Emma Hayes guides US to Olympic gold just 10 weeks after taking charge

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In what will surely be one of the defining moments of her managerial career, Emma Hayes had made America great again. She has extended her remarkable coaching CV by guiding the United States to a history-making fifth Olympic title – their first since the London 2012 – to secure her status as one of the greatest managers in the women’s game.

The 47-year-old raised her hands into the air at the full-time whistle as Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” belted around a packed Parc des Princes. Hayes actually hails from Camden, but this victory will make her a global star. It is strange to think that just 84 days ago, she was celebrating on the Old Trafford pitch in front of Sir Alex Ferguson after guiding Chelsea to a fifth consecutive domestic title. Now she is basking in Olympic glory.

In a frantic and somewhat disjointed match disrupted by continuous water breaks in the searing Parisian heat, Mallory Swanson’s 57th-minute goal was enough to seal Hayes’s destiny and broke Brazilian hearts – including that of Marta. Brazil’s 38-year-old icon had returned from a two-match suspension for what is likely to be her final international appearance. A silver medallist from the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, she will have to be content with a third.

It could have been a different story had Brazil been more streetwise in front of goal, and had Alyssa Naeher, the US’s own veteran 36-year-old shot stopper, not heroically clawed away Adriana’s injury-time headed effort. The women in yellow desperately sniffed an equaliser, but it would not come.

Maybe it was because this match was written in the stars for Hayes, who 12 years ago in London was in the crowd on the halfway line with her late father, Sid, watching the US edge out Japan to seal their fourth Olympic gold. It was Sid who had encouraged her to pursue her long held dream of taking over the reins of this women’s football superpower, but only when the time was right.

With her £1.25 million contract, she has been unfazed by taking on the biggest job in women’s football. She has been her usual entertaining and charismatic self in press conferences in the French capital. “I don’t care. I want a drink,” she responded, when asked which team – Brazil or semi-finalists Spain – she would prefer to face in the final.

Crucially, she has breathed new life into a team that for the past two Olympics have underachieved and got knocked out of last year’s World Cup in the round of 16. They are also in the throes of a rebuild following the high-profile retirements of Megan Rapinoe and Julie Ertz – and Hayes has been bold in her selection choices.

She made the call to leave Alex Morgan, a winner of two World Cups and an icon across the Atlantic, out of her Olympic squad, in favour of hungrier, more youthful talent. It is a decision that has paid off all tournament and it was vindicated in this final where the young attacking duo of Sophia Smith and Trinity Rodman, the latter being the daughter of the former basketball icon Dennis, taunted a Brazil side that while energetic, became increasingly devoid of all attacking edge.

For Hayes, the real litmus test will be in three years’ time at the Women’s World Cup in Brazil, but all the evidence suggests she has cracked the international code at these Paris Olympics after sealing her American dream.

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