WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Crystal Dunn may no longer be a member of the U.S. women's national team, but a Women's World Cup winner's finger is not necessarily far from the pulse, even in retirement. Shortly before the reigning Olympic champions faced the reigning world champions in a friendly, she outlined the theme of the week succinctly. The simple logic is that there are no shortcuts to the top, especially in a women's soccer landscape that is more competitive with each passing day.
The USWNT did not get the easy win they were trying to avoid on Saturday after all; instead, they came away with a complex 2-0 loss to Spain that saw their shortcomings share the same pitch as their defining qualities. The U.S. team were uneven and imperfect, unsurprising considering they faced a foe who was always going to pose questions and did as soon as the opening whistle blew. Eight months before a World Cup, though, questions are not such a bad thing.
"I don't think it's always necessarily a bad thing to lose," Trinity Rodman said post-match. Emma Hayes' side grew into the game, so much so that they ultimately outshot Spain 13 to six and racked up 2.26 expected goals to Spain's 0.43. The visitors' attack was limited to zero shots in the second half, a signal that the USWNT's game plan had its merits.
They were ultimately outdone by a rough start – Patri Guijarro and Eva Navarro scored within the opening 14 minutes, the U.S. team's defensive operation exposed in different ways despite the impressive finishes from Spain's goalscorers. "One, it's a great strike but really we've got to do better than that," Hayes said. "Second goal, their goalkeeper's got the ball and we've got numbers behind the ball but we don't do our job well enough as a collective." Patri Guijarro puts the world champions in front early with a BANGER 😮💨 pic.twitter.com/pmBclgep4a Those first 15 minutes were unforgiving to the USWNT's defenders and midfielders, even if the second half was redeeming.
Hayes went with Tierna Davidson and Kennedy Fuller at center back, the pair playing together for the first time, though the head coach had little choice – Naomi Girma was ruled out of the friendlies against Spain with an injury. The highlight reel on Navarro's goal will be unkind to Fuller but she was far from the only one, a U.S. midfield featuring Lindsey Heaps, Lily Yohannes and Rose Lavelle unable to do their best on both Spain strikes. There were as many individual failings as collective ones, Hayes argued.
"If you're defending and you jump out in the wrong moment and then the back line drops, well, the midfielder, whoever you are, is always going to be exposed because there's too much distance in front and there's too much distance in behind," Hayes said. "I didn't think we got that right as a collective in the first half and so we have to position any midfielder to be in a better place to be able to manage the quality of their players when they play close together. You can't have big gaps, but when you're 2-0 down, that maybe it creates a little bit of doubt in your head around drop-off and those things, so I don't think we helped our midfield as a collective approach.
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