Just three days after the world No. 1 USWNT took down Brazil 2-0, the world No. 8 team returned the favor, securing a stoppage-time lead to take the pair's second April friendly 2-1 on Tuesday night.
Brazil's victory in San Jose marked the team's first win against the USWNT since 2014, and their first-ever on US soil.
Striker Catarina Macario put the USWNT on the board just 34 seconds into the match, before 2023 NWSL MVP Kerolin drew Brazil even with a clinical 24th-minute equalizer.
Chippy, physical play left much of the match at a stalemate until Amanda Gutierres came off the bench to snatch victory with a goal for Brazil in second-half stoppage time.
Growing pains apparent in young USWNT roster
Taking a calculated risk on Tuesday, USWNT manager Emma Hayes's starting XI was one of the youngest-ever that the team has fielded, averaging just 22.3 years old.
The inexperienced roster, which included first starts for defenders Gisele Thompson and Avery Patterson, averaged the fewest caps for a USWNT starting group since 2001. Tuesday's 17.9 cap average, however, shrinks to just 8.1 without veteran defender and captain Emily Sonnett's 106 previous appearances.
With two losses in their last three games, the USWNT is leaning into the growing pains of progress as Hayes continues her efforts to develop the US's deep talent pool in the lead-up to the 2027 World Cup.
"It's been really good camp," Hayes said after Tuesday's Olympic gold medal-game rematch. "We mustn't always measure progress by outcome."
"If I only prioritize short-term success, of course, I wouldn't make that many changes. But I'm not making decisions for the short term."
Hayes's next USWNT roster assessment will come later next month, as the national team gears up for a pair of friendlies against China PR during the next international window.
The USWNT hit the ground running on Thursday, taking down Colombia 2-0 to kick off the 2025 SheBelieves Cup with a bang.
Catarina Macario opened the scoring in the 33rd minute with her first international goal in almost three years, before 21-year-old Ally Sentnor put the game out of reach at the 60-minute mark with her first-ever international tally.
"Everybody is super happy, super proud, and I'm sure everybody back at Chelsea is too," US head coach Emma Hayes said of Macario’s strike, as the forward continues her long return from injury.
USWNT rookies show out
Hayes’s decision to feature less experienced players in the match paid off, with the winning side bolstered by numerous first caps, starts, and a screamer of a goal for the world No. 1 team.
In just her third cap and first start for the senior national team, Sentnor's efforts earned her praise from Hayes, who called the young attacker's performance "tenacious on both sides of the wall."
Also excelling in her first USWNT start was 17-year-old Lily Yohannes, who lofted the ball forward in pursuit of Macario’s opening goal and stood out as the most creative passer within a US midfield that completed over 500 passes.
"She's really switched on and someone who understands the importance of doing everything for the team and for that I really admire her," Hayes said after the match.
Hayes also continued her efforts to mint new USWNT players with a trio of first caps in Thursday's match. While forward Michelle Cooper and defender Gisele Thompson snagged their first USWNT minutes as late substitutes, center-back Tara McKeown grabbed a starting spot, then capitalized on the opportunity by registering an assist to set up Sentnor's jaw-dropping goal.
Hayes has emphasized the need for the USWNT to develop its future, but Thursday’s performance showed that the future might be closer than originally expected — especially considering the big names missing from this window’s USWNT roster.
Sonnett celebrates 100th USWNT cap
Alongside all the noteworthy firsts, the USWNT also had the chance to celebrate its veteran leadership on Thursday.
Prior to the match, the team honored Emily Sonnett for her 100th cap before the versatile defender captained the squad as a starting center-back on the night.
Notably, Sonnett's USWNT tenure includes competing in all 10 iterations of the SheBelieves Cup — more than any other player.
USWNT to face Australia in second SheBelieves match
Now sitting in second in the SheBelieves Cup standings, the USWNT trails only Japan due to goal differential after the Nadeshiko toppled Australia 4-0 on Thursday afternoon.
The struggling Matildas, who failed to register a single shot on goal against Japan, must now face the seven-time SheBelieves champion USWNT in Arizona on Sunday — a team Australia has only defeated once in the pair's 35 all-time meetings.
