what lily yohannes can do for the uswnt

Chelsea’s squad full of stars often gets chalked up to the club’s willingness to spend. While this is true for both wages and, when necessary, transfer fees, they’ve also secured a number of key free transfers, in large part thanks to Emma Hayes. Canadian internationals Kadeisha Buchanan and Ashley Lawrence came at the expiration of their contracts, as did Catarina Macário. Now that pull seems to be working to help U.S. Soccer inch closer to securing 16-year-old Lily Yohannes.

In a short time with Ajax, Yohannes has become a regular starter, and integral to their run to the quarterfinals of the Champions League. It’s not just her of course, the team has key pieces such as Dutch midfielder Sherida Spitse who has dropped into central defense, and one of Europe’s sharpest young strikers Romée Leuchter provides an edge. Yohannes is alongside them as a piece who is just as key.

Ajax lean on Rosa van Gool (20), Nadine Noordam (25) and Yohannes (16) to control the middle of the pitch. In the Champions League, it’s the teenager who had led the midfield in PAdj (possession adjusted) tackles & interceptions (6.05), Tack/DP% (79%; percentage of time a player makes a tackle when going into a duel vs getting dribbled past), and is only behind Noordam (30.85) in PAdj pressures, with 29.56. (all stats per 90)

It’s impressive for a teenager to have that much of a physical and defensive impact, but don’t for one single itty bitty blip or blink of a second think her contributions are resigned to athleticism and physicality. Not only does her keen defensive awareness allow her to utilize those skills and talents most effectively, but in-possession she also leads the entire team in open play passes into the box (.77), xG buildup (.27), and fouls won (1.73).

Now that the nerd shit is out of the way, let’s look at some examples through the power of GIFs.

Basically, Yohannes is a sturdy defensive presence who enjoys winning the ball and moving it forward. The best example of this came in a Champions League match against last year’s unexpected quarterfinalists, AS Roma. In the sequence, Yohannes wins a physical duel, maintains her balance and control to roll the ball into space, pirouette, then drive through the middle of the pitch.

Her second to last touch is nearly too heavy, but she catches up to it and plays a perfect ball to Tiny Hoekstra (a fantastic woso name) who finds the far side netting.

Let’s look at that initial duel again. The recognition and speed with which she closes the distance jumps out, as does the clean winning of the ball that didn’t give the referee any reason to consider their whistle.

Yohannes is also savvy in her off ball movement in possession. So much so that at times Ajax head coach Suzanne Bakker will shift her into the no. 10 role, a position which occupies spaces where it’s difficult to receive and make passes without intelligent work off the ball.

When Yohannes is playing higher, she has a feel for how to drift to create passing lanes while maintaining awareness of movements around her.

This clip is also against Roma and features Yohannes playing two first time passes by showing to the ball in pockets of space and quickly and accurately finding open teammates. The second pass eventually sends a teammate charging into open space in the final third after having started a curling run from near the halfway line.

These are simple movements, but executed well and at the right time to maximize the movement of her teammates.

In addition to the neat passing, Yohannes can also ping a ball from deep. One of her Champions League assists comes from a booming diagonal ball that travels across nearly half the pitch before dropping onto the toe of a teammate just outside the six-yard box.

These are all reasons why Yohannes is an intriguing talent, but also why, at just 16, she’s ready for national team football. While she can’t be cap tied to the U.S. during this tournament, getting her into camp is a good step to ensuring she chooses to play national team football for the States, rather than the Dutch. Still, the deal isn’t closed, and she’s been in Netherlands long enough to apply for a passport and make herself eligible for Oranje.

For the U.S. it wasn’t only necessary to call her up to win a battle with Netherlands, but also because she’s already developed a midfield profile that the USWNT doesn’t presently have, and hasn’t had since Sam Mewis.

Lindsey Horan was thought to be that player, but she’s often drawn too high into attack to be a consistent presence defensively, and doesn’t have the mobility to go box-to-box. Savannah DeMelo is also a possibility, but she’s been used as an attacking midfielder on the USWNT, and could still use some work on short passing and engaging in duels without piling up yellow cards.

Apart from those two, no one else has a similar player profile as Yohannes. There’s a reason why, even now, interim coach Twila Kilgore has instructed Emily Fox to vacate her right back position to help with ball progression through midfield.

A wasted cycle under Vlatko Andonovski – who didn’t bring Sophia Smith to the last Olympics, played Catarina Macário just 7 minutes, and refused to integrate Sam Coffey – plus a lost generation of talented players who never made it to the USWNT, there’s a lot to do to expand the talent pool once again. It starts with building around young players who are ready now, and bringing in players like Yohannes, who can contribute minutes while preparing for larger roles and importance to come in the (very near) future.