Jan 27, 2026; Santa Barbara, California, USA; United States midfielder Jameese Joseph (26) celebrates a goal at Harder Stadium. (Photo Credit: Will Navarro-Imagn Images)
Despite the U.S. women’s national team’s dominant 6-0 win over Paraguay on Saturday, head coach Emma Hayes acknowledged postgame that her squad looked “rusty” to start that match. The rust had all but disappeared Tuesday in the U.S.’s 5-0 victory over Chile, which highlighted the player pool’s impressive depth of young talent.
The win over Chile marked the second and final friendly of a January camp taking place outside official FIFA windows. With the team’s European players actively in-season, rotations against Paraguay and Chile consisted of only National Women’s Soccer League players, excluding those from the FIFA Women’s Champion Cup-bound NJ/NY Gotham FC.
Consequently, Tuesday’s starting 11 included many players relatively inexperienced on the national team stage, with an average of just 5.2 caps per player. But that lineup set up a comfortable 3-0 lead for the U.S. heading into the second half, a stark difference from the team’s scoreless first half against Paraguay just days prior. Familiar faces, including Trinity Rodman and Emma Sears, finished the job in the second half.
“It doesn’t matter who’s got the crest on,” Hayes said after the match. “You know what is expected in that role.”
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