USWNT waves off Alyssa Naeher and avenges with 3-1 win against Portugal
For over a decade, Rentschler Field has been good to the United States Women’s National Team. Unbeaten in seven previous matches, it’s been less a stadium and more a stronghold — a place where dominance felt routine, and the home crowd rarely left without cause to cheer. But on this October Sunday in Hartford, with a bitter loss to Portugal still hanging in the air, the return to Rentschler didn’t feel like a coronation. It felt like a challenge.
This wasn’t just another fixture. It was a crossroads — for a young team in transition, for a program redefining what excellence looks like, and for a generation being forged in the fire of international competition.
Before the whistle, Alyssa Naeher — Connecticut’s own — was honored with her final applause with the national team. Her legacy: a decade of consistency, leadership, and clutch moments between the posts. But on the field, the focus was already shifting to the next wave. In Emma Hayes’ short tenure, the U.S. has fielded lineups that are younger, riskier, and more experimental than anything seen in the modern era. And with that youth has come adversity.
They lost the SheBelieves Cup final to Japan. They fell to Brazil in the spring. And just days ago, they were stunned by Portugal for the first time in history. These are results that, on paper, don’t fit the dominant mythology of the USWNT — but that might be the point. Hayes isn’t preserving the past. She’s preparing the future. And that means throwing her players — some with fewer than ten caps — directly into the crucible.
What Sunday offered was more than a shot at redemption. It was a litmus test. Would this group retreat under pressure, or rise because of it? Could they not just learn from failure, but respond to it? In a stadium that’s long symbolized U.S. control, the question wasn’t whether history would repeat — it was whether a new identity was ready to emerge.
And make no mistake — Emma Hayes isn’t lowering the bar. She’s raising it. The losses this year haven’t come from carelessness; they’ve come from conviction. From putting 19- and 20-year-olds in pressure-cooker matches and telling them to figure it out. From choosing growth over guarantee. This isn’t just about getting results now — it’s about demanding a level of tactical maturity, mental resilience, and emotional clarity that will define whether this group belongs on the same pitch as the Italys and Japans of the world.
Hartford, then, was a proving ground. One last chance in 2025 to answer back before Italy arrives in December — and with it, the kind of technical, world-class opposition that doesn’t allow for excuses. The kind of test that separates potential from pedigree.
If the last game against Portugal was the gut punch, this one was about how you stand back up.
Just look at the lineup. Claudia Dickey in goal. A back line with Avery Patterson, Jordyn Bugg, Lilly Reale, and Emily Sonnett — one veteran surrounded by a wall of promise. The midfield? Lily Yohannes, Jaedyn Shaw, Claire Hutton, and Olivia Moultrie — all 21 or younger, all expected to orchestrate the tempo against a seasoned Portugal press. Up top, it was Alyssa Thompson and Ally Sentnor — two of the brightest attacking prospects in the country, barely into their twenties, tasked with leading the line. No Lavelle. No Coffey. No Macario. No guardrails. Just youth, ambition, and the unwavering belief from Emma Hayes that growth doesn’t happen in comfort — it happens in moments exactly like this one.
If Thursday was about what the U.S. didn’t do after scoring early, Sunday was about correcting that. Just 45 seconds in, Olivia Moultrie cleaned up a deflection to give the U.S. an electric start — the 19th time in program history they’ve scored in the first minute, and already the fourth this year. But unlike Chester, this time the foot stayed on the pedal. After conceding four minutes later to a wide-open Jessica Silva on a cross from the ever-dangerous Kika Nazareth — again exposing the growing pains of a reshuffled back line — the response was immediate and precise. The tempo lifted. The shape compacted. The passing sequences — which had fallen to just six in the last match — began to stretch and expand. By the 9th minute, Moultrie had her brace, this one the result of a brilliant backheel from Jaedyn Shaw and the kind of patient buildup Hayes has been demanding. Three teenagers started in midfield, just as they did against Brazil earlier this year — a game the U.S. lost. But this time, the intention was different. The shape was tighter. The bite was back. And with players like Shaw, Hutton, and Yohannes showing signs of real progression, Hayes may be closer than ever to proving her most radical idea yet: that the next generation doesn’t need to wait their turn — they’re already earning it.
Emma Hayes made no changes at the break — a show of faith in a young group that was finally starting to click. And they rewarded that trust with the kind of maturity she’s been betting on all year. Lily Yohannes and Claire Hutton continued to boss the midfield, playing with a calmness far beyond their years, while Ally Sentnor and Jaedyn Shaw combined for a pair of disallowed goals that, if not for the offsides flag, would’ve blown the match wide open. The difference from Thursday was night and day. There was urgency in every pass, rhythm in the way they attacked space, and a level of intent that had been missing in Chester. When Emma Sears and Emily Fox came on just past the hour mark, it felt like Hayes was turning the volume up, not down. Sears, the top American scorer in the NWSL this year, has quietly become one of Hayes’ go-to options — this was her fifth straight appearance, and her presence stretched Portugal’s back line immediately. But the moment of the match belonged to Sam Coffey. Subbed in for Hutton, Coffey smashed home a one-time finish in the 81st minute off a corner from Sentnor — her fifth international goal, and third this year. For a defensive midfielder, her goals are anything but scrappy — and this one, a clean strike from the top of the box, came straight from a set-piece sequence Hayes has been drilling into this team. Five of the last six USWNT goals have come from set pieces — a data point Hayes will no doubt point to as evidence of progress. The final change saw Lo’eau LaBonta replace Yohannes in the 85th, capping a performance from the 18-year-old that was, by every metric, veteran-level. Her Lyon teammate Lindsey Heaps once called Yohannes “the calmest player she’s ever met.” On a day like this, you could see exactly why.
What this team showed in Hartford wasn’t just a response — it was a recalibration. The questions that loomed after Thursday’s loss weren’t erased by the scoreline alone, but by the way this young group earned it. Through tempo. Through composure. Through a collective will to fix what went wrong. Hayes didn’t lean on veterans to clean up the mess — she let the kids take the heat, and they delivered. Moultrie with the brace. Coffey with the exclamation point. Yohannes with a performance that could anchor a team ten years older. As the sun set on Alyssa Naeher’s final camp and the lights came up at Rentschler Field, it felt like something had shifted. Not just a result avenged, but a future claimed. Next up is Italy — a heavyweight, a benchmark, a mirror. And if this group has anything to say about it, they won’t just show up. They’ll belong.
