Mal Swanson looked up at the sky thoughtfully, as if reliving a visualization in her mind. “I feel like I’ve seen that goal before.”
The 26-year-old had just scored two goals against South Korea in her home state of Colorado as the U.S. women’s national team prepared for the 2024 Summer Olympics. Swanson has replayed this script in her head for years, forced to sit and wait for her chance to prove to the world that she is one of the best players in the country.
Swanson was already a world champion — she was part of the team that won the title at the 2019 Women’s World Cup — but as a 21-year-old she was just a budding star. The 2023 tournament in Australia was meant to be her moment, her big chance, her tournament.
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The trend was like this, too: Swanson was in spectacular form before last summer’s FIFA finals, scoring eight goals in six consecutive games from November 2022 to February 2023. That’s what made the cruel tear of his patellar tendon in April so cruel, so unfair. Last summer was supposed to be Bad Swanson’s time.
However, history unfolded as it did and Swanson missed the Women’s World Cup when the U.S. women’s national team was eliminated in the quarterfinals, its worst finish at the event in history.
Swanson had been waiting for her next opportunity, which was just a year away, but the story had changed. Instead of being the next in a long line of stars, Swanson now has the chance to be the hero the U.S. women’s team hoped it would never need: She could be the one to lead them back to world domination, to the top of the women’s soccer rankings.
“I’m going to take something from this, something I can’t even wrap my head around right now,” Swanson told The Jugo Mobile after her injury last summer. “What could be better than not going to the World Cup? Something really good will come out of this, and only time will tell.”
Well, time is telling now. After a pair of goals in the opening win over Zambia, Swanson has positioned herself as the leader of the American attack. With Catarina Macario out with injury, Jaedyn Shaw battling a leg injury, and Sophia Smith also dealing with a scare in the opener, Swanson is again a titanic figure in the American attack, and the team’s Olympic hopes rest squarely on her shoulders.
She proved to be a game-changing player again against Germany in her second group game, actively participating in the first American goal scored by Sophia Smith before scoring one herself to go 2-1 up thanks to her lethal reactive instincts.
Mallory Swanson is ON FIRE.
Three goals in two #ParisOlympics games!
? USA Network and Peacock photo.twitter.com/J9rP4b1Mj8
— NBC Sports Soccer (@NBCSportsSoccer) July 28, 2024
There’s no longer any doubt that Mal Swanson is a world-class player and could be headed for a Ballon d’Or if she continues to put together superstar performances. She has seven goals and three assists for her NWSL team, Chicago Red Stars, in 15 appearances amid a playoff push.
Her footballing skills are undoubtedly exceptional, but her best skill set is the one that cannot be taught: movement off the ball. Swanson not only finds space for herself with excellent runs, but she also has a sensational sense of the game by drawing defenders out of position to create opportunities for her fellow forwards.
“Mal is a tremendous soccer player, she really is,” U.S. women’s national team head coach Emma Hayes said during pre-Olympic friendlies. “She’s someone who can play on the wing, cover the touchline all around, plays very well in the pockets, plays very well from the nine line, creates overloads in a smart way and I’ve said it before, she can be a number nine because she finishes.”
Hayes knows her job as head coach will be to figure out how to get the best out of Swanson on the USWNT’s attacking front, and she needs to find ways to shore up the Colorado native’s best attributes.
“While he has incredible attributes, it’s important for us to give him the support he needs so he can succeed at the level we all know he can,” Hayes said.
Suffice it to say, that appears to be happening already. Swanson’s three goals have left her tied for the tournament lead with Smith and Zambian Barbra Banda, and she’s combining well with her teammates.
There are a lot of foundational pieces on the U.S. women’s national team, but Swanson may be the most vital of them all. The team can only go as far as a revitalized Swanson allows it to go, and from the looks of it so far, she’s ready to take it back to its former heights.