The U.S. women’s national team will not repeat as SheBelieves Cup winners.
Emma Hayes’ squad suffered a 2-1 defeat to Japan on Wednesday night, falling just short of winning the annual competition. The result marked the first loss since Hayes took over as head coach last spring.
A fast start for Japan saw Yuka Momiki propel the visitors in front 1-0 after only two minutes. USWNT goalkeeper Jane Campbell collided with one of her defenders, allowing Momiki to tap into an empty net.
However, Ally Sentnor delivered her second goal of the tournament, equalizing for the USWNT in the 14th minute. Catarina Macario won possession for the Americans before playing Sentnor into the Japan box.
Sentnor drilled a right-footed shot into the bottom-right corner for a 1-1 equalizer.
Japan though would regain its lead early in the second half and ride that to a memorable road victory. Toko Koga’s 50th minute rebound finish off an original save from Campbell made it 2-1 to the Japanese, a score line that the Americans would not fight back to tie.
Japan goalkeeper Ayaka Yamashita finished the match with four saves.
Hayes’ record now sits at 15-1-2 in her opening 18 matches as USWNT head coach.
The USWNT will return to action this April against Brazil in California.
A lot of the friendlies the US women schedule are mismatches that do not provide a good test for the players. Also, in past SB tournaments, we bring in only the ‘A’ team. I thought this year’s tournament was one of the better ones, with new and upcoming players got NT experience against quality opponents, especially Japan. This is better than the useless Nations League, a FIFA cash grab.
FIFA doesn’t get money from Nations League competitions the regional confederations do.
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She Believes was a tournament created so the USSF would get all money instead of competing in the Algarve Cup. It was just a way to grab cash away from Portugal. The original teams were US, France, Germany, England. France and England then tried to start their own versions so that they each could pocket the profits but UEFA NL has gotten in their way. It seems the Algarve Cup is no more as it hasn’t been held in three years.
Johnnyrazor, the point of my post was that the US men are not realizing the benefits from Nations League when compared to scheduling their own friendlies. This team benefits more from friendlies against top tier competition and capturing that revenue than playing the same CONCAFAF teams again in NL. FIFA put this in place across all federations, but it really doesn’t move the needle for the US men.
The US women had done a pretty good job with the SheBelieves Cup since its inception. The competition for the most part has been pretty good, and the federation keeps the money. The game against Japan using first and second tier US players was the key benefit this tournament provides.
PN,
” the US men are not realizing the benefits from Nations League when compared to scheduling their own friendlies.”
This criticism was leveled at it when it first came up.
Nations League was not supposed to benefit the USMNT or Mexico. At least not in the short term. I believe that if you want to get better you play better teams or at least equal teams.
But hey, maybe I’m wrong.
It was put in place to benefit the rest of our weaker, poorer, competitors in CONCACAF. They don’t have the same resources as the USMNT has to schedule high profile friendlies that will benefit their football programs.
Argentina, France or Germany are not likely to want to play Guyana or Guadeloupe in a friendly in those countries.
They might play the USMNT in a friendly.
The Nations League gives them an organized tournament of some quality to help improve the level of their football programs. The USMNT and Mexico get little to nothing in the short term other than a shot at more silverware.
Think of it as the Austrian Bundesliga and the USMNT are RB Salzburg. After all we still featuring Brenden Aaronson who understands beating up on weaker teams .
In the long term helping the other programs in the rest of CONCACAF could help increase the talent pool for MLS.
PN: 1. UEFA forced everyone else into NL. Once they went to it severely restricted friendly opponent options. Especially considering they also have Euros qualifying and WC qualifying that fills their calendars.
2. US men are really stuck right now because all other regions are qualifying for regional comps or WC. Last friendly window beyond Canada, Mexico, and NZ it was teams who had been eliminated from WCQ like India, Nepal, or Thailand.
3. The women’s game has few minnow options because those countries don’t support teams. You are going to have better competition because the weak teams aren’t even going to play. If you consider the original She Believes was Germany, France, England and US this years quality was pretty weak.
I totally approve of this loss. We need to give the youngsters a chance to show what they can do against good teams, which means occasionally losing. So long as Hayes gained knowledge this tournament was a success.
absolutely…that was her goal too, so mission accomplished
overall a good window
a few things
1. first time Hayes was outmaneuvered tactically imho; we kept insisting on playing the ball on the ground out of the back even though Japan had all of its players in our half and turned us over repeatedly; we couldn’t string together passes because we played right into their hands; by the time we started to go over the top, which worked of course, the game was already well into Japan’s hands
2. Sentnor scored but struggled mightily on every other touch she had, and got subbed at halftime even though she scored
3. Campbell did not do well on either goal; Sonnett recovered on the first only to get taken out by her own goalie, this after Campbell a minute earlier had miscleared a ball into the middle channel on the ground which, of course, was intercepted by Japan. and on the 2nd goal, Campbell spilled it right in front of her own goal instead of over the top, it was a mistake
4. Without Girma, the CBs struggled; Sams looked like she didn’t want to touch the ball in the last game, and McKeown struggled connecting last night and turned it over repeatedly; when we are pressed high, have to go long to loosen that up instead of forcing into traffic, but we were very late to adjust and paid the price
5. Japan used to play super narrow, but now they play with super width, and they are stronger physically as a team than they used to be
overall, a good showcase of a few games and many players got the chance to play and get themselves into the mix, and some I believe will stick
Beachbum, great points of emphasis and very much agree.
