Daily Times

The United States women´s soccer team will face Germany and Australia at the Paris Olympics when incoming coach Emma Hayes looks to get off to a flying start in the job.

The draw for the men´s and women´s soccer tournaments were held at a ceremony in Saint-Denis on Wednesday.

The record four-time gold-medalist was drawn against fifth-ranked Germany and World Cup semifinalist Australia in Group B. Those teams will be joined by either Morocco or Zambia from the African Football Confederation.

Hayes takes up her role as U.S. head coach in May after finishing the season with Chelsea, where she is challenging for a quadruple of trophies in her final year. She has already won 14 major trophies at Chelsea, including six Women’s Super League titles.

Twila Kilgore is serving as interim coach of the United States until Hayes can join the team. Kilgore recently led the team to the title in the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

“The bottom line is we’re excited to have a path, to know who we’re playing for the most part, to be able to start working on specific game plans,” Kilgore said following the draw. “But also just to know the logistical path. There’s so much that goes into an Olympics with a short turnaround and congested games.”

The U.S. hasn’t won Olympic gold since 2012 and is coming off a disappointing Women’s World Cup last year when it suffered its earliest exit from the tournament after being knocked out by Sweden on penalties in the round of 16. It had never finished worse than third at previous World Cups.

Hayes has established herself as one of the sport’s leading coaches. She can further add to her record by winning a clean sweep of trophies this season – including the Champions League, which is the one competition she is yet to deliver at Chelsea.