The U.S. women’s national team passed its latest test of conviction on Sunday night as super subs came to the rescue for their first comeback win of the Emma Hayes era.
“I want us to start better,” Hayes prefaced. “But how we ended, for me is another sign of the belief that we can come back from any situation.”
A 3-1 home victory over Iceland at GEODIS Park saw second-half goals from Lynn Williams, Lindsey Horan, and Emma Sears. Emily Says debuted and goalkeeper Casey Murphy made two saves as she got the nod over Alyssa Naeher in between the posts.
The USWNT dominated first-half possession as usual but failed to create a single big chance with only five shots through the first 45 minutes. Iceland did not manage heavy chance- creation themselves but still handed the USWNT their first deficit under Hayes with a stunning Karólína Lea Vihjálmsdóttir olimpico over the head of Murphy.
“I thought the first half was slow from us, from everything,” Hayes said. “Just the way we moved the ball, the way we pressed, to the lack of movement.”
As the second half progressed, Hayes threw the kitchen sink at Iceland with a host of attacking substitutes including a national team debut for Racing Louisville’s Sears. It would not take long for the 23-year-old winger to assist fellow substitute Williams for a 72nd-minute equalizer.
Williams quickly capitalized on the momentum by providing an assist of her own for another fellow substitute Horan four minutes later to score the winner. Adding the cherry on top, Sears guided home a debut goal in stoppage time to complete the flattering 3-1 scoreline.
“I think it’s honestly hard to find the words right now,” Sears said. “This feels surreal not only to be surrounded by such amazing people but also by players that I have looked up to for so many years. I’m super honored to have been invited to this camp and be able to grow in this environment. I think it is super huge for me. Super surreal moment.”
The USWNT concludes their October window on Wednesday in Louisville, KY against Argentina where they will aim to keep their winning streak rolling.
Korbin Albert looked lost – literally spinning in circles at times – and over matched by physicality brought by Iceland. I’ve been critical (more accurately – confused) by Horan but subtracting her against this Iceland team explained a lot to me.
That said I really would like to see a more creative pair play in front of Coffey than what Horan seems to offer but maybe that needs to be saved for games that are not against teams like Iceland whose game plan seemed to be to push and shove and put bodies on the US.
hey Betinho, Horan was used ver much like how I have seen her deployed at Lyon, only CL games from last season, ok? but as a target player with her head, as a drop down 8 on the build out too, so options there to keep her moving up and down the slot and vary her markers and all of that; not sure if she can do that for 90+ but she was the best I’ve seen from her in the uni for some time.
thought Albert played well interestingly, we were calling out play after play she made first half; she was asked to cover huge ground all over the place which, I thought, was to provide midfield speed and recovery since Iceland is playing for the counter most all the time
fun to watch Coach Hayes pulling the strings; Thompson vs tired legs for example? I like it, many other cool examples. Lavelle seems on the outs a bit maybe? not trying to stir the pot, but the gold medal game, these friendlies, appears she’s got work to do? idk, maybe one of those creative players in front of Coffey you’re talking about. But Ryan showed well imo, she was dangerous in this matchup. looking forward to seeing her vs. other challenges now…all of the new faces…looking forward to the next stuff
Coach is a blast to watch and learn from
BTW, for those interested, the women’s U-17 team beat Nigeria 2-0 yesterday in the U-17 World Cup and is now in the semifinals of the tournament.
Yeah a couple of us have posted that result on various threads this weekend. North Korea and Spain have been the class of the tourney so far. US hasn’t given up a goal in their last three matches.