Bond between Alyssa Naeher, Mallory Swanson helped U.S. win gold

Mallory Swanson loves to talk, always has a twinkle in her eye and doesn’t so much walk as she does skip.

Alyssa Naeher has none of those traits. In fact, she and Swanson are as different as fire and ice.

Yet when the whistle sounded on the U.S. women’s soccer team’s 1-0 win over Brazil in last Saturday’s gold-medal game at the Paris Olympics, Swanson rushed to Naeher, wrapped both arms around her neck and began to bawl.

Swanson, 26, scored the game’s only goal, her team-high fourth of the tournament. Naeher, a decade older, saved the win with a spectacular save four minutes into stoppage time, becoming the first goalkeeper in history to record a shutout in both a World Cup and Olympic final.

No two players were more responsible for the team’s first Olympic title in a dozen years. But that and a hug weren’t all they shared because the climb to the top of the victory podium was longer and steeper for Swanson and Naeher than it was for their teammates. And in sharing that journey, they created a bond that has spread, uniting a tight-knit team that may be building another U.S. Soccer dynasty from the ashes of last summer’s World Cup fiasco.

“We are so excited at our potential and we are so looking forward to the things we can do together,” coach Emma Hayes said. “That gold medal doesn’t mean it ends there. We want so much more for ourselves because we’re competitors. We’re just at the beginning.”

Three months before that World Cup, one the U.S. exited in the round of 16 for the first time, Swanson tore the patella tendon in her left knee. A week after the operation, an infection set in, requiring a second surgery. What was expected to be a six-month absence lasted a year and there was no guarantee she’d be the same player after rehab that she was before she got hurt.

Less than two years before Swanson got hurt Naeher suffered a devastating injury of her own in the Tokyo Olympics. A win away from playing in her first gold-medal match, she hyperextended her right knee and sustained a bone contusion in the semifinal against Canada. She would miss more than six months.

So when Swanson was struggling through the pain and doubts of her recovery, Naeher, her NWSL teammate with the Chicago Red Stars, was at her side, offering counsel. And coffee.

“She’s been through everything with me the past year,” Swanson said. “When I was very sick and in bed and trying to move my leg to walk, [she was] bringing me coffee. And now we’re here. To share these moments with her means a lot.”

The feeling was mutual, Naeher said.

“Just to see her, her journey, to see her maturity. I’ve obviously been fortunate to be with her every step of the way the last few years,” she said. “I love her to death. To see that joy in her face again, with being back on the field. I’m just so incredibly proud.”

Naeher’s performance in winning her first Olympic title, to go with the two World Cup crowns she already had, has landed her in the conversation over who is best women’s goalkeeper of all time. She allowed just two goals in six games, pitching four shutouts, three straight in the knockout stage, while conceding just one goal in the final 488 minutes.

Sixty-eight of her 112 international appearances have ended in clean sheets.

But at 36, she made have played her final Olympic tournament while Swanson and her two running mates on the U.S. forward line, Sophia Smith, 24, and Trinity Rodman, 22, are just beginning their adventure.

Arguably the most talented group of young players to come up at the same time since Mia Hamm first met Julie Foudy, the trio started together for the first time in Hayes’ debut game as U.S. coach in June and have combined for 14 goals in 10 games since.

Their 10 goals in six games in France was more than any other team scored in the Olympic tournament.

“We can grow so much,” Swanson said. “Not only the three of us, but I think this group.”

But for all their talent, what they lacked was the experience and wisdom that, say, a player such as the 36-year-old Naeher has. So the outgoing trio, best friends off the field, expanded their group to include their taciturn teammate while doing their best to draw her out.

“What’s nice about this group, and we always talk about togetherness, is I feel like we’re cracking her shell a little bit,” Rodman said. “I feel like we’re making her a little bit more mushy-gushy with us, which I think is nice. We’re opening up a side that I think has always been there, but it’s hidden a little bit.”

In what may be the twilight of her career, Naeher appreciates the attention and said it’s nice to be recognized for the things she can offer off the field. And if she continues to drink from that Fountain of Youth, who knows how long she can keep going?

“They’ve truly made me feel part of something that I could feel coming last year,” she said. “Allow[ing] myself to be a little bit more vulnerable with that younger group, and kind of buy into that and be able to share the experiences that I’ve had, have them soak it up and try to help in any way I could, just to be embraced by those guys has been really fun for me, honestly.

“It’s made me feel quite special. I feel I have something to give to this team as an older player. Just the mix of them kind of bringing me out a little bit and me being able to share my experiences, it’s been a good one.”

She even has the medal to prove it.