For a team with the explicit goal of winning the Women's World Cup, there is no test more perfect than a pair of friendlies against the last team to take home the title. To do it a month before World Cup qualifiers and eight months before the tournament itself makes for perfect timing. The U.S. women's national team remain as well-equipped as any to handle the challenges Spain will pose over the next week, starting with Saturday's friendly in the nation's capital, but make no mistake – the circumstances are not exactly perfect.
The reigning Olympic gold medalists are still the attack-minded force they have always been, but they will be understaffed for their doubleheader against Spain, and in a key area of the pitch. Center back Naomi Girma and defensive midfielder Sam Coffey were ruled out of the games with injuries, leaving the USWNT particularly understaffed in defense. Claire Hutton will likely fill Coffey's role and may have done so anyway, such is the quality of the 20-year-old. Head coach Emma Hayes has an eclectic group to work with at center back, though: Tierna Davidson, Girma's presumed partner at the World Cup next year; Tara Rudd, who joined the fold after the U.S. team won gold at the 2024 Olympics; Kennedy Wesley, who has seven caps; and Kate Del Fava, a first-timer with the senior national team after years of experience in the NWSL.
"Can't do anything about that," Hayes said candidly on Friday, though she does not exactly feel down on her luck.
How to watch USWNT vs. Spain, odds
Date: Saturday, Oct. 10 | Time: 2:30 p.m. ET
Location: Audi Field -- Washington, D.C.
TV: TBS | Live stream: HBO Max
Odds: USWNT +260; Draw +250; Spain -110
"They're top players and I can put them in situations this week to create the exposures," she continued. "I think developing as a pairing is something that they're going to have to do, but I believe in them, and I watch their attention to detail. I think you got [Tierna], who, by nature, is a defender that can progress the ball up the pitch. Great covering defender, really good aerially. You got Kennedy, who steps to the play really well. I think they're actually a good complement to each other. I think they're very intelligent people, so they can solve really good tactical puzzles, and I've seen them do it all week, so I'm looking forward to seeing how they progress together."
The 25-year-old Wesley is one of the late beneficiaries of Hayes' player pool expansion project following the Olympics but has been a focal point for the San Diego Wave, who remain in the hunt for the NWSL Shield thanks in large part to their league-leading defensive efforts. Her stock appears to on the rise and at a timely juncture in the USWNT's preparations for the World Cup, and Wesley seems to be soaking up every moment along the way.
"I think both Tierna, [Emily Fox], there are so many players that bring an ample amount of experience and it's been nothing so, so helpful to me, recognizing I can go to them with any question I have." Wesley said Thursday. "If I'm hesitant, they're always the first ones to kind of back me in my decisions, so it's been really awesome training with them the last few days and for the last few months, but I do think that their experience will help us propel in moments when we need it in the game. When we have long spells of defending, when the momentum might not be our way, I think those are players that I've relied on, the group can rely on in those really tough moments."
The group will perhaps be equally reliant on her on Saturday, Spain's impressive attack headlined by two-time Ballon d'Or-winning playmaker Alexia Putellas set to offer the USWNT's defense – understaffed or otherwise – their stiffest challenge yet. The U.S. team's defense has gone somewhat untested since the Olympics, with opponents averaging just seven shots per game and less than one expected goal along the way. The numbers are not all that different against teams ranked in FIFA's top 10, though Spain pose their own challenges.
"I think the first thing that comes to mind is that we're going to need to be really disciplined," Wesley said. "I think they're so dynamic in their movements, in their interchange when they have the ball, when they're in possession so it'll be really really important for us to be disciplined, not get pulled out of position so that we can kind of dispute their attack but I also think working form the back to front, it'll be really important we're really front-footed and pressing high on the field, not allowing them space and time because I think that's what they're the most successful so I think between the discipline and the front-footedness, I think those are really important."
Chemistry questions are not reserved solely for the back line, even if they will be in focus as Spain attempt to impose their possession-oriented, attack-minded style. Hayes has spent the post-Olympic period expanding the player pool, tinkering with her lineups over the course of 30 games as she builds experience and depth in each area of the pitch. In both friendlies against Spain, though, she boasted that the lineups will be fairly similar and that the time for experimentation is essentially over. Though it is hard to envision a first-choice version of the USWNT without Girma in the lineup if she's available, Hayes might answer questions about who's leading the race for starting roles in attack at the World Cup.
Many of her mainstays are available, including the Triple Espresso – Trinity Rodman, Sophia Wilson and Mallory Swanson – though she is hardly limited in that department. Regulars including Alyssa Thompson, Emma Sears and Michelle Cooper are all amongst the bunch, and that group alone is a stark reminder that the U.S. team's historic attacking might is going nowhere.
"I think the cool part about the front line is that we all have chemistry in different ways," Wilson said. "I think we all can work together and kind of get the same product, and it doesn't really matter who's out there. I think we trust everyone to step up when their name is called. I think defensively, we really pride ourselves on being a high-pressing team and a team that wants to press and press with speed because I think we can create chances that way, and I think we have the players to do that, so just following that and knowing that's one of our strengths and I think it will be a strength against Spain."
There are some newcomers in the group; their abilities to break into the core player pool still unclear. Trinity Byars and Pietra Tordin are amongst those who could earn their first cap, while Ashley Sanchez marks an impressive return to the national team around two years after she was last in the group. It is a well-earned return to the fold for Sanchez, who tagged along for the 2023 World Cup but has not been much of a fixture with the USWNT since. She leads the NWSL with 20 goals and is likely in the midst of an MVP-caliber season and, like Wesley, is also charting an upward trajectory at the right time.
"I think it's really cool and I'm obviously really proud of her," Rodman, her longtime teammate at the Washington Spirit before Sanchez's trade to the Courage in 2024, said. "I think through her career, she's been through a lot- ups and downs of coming into the national team, not starting, getting traded, and just so many things that I think that she's overcome, and even just playing in the midfield and now being the top goalscorer on the wing, I think, is really impressive, and I'm just really happy for her, and I do think this is her time, and I'm very excited to be able to share the field with her, and I think she deserves it. To be able to kind of play a lot of her career as a midfielder and to now thrive up top, I think, brings just another piece to the game and can also bring another type of forward to this lineup as well, which I think is really good for us."
The fact that the USWNT enters their doubleheader against Spain with unanswered questions is intriguing in its own right; uncertainty rarely reassuring, no matter the circumstances. From the team's perch, though, it is all by design.
"Even [the World Cup] just being next year, I think we've already kind of got into that mindset, but obviously, we need to qualify," Wilson said. "But I think this team has been preparing for the World Cup since the day the Olympics ended. I think that's just the mindset, that everything we do in between these tournaments is just in preparation for the next."
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