The last time the teams met, the US defeated the Matildas 2-1 in the final group stage match of the 2024 Olympics to advance to the quarterfinals.
This time out, expect heavy roster rotation from Hayes's squad as players look to stay healthy for their club seasons, with some still ramping up to full fitness before the 2025 NWSL season.
How to watch the USWNT vs. Australia in the SheBelieves Cup
The USWNT kicks off against Australia in the 2025 SheBelieves Cup at 5 PM ET on Sunday, with live coverage on TBS, Max, and Peacock.
USWNT manager Emma Hayes dropped a big piece of roster news on Friday, with Chelsea star forward Catarina Macario officially ruled out for the 2024 Paris Olympics due to "consistent irritation in her right knee."
The roster shakeup comes the day before the USWNT begins a series of two send-off friendlies leading up to the Olympics. In the wake of the injury, forward Lynn Williams will now be elevated from an alternate to a fully rostered player, with defender Emily Sams moving from training player to Olympic alternate.
Macario's original injury dates to 2022
In June 2022, Macario suffered an ACL tear in her left knee while playing for former club team Olympique Lyonnais.
Before the injury, the Stanford University standout featured on the USWNT's expanded Tokyo Olympics roster in 2021. She went on to win the 2022 Champions League title with Lyon before being sidelined the following month.
The 24-year-old continued to rehab the injury, sitting out the 2023 World Cup. She returned to the USWNT for the first time since 2022 this past April. After helping lead the US to victory at the 2024 SheBelieves Cup, Macario took the pitch again for the USWNT's June friendlies.
Looking to the future, Hayes called Macario's knee "not a long-term situation, just not going to recover in time for the Olympics" in Friday's announcement.
Pre-Olympic USWNT friendlies kick off
This Saturday, the newly formatted Olympic lineup with square off against Mexico in New Jersey.
It will be the first time the two teams have met since Mexico upset the US in the Concacaf W Gold Cup group stage earlier this year. Since then, the US hasn't lost a single match, going 5-0-2 and picking up trophies at the Gold Cup as well as SheBelieves Cup.
The USWNT's 18-player Olympic roster will take center stage this week, while alternates and training players joined the team at camp leading up to the friendlies. Training players Alyssa Thompson and Kate Wiesner will return to their NWSL squads prior to Saturday's USWNT friendly.
Many of the players on the US Olympic roster have just recently left their NWSL teams for the Olympic break, while three European club players — Lindsey Horan (Lyon), Korbin Albert (PSG), and Emily Fox (Arsenal) — have spent the last six weeks off the pitch.
A new USWNT paves its Olympic path
The pre-Olympic series will likely see goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher return to the starting XI, after a hamstring injury kept her out of a pair of June friendlies.
The matches will also provide an initial glimpse of a USWNT without longtime star Alex Morgan, who was not selected to play in this year's Summer Games. Morgan's absence will impact the frontline, with Sophia Smith most likely to take over at center forward.
Speaking from USWNT training camp, Naeher expressed positivity about this year's Olympic team.
"I just feel an energy shift — I've just feel like a joy and excitement of from the group," she said. "I think that's really exciting to come back into after being gone from it for a camp."
The US will play a second friendly in Washington, DC on Tuesday against fellow Concacaf competitor Costa Rica. For a team looking to redeem their international standing after a disappointing World Cup run, these next two outings will serve as a chance to develop the chemistry necessary to hit the ground running in Paris later this month.
The USWNT’s first match of the Emma Hayes era went off with a bang as the team beat South Korea 4-0 on Saturday at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colorado.
In the game, forward Mallory Swanson had a brace, scoring her first two goals for the US since returning from a torn patellar tendon suffered last April. Defender Tierna Davidson also found the back of the net twice, with both goals coming off set pieces.
"Thirty percent of all tournament goals are scored from (set pieces), so it was an opportunity," Hayes told reporters after the game. "I’ve seen, historically, this program be good at it. I want to return to that, so we have to excel. And for me, that demand won’t decline."
