Jeff Kassouf analyzes the good and bad from the USWNT's 3-0 victory against Zambia. (1:40)
Mallory Swanson scored the other two goals for the Americans just over a minute apart to give new coach Emma Hayes a straightforward win in her major tournament debut, but Rodman's turn on defender Martha Tembo was the standout moment that made the small but spirited crowd at the Allianz Riviera take notice.
Taking a pass from Lindsey Horan in the 17th minute, Rodman whirled around in an instant before calmly finishing beneath Zambian goalkeeper Ngambo Musole.
"That was just an instinctual thing because I haven't really trained that," Rodman said. "But it worked out perfectly.
"I think in that situation I knew that if I took a touch in front of me, it probably would've put me out of the frame of the goal," Rodman added. "I was trying to just put her off balance, which worked, so I'm happy that."
Trinity Rodman sets up for a shot to open the scoring for the U.S. in an Olympics win over Zambia. Getty Images
The U.S. dominated most of the first half, peppering the Zambia goal even before Pauline Zulu was sent off for fouling Sophia Smith and denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity. The U.S. registered 27 shots for the game and hit the bar twice in addition to having several chances cleared off the line.
"The first part of the first half was exceptional -- to come out the way we did," Hayes said. "The intention, the intensity, the decision-making, the execution -- it should have been at least five at half-time."
That isn't a stretch, particularly at the rate Swanson scored. First she took a pass from Horan and snapped a sharp finish in the 24th minute, then she tallied again just 66 seconds later after receiving a ball from Smith to set a new USWNT record for shortest time between goals, shattering Carli Lloyd's previous mark of 2 minutes, 19 seconds in the 2015 Women's World Cup final.
"Not an easy journey for her but she has been resilient and persevered through it all," Lloyd said of Swanson on X. "Still has a lot more in her ceiling. Proud of her!"
Rodman said she and the other attackers have talked to each other wanting to show that they're more than the stereotypical speed-and-athleticism combo that American players are often pigeonholed as. Goals like these will certainly do that, but everyone on the U.S. team also knows that performances against largely overmatched sides such as Zambia mean little compared to how the team fares against more talented squads -- such as, say, Germany, which the Americans will face on Sunday in Marseille.
