three things to love & hate: uswnt 2026 🐶shibaleaves🍃 edition

The USWNT reclaimed the SheBelieves Cup by winning it for an 8th time in its eleven year history. It wasn’t exactly a direct re-snatching, Japan won it last year after beating the USWNT 2-1, but are currently preoccupied with the Asian Cup (which you should def be watching, they dropped 11 on India this weekend). Instead, the U.S. got it back by running through a gauntlet of Argentina, Casey Stoney’s Canada, and Colombia. In the end it was three wins out of three, four goals scored and none conceded.

A lot of the roster was in preseason mode, with NWSL play set to begin this weekend (heavens!). The team fell short of classic USWNT performances in all three games, but it was three wins in one week against three difficult opponents. Argentina hadn’t lost a game in regulation since June 2nd of last year, Casey Stoney’s Canada are predictably hard to play against, and Colombia can beat anyone (just ask Germany) and have a history annoying the USWNT.

Overall it was a successful, but not perfect, window. So I’m going to review three things I loved, and three things I hated (well, hate is too strong, it’s more varying degrees of dislike but that wouldn’t work well with the headline so here we are) about the USWNT’s tournament.

I didn’t expect the Jameese Joseph #9 Experiment to be a thing but I am so glad it was. Joseph has been an intriguing player since joining the Chicago (Still Red To Me IDC) Stars. She’s shown brightness in attack through her pace and knowing which runs to make and when to make them, and quality on ball skills receiving and passing. Given how Chicago play (or been forced to play), Joseph has mostly had to rely on transition opportunities, so she’s profiled as more of a winger in the NWSL.

But she has the ability to link with other attackers and has shown comfort in central spaces. I’ve been impressed with how she adapted to different types of superstar attackers in Mallory Swanson and Ludmila, being a quality companion in attack for both. All this makes her an interesting choice to play as a 9 for the USWNT. The strengths of the USWNT are pretty much everywhere except central striker, which means that player can’t be a ‘get me the ball by any means necessary’ profile, but still has to make forward runs and get in positions facilitate or finish moves. It’s not an easy role to play, but Joseph seemed to play it well.

An erroneous offside flag is the only thing that kept her from grabbing a goal in her 45-minute outing against Argentina. I particularly liked her connection with Jaedyn Shaw, who’s a clever passer and mover between and behind the lines. The linkup for this play was super fun, and Joseph did extremely well to keep herself onside, get to the ball first, maintain composure, read the situation and finish. It’s very annoying that the flag went up, there was a lot of good stuff that happened here…

Unfortunately, for reasons that still aren’t quite clear, we only got five minutes of Joseph on the pitch the rest of the tournament. I’m not sure if Hayes wants to keep other teams guessing or protect players ahead of the NWSL season (her handling of Trinity Rodman counters this narrative), but given the shortage of central options it was odd to not see Joseph in that role more.

Especially in the Colombia match, when the U.S. was struggling to find a way to funnel attacks to the center of the pitch. The eventual match winner came from Alyssa Thompson choosing an interior run after playing the ball to Jaedyn Shaw before receiving it back and ripping a shot from inside the D at the top of the box.

Before Thompson’s goal, Hayes deployed the Tara the Explorer aspect of forward turned center back, Tara Rudd, who came on at halftime for Naomi Girma due to ‘calf tightness’. Rudd was consistently in the attacking third, making runs and forward passes, and trying to force the issue with pure numbers in and around the box. While I for one love that aspect of her game, it’s a wildly risky thing to do, and if Mayra Ramírez had been on the pitch it wouldn’t have been an option.

Sophia Wilson was too early in her recovery to hop into a USWNT camp, and Hayes chose not to call up Reilyn Turner, so aside from Ally Sentnor (who still doesn’t look very 9-y to me), Joseph was the only other central attacking option. I would like to see Hayes lean into figuring out the #9 role, and it feels like a grand total of 50 minutes for Joseph in the role was a missed opportunity.

Fullback has been a consistent question mark for the USWNT across generations and coaching tenures. With Avery Patterson (23), Gisele Thompson (20) and Lilly Reale (22) as exciting and extremely capable young talents, there’s still room for an adult among the group. It seems like Emily Fox, specifically Arsenal Emily Fox, is exactly what Hayes needs.

I’ve emoted a lot online about the NWSL waving goodbye to talents leaving for Europe, and it’s not that I don’t think any player should ever go. My main contention is that the league shouldn’t be letting them go because its teams are unwilling to produce competitive financial offers. For some players, leaving the NWSL gives them a chance to refine other aspects of their game, and that seems to be what has happened with Fox.

Fox wasn’t a bad fullback in the NWSL, she was drafted first overall by Rahsing Louisville in 2021 and was traded to North Carolina Courage in 2023 and had standout moments for both. But there’s no Arsenal v. Leicester equivalent in the NWSL, and the conveyor belt of dynamic attacking players to mark week after week (plus questionable coaches) caused her growth to stagnate, or regress. It’s relentless, and didn’t give Fox time or space to refine her game. Moving to Arsenal has given her both, and she’s responded.