The match also saw the return of Catarina Macario to the starting lineup for the first time since 2022. Macario has slowly been returning to action following an ACL tear, and had a hand in one of Davidson’s set piece goals on Saturday.
Despite the USWNT's success, there was one glaring omission from Saturday's lineup: Alex Morgan remained on the bench, with Hayes noting that she chose to rest the decorated forward as a precaution.
"[Morgan] felt yesterday — this is an important issue to raise — maybe stretching a little bit her pelvic area," she said. "I told her yesterday I'm not going to take any risks today, because I want her to play Tuesday."
As the team looks to cut the roster down to 18 players in preparation for July's Paris Olympics, a lot will have to be decided. But with her first game as head coach in the books, Hayes is looking confidently to the future.
"I don’t feel relief. I feel re-energized," Hayes said. "I want to coach this group and they want to be coached. You can see we’re building something.
"There’s lots of work to do. There’s lots of holes in our play, no question, but it was a good start."
USWNT and Chelsea star Catarina Macario is back on grass and training in cleats.
After Chelsea women posted a photo of Macario in warm weather training, Macario wrote that she is “Happy to be back on the field” in response.
Happy to be back on the field 💙 https://t.co/uOdEjRZe4F
— Catarina Macario (@catarinamacario) January 8, 2024
It’s a welcome sign for Chelsea and U.S. women’s national team fans everywhere, after Macario’s status remained in limbo late into 2023. The star midfielder tore her ACL with Lyon in the Women’s Champions League final back in June of 2022.
In November, Chelsea coach and soon-to-be USWNT manager Emma Hayes said that it was unlikely Macario would make her return in 2023. Interim USWNT head coach Twila Kilgore had said earlier that month that Macario was “integrating at Chelsea” but wasn’t yet ready for international minutes.
“When you’ve been out a long time, this isn’t about me withholding something, this is about the recognition that – with all the will in the world – you can’t just put a player on the grass with a knee history, and sometimes if the knee blows up, you then have to come back off it again,” Hayes told Forbes.
Macario signed with Chelsea in June of 2023, but has yet to compete for the WSL club. Earlier this week, Hayes said that she was excited to finally include Macario – as well as forward Maika Hamano – in the lineup. And it comes at the right time, as star forward Sam Kerr tore her ACL in training and will be out for the remainder of the season.
“Cat and Maika are going to feel like new signings for us,” Hayes said. “That’s why we built the squad like this. We knew there would be more games coming in the second half of the season.”
Chelsea head coach Emma Hayes said on Friday that Catarina Macario is unlikely to play until 2024, as she continues to recover from an ACL injury suffered in June 2022.
Hayes, who will begin her coaching duties with the U.S. women’s national team in May, recruited Macario to her club from Olympique Lyonnais in July. Hayes has never fielded Macario in a match due to the ACL rupture.
Hayes has described Macario as “one of the most intelligent, creative attacking players in the world.” And while Hayes’ tenure at Chelsea is coming to an end, she’ll still get to coach Macario during the 2024 Olympics in Paris as part of the USWNT, as long as the forward is healthy.
Macario is set to become a staple of the USWNT’s attack after multiple players have hung up their boots in recent years, including Megan Rapinoe.
But Macario has been sidelined since last summer, and Hayes believes it’s best not to rush her back to the pitch.
“When you’ve been out a long time, this isn’t about me withholding something, this is about the recognition that – with all the will in the world – you can’t just put a player on the grass with a knee history, and sometimes if the knee blows up, you then have to come back off it again,” Hayes told Forbes.
Macario is unlikely to appear for Chelsea until after the New Year, and there is no specific timetable for her return.
Olympique Lyonnais and U.S. women’s national team midfielder Lindsey Horan wants to see more of her U.S. teammates playing in international leagues.
Horan is one of just three current USWNT players outside of the NWSL, with Catarina Macario and Mia Fishel playing under new USWNT head coach Emma Hayes at Chelsea. Horan has played for Lyon since 2022 after joining the club on loan from the Portland Thorns. She also spent time with Paris Saint-Germain from 2012 to 2016.
