COMMERCE CITY – The gold medal dream of the U.S. women’s soccer team is wrapped in the Colorado flag carried by Mallory Swanson, Lindsey Horan and Sophia Smith.

A fresh era dawned Saturday for the greatest soccer machine the world has ever seen, and whether by fate or luck, it was greeted by cheers as loud as Rocky Mountain thunder for three proud daughters of Colorado.

Swanson, Horan and Smith led Team USA’s 4-0 rout of South Korea, much to the delight of 19,010 spectators in Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, who all screamed as if they personally watched Swanson, Horan and Smith grow up.

And truth be told, many of those happy Coloradans in the stands did exactly that.

The USWNT can’t re-establish its world dominance by winning gold at the Summer Olympics in France without Swanson, Horan and Smith.

Magnetic.

Leader.

Sensational.

Those were the words used to describe Swanson, Horan and Smith by Emma Hayes, after her first match on the bench leading the team.

Her debut as manager was smashing in a friendly match whose final score did not mean nearly as much as the signs of reinvigoration in a program looking to rediscover its mojo on the international stage.

The USWNT has not won Olympic gold since 2012, and a squad of fading soccer legends got humbled last year, as their quest for a three-peat at the World Cup swirled the drain the wrong way in Australia and New Zealand.

“This is for us,” Hayes said, “a new beginning.”

Standing squarely in the middle of a young starting 11 that took the pitch on a blustery spring afternoon with an average age of 24.5, Horan is the been-there, done-that, experienced-the-heartbreak veteran.

“She’s the captain for a reason,” said Hayes, saluting the 30-year-old midfielder from Golden.

Smith, born in Windsor and raised by the Timnath Twisters, is a striker born in 2000 with lightning in her feet. In a sport where goals are hard to come by, she’s a natural at booting a ball the goalkeeper can’t find until it’s nestled in the back of the net.

“She’s somebody who really wants to do well for this team,” Hayes said.

But the real story here, and maybe the key to the comeback story for the USWNT, is the back-from-the-brink tale of Swanson, who made her name as Pugh as the can’t-miss kid from Real Colorado before growing up and marrying shortstop Dansby Swanson, No. 7 in your program for the Chicago Cubs.

Swanson, the highest-paid player in the history of professional soccer in America, finally looks physically fit and psychologically ready to be America’s next great soccer hero.

A year ago, only months before the World Cup, Swanson tore her left patella tendon. But the brutal injury was only the beginning of the nightmare that was her 2023, as a septic infection in the joint required multiple additional surgeries.

“One thing I’ve learned from my injury,” Swanson said, “is that I’m not the same as I was before. I’m a completely different person and I have a completely different knee.”

After scoring two goals, including a sweet tally on a silky through ball from Smith in the 34th minute of the match that staked the USWNT to a lead never even close to being relinquished, I asked Swanson how close she finally is to being all the way back and on top of a game few in the world can match.

“That’s a hard question to answer,” Swanson replied.

She understandably bristles at questions heavy with the burden of expectations, because Swanson has been projected as the next big thing in U.S. women’s soccer for nearly a decade now.

That’s incredible pressure. But if this is the national team destined to re-establish its global dominance, aging heroes Alex Morgan, Crystal Dunn and Alyssa Naeher will need the grace and humility to pass the torch to Swanson and Smith, the leaders of the now generation that also includes Trinity Rodman, Cat Macario and Jenna Nighswonger.

“They want to give everything for their shirt and everything for their country,” Hayes said.

For decades, the names of our red, white and blue heroes changed, from Mia Hamm to Abby Wambach to Megan Rapinoe. But the women wearing USA shirts were the greatest soccer team on earth until the dynasty began to crumble.

The USWNT can rise and rule soccer again, if the fútbol women of Colorado have anything to say about it.

Look out world.

Swanson, Horan and Smith are getting ready to roar.