The U.S. women’s national team celebrated a shutout victory in its opening game of the 2025 SheBelieves Cup.
Catarina Macario and Ally Sentnor both scored as Emma Hayes’ squad blanked Colombia 2-0 at Shell Energy Stadium in Houston, Texas. Goalkeeper Jane Campbell didn’t need to make a single save, earning a clean sheet on home soil.
Macario broke the deadlock for the United States in the 32nd minute after a deadly connection with winger Yazmeen Ryan.
Ryan’s cross from the right wing was hammered home by Macario, giving the USWNT forward her first international goal since 2022.
Sentnor doubled the USWNT’s lead in the 60th minute after scoring a screamer of a first international goal. The attacking midfielder cut onto her right foot before unleashing a curling drive into the far right corner.
Despite out passing Colombia 502-293, the USWNT only registered three shots on goal in the 90+ minutes. Defender Gisele Thompson and midfielder Michelle Cooper made their senior USWNT debuts in the match though, providing bright spots for the future.
The USWNT continues SheBelieves Cup play on Sunday against Australia, who lost 4-0 to Japan earlier in the day.
Many positives in a physical match; Sentnor, Yohannes, Macario, and Fox. Colombia had very little offense and minimal chance creation the whole match. McKeown seemed the most suspect on the left side with Nighswonger not usually a physical player. Colombia only had Caicedo on that side early in the match? USWNT midfield does such a great job of defending and pushing traffic wide. Fox does not receive a lot of credit for how well she defends one vs one against fast offensive players. Which raises a question, is Caicedo as good as all the hype? No doubt a great player for her country but how good would she be in NWSL or even WSL? Would she even make a USWNT roster? Just being objective with what was supposed to be shallow USWNT player pool is suddenly pretty deep.
Credit has to go to Emma Hayes for using this 3 game tournament to bring in new players and begin to rebuild the roster since the Olympics. The team played without the top three up front and still looked impressive. It was noteworthy during the late stages of the game to hear Hayes will run both a senior camp and an under-23 camp this spring to add more depth across the roster. Safe to say the last World Cup is behind us.
Yohannes definitely was challenged physically by the Colombians who played their typical style, but she wasn’t intimidated and kept going. She played a great ball into Ryan who crossed into Macario. If we can ever get Swanson, Rodman, Macario, and Smith healthy at the same time, watch out. Sentnor was so good for the U20s last year was a problem for Colombia in the second half, could have easily had a hat trick. I expect her to have a huge season for Utah this year. That being said Japan looked very very good against the Aussies.
Lily Yohannes…wow