The 29-year-old midfielder was the lone player on the USWNT’s World Cup roster who played for a European club, with the other 22 playing in the NWSL.
Macario used to play alongside Horan at Lyon before joining Chelsea in the offseason. Fishel, meanwhile, joined Chelsea from Liga MX’s Tigres. Several USWNT stars, including Alex Morgan, have played for European clubs in the past, and several players have expressed interest in moving abroad in the future, Horan told Pro Soccer Wire.
“I’ve heard of [American] players wanting to [move to Europe],” Horan said. “Obviously, it’s comfortable in the NWSL and I won’t take anything away from the league, but for me, [playing abroad] has always been a growing point in my career. When I went to PSG, it was massive for me and then coming back to Lyon was even a bigger jump. I get to play with some of the best international players in the world.”
For Horan, the opportunity to play in the UEFA Women’s Champions League is unlike anything available in the NWSL — though Gotham FC’s Esther González recently said that every NWSL game is at the level of the Champions League.
“It’s not a knock on the NWSL, but you’re just not going and playing in the Champions League,” Horan said. “That’s something that I missed out on when I was at Portland because it’s just insane.”
Players moving to European leagues could become more common under the newly-minted USWNT coach, as Hayes has spent 12 years with Chelsea.
“There is still a huge amount of talent in this U.S. team,” Hayes wrote in a column for The Telegraph during the World Cup. “But with so many of the squad playing solely in the NWSL, it doesn’t offer enough diversity to their squad in terms of playing against different styles.”
Horan would like to see more USWNT players expand their playing horizons.
“It’s just a different kind of exposure that you get, a different level that you get,” Horan said. “I really hope that there’s more, especially younger players, that want to go overseas.”
The timeline for Catarina Macario’s return to soccer remains up in the air.
The 24-year-old midfielder has not played in the almost 18 months since she tore her ACL in a league match for Lyon in June 2022. She signed with Chelsea in the offseason but has yet to make her debut with the Blues.
And Macario has been left off the 24-player squad for the UEFA Champions League group stage. The 16-team group stage kicks off on Nov. 14 and runs through Jan. 31.
Led by soon-to-be U.S. coach Emma Hayes, Chelsea will face Real Madrid in their first of six group-stage matches at 3 p.m. ET on Nov. 15. Chelsea and Real Madrid are in Group D with Häcken and Paris FC.
Should Chelsea reach the knockout stage, which begins in March, the Blues could add Macario to the roster. But it remains unclear when Macario will return to the field.
U.S. women’s national team interim head coach provided an update on Macario’s status in October, saying that the midfielder is still in recovery.
“Cat is integrating at Chelsea, she’s just not ready for international minutes yet,” Kilgore said. “We’re collaborating with them in terms of keeping in touch and making sure she has everything she needs, but she’s just not ready for international minutes yet.
“She’s just continuing on her timeline there and we trust the people that she’s working with and that she’s entrusted herself to. Things seem to be moving along well.”
While Sophia Smith and Becky Sauerbrunn returned from injury for the U.S. women’s national team roster, several big names remain out for the October friendlies against Colombia.
Tierna Davidson
The 25-year-old defender received a kick to the face in the Chicago Red Stars’ Sept. 30 match against Racing Louisville. She missed the team’s final two matches of the regular season, and she is not ready for international minutes, USWNT interim head coach Twila Kilgore said Wednesday.
“That contact to the face was pretty severe,” Kilgore said. “She’s recovering and moving forward.”
Rose Lavelle
The 28-year-old midfielder has played intermittently since picking up a leg injury in April. She joined the USWNT at the 2023 World Cup but made just two appearances upon her return to the NWSL — and none since Sept. 3. She’s played just four NWSL matches total in 2023.
Following OL Reign’s win Sunday in their final regular season match, Laura Harvey said that Lavelle would be available only if her team really needed her.
“Rose was sort of there if we desperately needed her to be there, and thankfully we didn’t,” OL Reign head coach Laura Harvey said Sunday. “I know she was still running (on the field) after the game so that we can keep her ticking over in preparation for Friday.”
