Friendly female football on Saturday between the WE and Brazil was presented as a revenge match of Olympic final last summer. It was a bit of an improper term for two thirds of women on the list of 23 American players were not in Paris last August.
Even uniforms were not the same.
As for the result, only the score was different, with horse riding goals in the United States Trinity Rodman And Tas de Lindsey to a 2-0 victory before a crowd of 32,303 at the Sofi stadium.
And all this was fine with Emma Hayes coachWho uses his first full year in charge of the team to audition a wave of young players before the next major international tournament, the 2027 World Cup. Two of these women nailed their tests on Saturday, Alyssa Thompson crossing, around and above the Brazilian defense all afternoon, while the goalkeeper of Manchester United, Phallon Tullis-Joyce, made six stops for his first appearance for his first appearance The senior national team to win the laundering.
“I love playing in Los Angeles, of course,” said Thompson, who grew up in the San Fernando valley and plays for Angel City FC. “Knowing that my family is here, knowing that my friends are there, my teammates. It made me feel so comfortable and I felt like I was more in the field. So it was really nice. “
The American striker Alyssa Thompson controls the ball during a 2-0 victory against Brazil at the Sofi stadium on Saturday.
(Images Kevork Djsezian / Getty for USSF)
Thompson made his presence felt early, helping Rodman's goal in the fifth minute. After taking a head at a Crystal Dunn rebound in the midfield, Thompson woven the center of the Brazilian team – Lateral Désking Mariza, she went so much in the lawn – before dividing two defenders with a low ball through Rodman in Stride for the easy finish.
“She has strengthened her confidence and consistency in her performance, and I think it has shown,” said Hayes about Thompson. “It's a very good waterproof for her.”
Rodman’s goal, who has struggled against a back injury in the past seven months, was his first for the United States since the Olympic quarter-finals.
“I felt so well to be in this atmosphere, be with the team,” said Rodman, A native of Orange County Who also played in front of the family and friends during the first professional sporting event at the Sofi stadium.
After his score, Rodman struck him with playfulness and pretended to move away from the goal – a cascade which initially alarmed his coach.
“I didn't think she was pretending, so I will have a word with her,” said Hayes with simulated anger. “I turned to the physios and I said:” His back hurts “. Then I realized that she was cheating on us.
“The simple fact of remembering it is such a difference. She changes the situation and we know that we have to take care of her.”
Twelve minutes later, Speedy Thompson almost scored, running at the top of the box to create space before sending a right shot to the most distant corner than the Brazilian goalkeeper Lorena Leite barely kept away from the side net.
Thompson had three best looks in the second half, but Leite smothered the first two, then jumped to raise the third try – a sports stroke by Thompson, whose back was at the goal – on the transverse bar to keep the match near.
He therefore fell to Lily Yohannes to establish the second goal, descending into the box after being triggered, allowing the heaps to double the advance on a penalty kick.
Tullis-Joyce has been standing with six stops, the most by an American goalkeeper since the seven of Alyssa Naeher against Germany in the Olympic semi-finals. Tullis-Joyce made her national team debut after Hayes told her several days ago that she would start against Brazil, but the goalkeeper said that she had not said to the family members who had attended the match.
The American defender Tara McKewn repels the Brazil striker Gio Queiroz in the second half of the international friendly match on Saturday at the Sofi stadium.
(Jae C. Hong / Associated Press)
“I couldn't verbally. There was a frog in my throat,” said Tullis-Joyce. “They only knew when the (programming) was announced on social networks.”
Meanwhile, Hayes, a former club coach out of competition who lost only once in 19 games during her first try in the management of a national team, said that she was starting to feel at 10 months in the new job.
“I feel at home with this team,” she said. “I feel like I can make a difference, to build an environment in which I want to be and that the players want to be and I think it pushes me to new peaks. When you are in a club, you cannot breathe. You have a game every three days, you are on the road.
“I have the impression that it is the first camp in my mandate where, frankly, I have the impression of having my menopause under control. I think it was really difficult for me. I didn't know how difficult it was. “
The Hayes team was not the only thing that was tested. Sofi's hybrid play surface, stretched on the artificial lawn on which Rams and Loaders play, have held well. The grass carpet was installed about a month ago for four games in the League of Concacaf Nations and was left in place so that women friends to see how they would grow and adapt to the unique interior / exterior conditions of the stadium before the male world cup next year.
Sofi will host eight World Cup games and FIFA rules prohibit the use of artificial lawn in the tournament.
Otto Benedict, Vice-President Director of the stadium for the operations of the facilities and the campus, said that the withdrawal of the lawn will be carried out in collaboration with the Sofi field entrepreneur.
The new SOD will be deposited before the match of the Gold Cup of the Concacaf, featuring Mexico on June 14.
