CHESTER, Pa. — U.S. girls’s nationwide workforce head coach Emma Hayes slapped the desk repeatedly at Subaru Park on Thursday as she described how she felt watching her workforce lose to Portugal, 2-1, moments earlier.
“I used to be pissed off this night as a result of I felt like a sport of a whack-a-mole,” Hayes stated, hitting completely different components of the desk for example the purpose. “I felt like if I put one thing out then I used to be whacking that. That’s how the sport felt for me as a coach, and I’ve been doing this for therefore lengthy — I hate them video games.”
Portugal scored each objectives on nook kicks — “no coach likes conceding on f—ing set items ever,” Hayes finally stated with a smile as she walked away from the press convention, drawing amusing from the room — and the U.S. struggled to attach with and with out the ball in opposition to a well-organized Portuguese workforce.
“It felt actually particular person on the market,” stated midfielder Rose Lavelle, who scored 35 seconds into the match. “I feel everybody was making an attempt to repair it on their very own.” Captain Lindsey Heaps added that “typically it felt somewhat bit like we had been on islands.”
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The tepid efficiency evoked a minimum of passing reminiscences of the 2023 World Cup, the place the USWNT held on for a draw with Portugal by mere inches — with the assistance of the goalpost in stoppage time — and averted their first group-stage exit in World Cup historical past. Alarm bells had been actually ringing round Eden Park that day in Auckland, New Zealand on account of a malfunctioning sprinkler — a scene that portended the USWNT’s worst World Cup end a number of days later by the hands of Sweden.
Hayes wasn’t the coach then, nevertheless, and whereas she was palpably disillusioned with Thursday’s “rushed” efficiency from her workforce, she isn’t alarmed.
“As Ben Northey, the [Australian] conductor would say, ‘Let it go,'” Hayes stated motioning her hand again previous her face.
It seems like a straightforward out for Hayes, however Thursday’s loss comes 113 days after the USWNT final performed — “it seemed like a workforce in preseason to me,” Hayes stated. Extra importantly, it was 609 days forward of the 2027 World Cup.
The USWNT’s loss on Thursday is the workforce’s third of the calendar yr, which has solely occurred 4 different occasions in this system’s 40-year historical past. By no means has the U.S. workforce misplaced 4 matches in a calendar yr.
Portugal’s diamond form within the midfield allowed them to maintain 60% of the ball within the first half and discover the open areas between the USWNT’s three-player midfield. Portugal performed across the People continuously, though Portugal was usually wasteful in entrance of aim throughout open play.
The USWNT’s issues compounded throughout each line. Hayes lamented mistimed defensive challenges and misplaced duels. After which there have been the set items, in fact. Diana Gomes outjumped three USWNT defenders on the six-yard line to attain Portugal’s equalizer simply earlier than halftime, and Fátima Pinto added the second after the People didn’t clear a nook kick..
“I feel there was stuff that didn’t work out everywhere in the area,” midfielder Sam Coffey stated.
“There’s one million excuses you may make — and we’re not going to. To say that we haven’t been collectively or we’re younger or no matter is a cop-out. The usual of this workforce is to personal when you’re not ok and also you’re not taking part in as much as the usual of the crest. There’s a customary of profitable, and it exceeds all of these issues.”
Thursday’s loss is simply the third in program historical past for the USWNT in opposition to an opponent outdoors of the highest 20 in FIFA’s rankings. It’s a onerous lesson for a younger American workforce who Hayes warned to not underestimate Portugal.
The largest concern wasn’t the consequence — it was the flat, disjointed efficiency, and the person methods through which gamers tried to unravel these issues in actual time. The USWNT’s lack of problem-solving and creativity in the end had been their undoing. That description feels just like the 2023 World Cup assembly between the USWNT and Portugal.
“Don’t carry me again to that sport,” Heaps stated with a slight giggle on Thursday.
However the excellent news for the USWNT — a minimum of for now — is that the poor exhibiting is an anomaly within the Hayes period. Hayes took over as coach a number of months earlier than the 2024 Olympics and led the workforce to a gold medal, then proceeded to overtake this system and win whereas experimenting to unprecedented ranges as she handed out 24 first caps in her first 24 video games.
The Hayes period has been off to a flying begin within the first 18 months, which is partly why a comparatively cheerful Heaps stated repeatedly on Thursday after the match that her workforce can’t be too destructive. Thursday wasn’t a World Cup, however fairly the primary sport for this core group on the journey to qualifying subsequent yr.
Sure, it was ugly. It was disjointed. However it wasn’t solely discouraging or alarming.
“It’s a sport of soccer, nobody died,” Hayes stated. “We’ve bought to be higher, and I promise you we might be higher — we higher be.”
A rematch on Sunday in opposition to Portugal in East Hartford would possibly a minimum of partly clarify that optimism. USWNT goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce stated merely about what’s on her thoughts for Sunday: “Revenge, for certain.”