The difference in ‘Percentage of Dribblers Tackled’ reflects the variance in quality of attacking talent across both leagues, but it’s such a big jump that it can’t be just that. Fox has refined her positioning and timing in duels, and it’s helped grow her confidence and timing at the position.

We saw this during SheBelieves, with Fox playing thirty minutes against Argentina at left back, then started and played full 90s against Canada and Colombia at right back. There were some struggles with Linda Caicedo, especially when Colombia did the very smart thing of pulling Leicy Santos to her side as well. Though if the worst thing I can say about a fullback is that they got caught a couple times by Leicy Santos and Linda Caicedo then that’s just fine, that’s what you have teammates for. In the end the moves were covered and Colombia was held scoreless.

As a noted Riley Jackson Believer, this window went from ‘hell yeah’ to ‘wait wtf’ real quick. I was delighted to see her called into the first serious camp of the year, and was expecting her to get a potential start against Argentina, and potentially minutes off the bench against Canada or Colombia. Instead, neither happened and I’m pretty bummed about it.

Given the tense nature of the matches against Canada (0-0 until the 55th minute) and Colombia (0-0 until the 82nd), game state subs are understandable. And while the Argentina match wasn’t the goalfest some may have expected — though they shouldn’t have, there’s a quality difference for sure but last year Argentina kept Colombia scoreless in regulation during Copa America Femenina, and beat Canada — the U.S. had the lead in the 20th minute and added a second in the 56th.

Jackson’s lack of minutes are indicative of the juggling act Emma Hayes is having to do. The World Cup is next year so refining the pool is paramount, but there’s just so much dang talent in this country that it’s a really hard thing to do if you’re committed to acknowledging how deep the pool actually is. To Hayes’ credit, she has been, but it makes her job tricky. Still, the Argentina match presented an opportunity to get Jackson in the XI or on as a sub, and with that window missed she was effectively demoted to a training player.

Every successful soccer team needs depth. A strong starting XI can take you far, but plenty of talented XIs have been sunk by injury to, or underperformance from, a necessary player. To avoid that, a key element of depth is a player that makes opponents curse the gods when they see they’re about to check into the game. Emma Sears might have secured that role already.

We’ve all heard commentators lean on the ‘fresh legs’ cliche when referencing subs, and how pace against tired legs can change a game. Sears is obviously a lightning bolt in a straight line, but she’s become a lot more than just a fast runner. First, she’s been in the mf’n gym.

On the pitch, speed can be neutralized through positioning, and when that fails, forcing a player off balance or to change direction. Sears’ size (5’9) already makes that difficult, but now she can power through upper body challenges without breaking stride. No one wants to see someone who can do this come into a match, especially when they’ve already been chasing around players like Alyssa Thompson and Trinity Rodman.

The other thing about Sears is that, though she’s still very one-footed, she’s not afraid to stop the ball and open up her body. She’ll still go right if she’s going to shoot (and her finishing has improved a lot), but she’s also mixed in an uncanny ability to connect low crosses to teammates’ feet in and around the box. Her setup pass for Lindsey Heaps’ goal was some cyborg shit.

Also, Sears is a caricature of what a lot of people use as pejoratives against the USWNT and American soccer as a whole. She is an absolute athlete with a very direct style of play, and her most consistent play is ‘Emma Go Long’. The secret is that they hate speed and directness because it works. Several styles of soccer exist and that’s what makes it fun, but the goal is still to put the dang ball in the dang net.

There are several fluid and elegant ways of rolling the ball around the grass and across the line, and I appreciate the beauty in that too. But I’ll never downplay the sheer delight of watching a pure athlete do athlete things to score a goal. I don’t care that Thee Emma Hayes is now coaching the USWNT, our ‘Break Glass in Case of Emergency’ option should always be a player connected to the roots of American soccer, and Emma Sears is the type of ‘run through a mf face’ problem that defenders hate to see coming.

One of my strongest beliefs is that the Naomi Girma + Jordyn Bugg center back pairing can and will clear my skin, brighten my teeth, raise median salaries, and restore balance to the universe. They’re both that good, and I like the idea of Girma as the safe ball carrier and passer, and Bugg as the risk taker. I was looking forward to this camp and these games primarily because I wanted to see if the Girma-Bugg partnership would start to elevate itself above other partnerships.

Unfortunately, Bugg pulled out of camp with a hamstring problem before the games even got underway.

I know Emma Hayes likes pumping the brakes on excitement over young talents, and I get not wanting teenagers to be in a scenario where anything short of locked-in USWNT starter equals failure. But it’s also true that a lot of these kids are simply really talented footballers and deserving of the senior team. Lily Yohannes is the best midfield prospect we’ve had since Sam Mewis, and Jordyn Bugg is the best center back prospect since Naomi Girma.

Now, the dream of them playing together has to wait at least another window. Dammit. ■