Japan is a very good technical team with an emphasis on team play. #14 for Japan put on a show box to box, very Modric like. Once the US forwards and midfield stopped connecting and holding the ball Japan dug in on duals and contact increasing pressure and US responded with low percentage pass completion Heaps playing higher up field was marked out of the first half by not getting the ball from the midfield or forwards. I was surprised she just didn’t find her way more central to control the ball and develop some tempo with possession.
The US lost there width and shape offensively when forward could not hold the ball. When accurate passes were made and forwards controlled the ball ping ping ping and into dangerous areas. Halftime adjustments and subs did not perform against a dig in confident Japan
great points yourself. we’re saying the same things
Lily Yohannes should not have started. My crush Yazmeen Ryan was picking up her slack. I know Yohannes is young, but she barely tried to tackle the ball away. She was jogging slowly the whole game. We were missing key players. I don’t promote colorism or racism, so I refuse to use that dumb espresso nickname. Rodman, Swanson, and Smith were def missed.
wow, putting it on Yohannes, my man, we disagree. It was not her finest but Japan surrounded her with 2 and 3 players at all times; what I do not get is why we insisted on playing the ball through the middle on the ground when that is where Japan’s defense was
Yohannes was probably our best player. We must have been watching different games.
Nope Sentor and Ryan were the best, u def must have been sleep. I was straight sober, Lily was hella timid.
Senator, aside from her goal, was not good at all, and subbed at halftime. She struggled man, what are you talking about? Why did you think she got subbed at halftime?
Sentnor…damn autocorrect
Mal, Trin, and Sophia gave themselves the nickname. People were coming up with names like Gen Z 3 and The Trident, so in a Today Show interview Trinity announced they wanted to be called “Triple Espresso”. Rodman’s sister pitched it to them and they went with it. Sophia said she and Trin loved it because they bring energy to the field and they are feisty yet sweet like the highly caffeinated beverage. Also they all apparently are coffee fanatics. Has it been co-opted by people to turn it into racist comment that I’m not aware of?
It’s colorist! Colorism is a child of racism. That some insecure is, sorry. I exp both, I’m also indigenious and Black so that nickname is stupid why bring up they mixed. Everyone’s freaking mixed in America it’s stupid!
Espresso isn’t mixed though, it’s dark and highly concentrated. I could see your point if someone had called them some sort of mixture of dairy and coffee that would be lightly colored. I suppose it depends on your perspective if you’re a coffee person you hear the word “espresso” you think the drink. If you think of “espresso” as a color it takes a different meaning. Again though Sophia, Trin, and Mal came up with the nickname and didn’t make any claim that it related to their skin color, if it was some white guy announcer calling them “triple espresso” I might be more on board. Thanks for sharing, only from truly trying to understand other perspectives can we grow.
Light skin bragging about being light skin is col9rism and weird. Again a expresso is a mixed drink. If your not in a melenated body and exp racism or colorism you won’t understand. Why you think they making native americans white and ones like me a dark and we are American Indian not Native American.(People who paid 5 dollars to get on 5 c I vlized tribe rolls and they look like they from Ireland lol) by JR gas light someone else. payaso like Beerholder
Striker, I tried to give you references to show you that you are incorrect but apparently it got blocked for having links.
Espresso is just water forced at high pressure thru tightly packed ground coffee not a mix. Please look it up before calling me names and accusing me of lying. If they called themselves triple latte I guess it could be colorism. I understand that you face racism and colorism on a daily basis. I was trying to understand your perspective not gaslight you on the recipes of coffee drinks.
Blah blah blah
Striker just go to a Starbucks and order a triple espresso, you’ll see it’s very dark probably the darkest drink you can order not at all like a mixed race skin tone. Also it’s a ton of caffeine so you’ll feel a lot happier.
That’s why USA is never going to be a world power in soccer, because you all in this country people like you JR and It’s OK 2 think you all put class and race before peoples mental well being and accepting people for who they are instead of conforming to the European standard of beauty. If you judging people or separating people based of they phenotype your mentally ill!
Dude, I was trying to help you out because you thought “espresso” was a term to flaunt light skinned ness when it’s not light or mixed. If you feel that’s the same as It’s Oks very un-ok attack on you and his perception of your background then I don’t really see any point in interacting with you on social issues because you aren’t willing to accept fact if it conflicts with your perception. I’m empathetic to your struggles with racism/colorism, and I truly have never tried to gaslight or make you feel unfit mentally. We just rarely agree on soccer issues. Had I known that defining what an espresso drink was would trigger mental anguish for you I would have not responded.
I stopped watching at half. The USWNT couldn’t string 3 passes together in the first half.
When, on multiple occasions a pass was made when not under pressure and it misses the recipient by 5 yards or more, right to the opposition, that is not worthy of a national team.
Gary,
“not worthy of a national team.”
If that is so then the USMNT and the USWNT have both had a LOT of unworthy passing going on over the decades. I have been a loyal USMNT fan for a very long time but, in technical terms , they have rarely been “worthy”.