6 things about the uswnt's three-match window

The USWNT’s three match window was a lot more eventful than expected. They started their three-game jaunt around the U.S. by suffering a shock 1-2 loss to Portugal, of all teams. They rebounded to repay the result (plus a goal), and ended with a much more fun and familiar (if expected) 6-0 win over New Zealand.

A lot happened, and while it wasn’t assumed that these were the sorts of opponents a potential World Cup winner could learn a lot against, for reasons, more was learned than expected. Here are six:

1) the heaps quandary

I’m quite often am labeled a Heaps Hater™ because I’m a fairly harsh critic about her play. But it’s not unwarranted. She has a specific and narrow (narrowing more with age and the drop off in mobility) style of play that requires concessions from other players and areas of the pitch. In club soccer with Lyonnes it’s a gamble that pays off every match in the Première Ligue, and in most UWCL matches. International competition is different though, and the bar for that sort of acquiescence on a talented national team is Aitana Bonmati or Alexia Putellas — Heaps is neither.

The first match against Portugal highlights the Heaps Conundrum. In this game, the only match of the window Heaps started, Hayes guessed wrong. She likely assumed Portugal — a team England and Spain blew out in Nations League play this year to the tune of 19 goals scored to 2 conceded — would give us the ol’ low block and wouldn’t dare press.

Instead they got active. This meant that Heaps couldn’t do the floating in and around the box that she wants to do, and instead was having to midfield properly. Portugal used their youth and athleticism to focus on winning second balls to spring quick transitions into space. This dragged Rose away from being able to do her Rose things, resulting in an all too familiar disconnect between midfield and attack.

In the end Portugal’s two goals came from set pieces, and the xG still wasn’t in their favor. But they showed that a team with a talent deficit to the USWNT can find its way through their most tenured and familiar midfield with a dash of impetus and intensity.

2) i believe the children are our future, teach them well and, letthemleadtheway

After Hayes’ first named XI with a bulk of USWNT regulars resulted in a shock loss she decided to open things up.

In the second match against Portugal, Hayes started a backline with Lilly Reale (22), Jordyn Bugg (19), and Avery Patterson (23). In midfield she named Hutton (19), Yohannes (18), Shaw (20) midfield and Alyssa Thompson (20), Ally Sentnor (21) and Olivia Moultrie (20) in attack. And the kids cooked. They dropped a more familiar-looking 3-1 result over Portugal, with Moultrie scoring twice in ten minutes.

The 6-0 wrecking of New Zealand (on Ali RIley day, no less, super mean imo) featured an XI with Kennedy Wesley (24) making her USWNT debut, Emma Sears (24) and Michelle Cooper (22) joining Reale, Bugg, Yohannes and Hutton.

Results are one thing, but the hunger, intensity and skill of the youngins was noticeable. Rose Lavelle started alongside the kids and put in a throwback performance because she was freed to do Rose Things™. The USWNT is in a very interesting spot, because in a normal world these very talented teenage-to-under 24 players would gel as a group over a cycle. But they’re too talented, and surprisingly too poised. Yohannes and Hutton have midfield instincts beyond their years, and the technical ability to add to it.

The future is diamond bright, but will Hayes really rock with a U21 midfield in next year’s World Cup? If they keep this up they won’t give her much choice.

3) jaedyn shaw might be back back

Jaedyn Shaw has been having a weird one. She fled San Diego along with Naomi Girma, but landed in North Carolina, and to a coaching staff that didn’t seem to have much of a plan for her. She spent a lot of time either on the bench or trying to find a way to share a midfield with Ashley Sanchez, and in an attacking system without many (or any) line breaking central runners.

Sean Nahas got yeeted, then Shaw decided to yeet herself and headed to Gotham in a massive midseason trade. Juan Carlos Amorós seems to know what to do with Shaw, and there have been flashes of the Jaedyn Shaw that we used to know, but joining a team late in the season is difficult.

Against Portugal, Shaw delivered her best performance of the year, for club or country. She dropped a clever little backheel assist for one of Olivia Moultrie’s goals, and kept finding pockets to receive the ball, turn, and feed the ball through lines to runners — the crown jewel of her skillset.

4) jordyn bugg is ready, but might have to wait

One of the things Emma Hayes is doing that seemed like a no-brainer was to get the U23s up and running, and make youth national team events a priority. These moves are ways to accrue important match minutes in international tournaments, and grows familiarity and important on-pitch connections with players who could feature alongside one another at the senior team level for several years.

But it’s difficult to balance exceptional young talents with the need to illustrate the importance of youth national teams. The way U.S. Soccer has typically done it, it would seem like a demotion or even unfair to unleash, say, Jaedyn Shaw in a U23 setting. But she is the proper age, those match minutes matter, and most consistently successful programs don’t ignore their youth levels or view them with some sort of stigma.

Hayes said Bugg was “so impressive” in her minutes this window, but also stated that she wanted her to go to the U20 World Cup next year, and said that it’ll be in she and Hutton’s best interested to "still [play] in youth tournaments." The dire need for real midfielding midfielders may force Hutton into the senior team more frequently, but if Naomi Girma returns to fitness and form, Tara McKeown and Emily Sams keep scrapping for minutes, and Hayes can squeeze one more cycle out of Emily Sonnett, Bugg will have to wait.

5) when michelle cooper stays on her feet good things happen

I know I go on about this too much but it is still wild to me that this version of Michelle Cooper is almost unrecognizable from the Michelle Cooper I watched at Duke. The talent, instincts and ball striking are all there, but I didn’t see pinpoint crosser/elite winger Michelle Cooper coming. It’s been a delight — well, when she stays on her feet that is.

I’m not sure when it started — or more importantly, why — but Cooper has been infected with Neymaritis. Thankfully she’s not setting Guinness World Records for ground rolls, but she hits the grass a confusing amount of time, and many of those falls look like they hurt more than the minimal contact.

It often seems like referees assume strong players, which Cooper certainly is, can and should absorb more contact before they’re given a foul. Maybe this is Cooper guarding against that by sporadically choosing to turn into a bag of leaves in the middle of duels.

The thing that makes it frustrating is that she has the talent, strength and skillset to win or get away from most challenges and do something awesome with the ball. Whether playing as a chalk-on-heels winger or inverted forward, she can deliver a cross on the ground or through the air with laser-guided precision. It’s a rare and incredible skill. And while she’s shed the desire for long distance goals that she had in college, she isn’t completely resistant to walloping one in from deep — and can still do it.

If it wasn’t for Tara McKeown going from solid club forward to frequent USWNT center back, Cooper’s transformation and ascent would be the player evolution to marvel at. It’s that stark, and that cool. And we could have even more of it if she’d crash to the turf a little less.

6) THE ohio state is a women’s soccer school

Emma Sears was drafted in the second round of the 2024 NWSL Draft, and 28th overall. Now she’s out here dropping hat tricks for the USWNT. Of course if the draft was done all over again, knowing what we all know now, she’d be a top-5 pick. The talent pool in this country is absurdly deep, and it’s very fun to watch a player like Sears take her opportunities.

But this also means that Ohio State is a women’s soccer school now, deal with it.