Kilgore echoed that sentiment Wednesday.
“Both players [Lavelle and Davidson] aren’t ready for international minutes,” she said. “We’re also being very careful with protecting players. Rose is making progress, just not ready for this event.”
Catarina Macario
Macario has not played in a competitive match since tearing her ACL last June, and she hasn’t featured for the USWNT since last April. The 24-year-old midfielder signed with Chelsea in June, and she has been settling in with her new club in the Women’s Super League. But she has yet to play in a game in the WSL through the first three matches of the season.
“Cat is integrating at Chelsea, she’s just not ready for international minutes yet,” Kilgore said. “We’re collaborating with them in terms of keeping in touch and making sure she has everything she needs, but she’s just not ready for international minutes yet.
“She’s just continuing on her timeline there and we trust the people that she’s working with and that she’s entrusted herself to. Things seem to be moving along well.”
Kelley O’Hara
The 35-year-old defender is out with a lower leg injury. She made the World Cup roster but played just nine minutes in the tournament. Since her return to the NWSL, she has played in three matches for Gotham FC, most recently seven minutes as a substitute on Oct. 1.
While she initially was named to the USWNT’s September roster, she was replaced ahead of the friendlies against South Africa. At the time, the USWNT said in a release that the defender’s “return to play has been slower than anticipated and she will remain with her club to continue her progression to full fitness.”
Mallory Swanson
Swanson has remained out since tearing the patellar tendon in her left knee during an April friendly against Ireland. While she has been seen practicing with the Chicago Red Stars, the 25-year-old forward continues to rehab her injury.
The U.S. women’s national team’s next generation is ready for their moment.
Several young players, including Sophia Smith and Naomi Girma, as well as Trinity Rodman and Ashley Sanchez, already have been with the USWNT over the last year, honing their skills. Now the retirements of Megan Rapinoe and Julie Ertz have left holes in the roster, and even more up-and-comers are stepping in to fill them.
“It’s a privilege to first of all be on this team and to be able to play,” said Mia Fishel, who made her debut with the senior national team on Sunday. “But to play alongside Megan Rapinoe and being training this whole week is just like a dream come true. So I try to soak it in as much as possible and apply as much as I can in the field.”
The 22-year-old forward enjoyed her experience in the September camp – in just the second senior call-up of her career – despite the long flight from London to Cincinnati. She and Catarina Macario, 23, are playing together for Chelsea in the upcoming WSL season. And while Macario is recovering from an ACL injury, they could play together for club and country in the near future.
“I tried to get as quick as possible with the group because I missed the training,” Fishel said of the USWNT camp. “But it was all positive vibes. … I feel like this new group has new energy after the World Cup and we’re ready to go.”
Jaedyn Shaw, 18, joined World Cup forward Alyssa Thompson, 18, as one of two teenagers on the September roster. And while Shaw didn’t earn a cap in her first call-up, she still made waves.
“I don’t really surround myself with hype, or whatever, that is attached to my name or how I play,” Shaw told the Inquirer. “I think that I just, up to this point — and will continue to do it — just focus on myself and focus on my journey, and just try to learn as much as I can, and enjoy this experience.”
She also looked at the call-up as an opportunity to grow in an environment full of encouragement. After all, she’s got San Diego Wave teammates Girma and Alex Morgan alongside her. And both see what Shaw can bring to the USWNT.
“When we signed [Shaw] mid-season last year, she immediately came in and was a great professional at 17 years old, so much more mature than for her age,” Morgan told the Inquirer. “The goals she scored and the composure that she had in front of goal — you kind of knew right from the start after those first few weeks that she was going to have a long career, not only in the NWSL but hopefully with the national team as well.”
Morgan’s World Cup co-captain Lindsey Horan also is excited to see more of Shaw in the future.
“The more training sessions that we have, we’ll see more and more,” Horan said. “I’ve heard such incredible things. I wish NWSL games were better times for me in France [where she plays for Lyon], because I could probably give you a better answer right now. But I’ve heard nothing but the best, and the little bits that I’ve seen, it’s really cool.”