeaten in all five previous matchups against Australia at world championships (3W-0L-2D), beating Australia in the group stage of the 1995 and 2015 World Cups to go along with one win and two draws in their three prior Olympic matchups.
The teams last met in two friendlies in Australia at the end of 2021. The Americans opened the trip Down Under with a 3-0 win on November 27, 2021, at Stadium Australia in Sydney. Ashley Hatch scored 24 seconds into the match, Rose Lavelle and Lindsey Horan tallied goals in the second half and Casey Murphy made one of the most impressive goalkeeping debuts in USWNT history, making eight saves while recording a clean sheet in her first cap. The teams then played to a 1-1 draw in Newcastle on November 30, with Hatch scoring for the Americans in the fourth minute before Kyah Simon equalized for the Australians in the 88th.
The U.S. is unbeaten in its last six matches against Australia (3W-0L-3D), with all but one of those meetings decided by two goals or fewer.
INSIDE THE ROSTER: AUSTRALIA
Australia head coach Tony Gustavsson, who previously served as an assistant coach for the USA, helping the USA win two World Cups and the 2012 gold medal, selected an Olympic roster that strongly resembles Australia’s roster for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, with the glaring exception of Kerr, the program’s all-time leading scorer and one of the best strikers in the world. The only players on this Olympic roster who were not on the Matildas squad that took their nation by storm and produced the country’s best-ever showing at a World Cup are the 36-year-old Heyman - a veteran of both the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup and 2016 Olympics – 24-year-old defender Kaitlyn Torpey, and alternate forward Sharn Freier.
This Australia roster boasts a wealth of experience with seven of the 18 players having over 100 international appearances. Defender Clare Polkinghorne is the most-capped player on this roster – and in the history of the Australia Women’s National Team – with 168 caps, followed by midfielder Emily van Egmond (147 caps), Catley (128), Kennedy (127), Foord (125), midfielder Tameka Yallop (123) and midfielder Katrina Gorry (110). Foord, who debuted for the Matildas in 2011, is the top scorer on this roster with 36 career international goals, followed by van Egmond with 31 goals and Heyman with 27.
Three players on this Australia roster have current ties to the NWSL, with van Egmond and Torpey playing for San Diego Wave FC alongside the USA’s Naomi Girma and Jaedyn Shaw and Mackenzie Arnold recently signing with Portland Thorns FC.
Many more have previously competed in NWSL and several currently play with members of this U.S. roster in Europe. Catley, Foord and Cooney-Cross play alongside the USA’s Emily Fox at Arsenal, where they captured the 2023-24 FA Women’s League Cup. Defender Ellie Carpenter plays with U.S. captain Lindsey Horan at Olympique Lyonnais, where they won the 2021-22 UEFA Women’s Champions League and each of the last three league titles and Clare Hunt plays at Paris Saint-Germain with U.S. midfielder Korbin Albert.
AUSTRALIA OLYMPIC WOMEN’S SOCCER TEAM ROSTER BY POSITION (CLUB)
GOALKEEPERS (2): 1-Mackenzie Arnold (Portland Thorns FC, USA), 18-Teagan Micah (Liverpool FC, ENG)
DEFENDERS (5): 4-Clare Polkinghorne (Kristianstads DFF, SWE), 7-Steph Catley (Arsenal FC, ENG), 12-Ellie Carpenter (Olympique Lyonnais, FRA), 14-Alanna Kennedy (Manchester City FC, ENG), 15-Clare Hunt (Paris Saint-Germain, FRA)
MIDFIELDERS (6): 3-Kaitlyn Torpey (San Diego Wave FC, USA), 6-Katrina Gorry (West Ham United FC, ENG), 8-Kyra Cooney-Cross (Arsenal FC, ENG), 10-Emily van Egmond (San Diego Wave FC, USA), 13-Tameka Yallop (Brisbane Roar FC), 17-Clare Wheeler (Everton FC, ENG)
FORWARDS (5): 2-Michelle Heyman (Canberra United FC), 5-Cortnee Vine (North Carolina Courage, USA), 9-Caitlin Foord (Arsenal FC, ENG), 11-Mary Fowler (Manchester City FC, ENG), 16-Hayley Raso (Real Madrid CF, ESP)
ALTERNATES (4): 19-Sharn Freier (Brisbane Roar FC), 20-Charlotte Grant (Tottenham Hotspur FC, ENG), 21-Courtney Nevin (Leicester City FC, ENG), 22-Lydia Williams (Melbourne Victory FC)