U.S. Women’s Team Surprised by Portugal: Crisis or Adjustment in the Hayes Era?

Emma Hayes Reflects After US Women’s National Team Defeat to Portugal

The coach of the United States women’s national soccer team, Emma Hayes, expressed her frustration after her team’s 2-1 defeat to Portugal at Subaru Park. Hayes, visibly upset, described the match as a game of “Whac-A-Mole”, indicating the difficulty of correcting mistakes on the field.

“I felt frustrated tonight because I felt like it was a game of Whac-A-Mole. I felt like if I took something out, I was hitting that. That’s how I felt the game as a coach, and I’ve been doing this for so long: I hate those games,” Hayes said.

Emma Hayes

Portugal scored both goals through corner kicks, something that, according to Hayes, no coach likes to concede. The US team struggled to connect both with and without the ball against a well-organized Portuguese team. Midfielder Rose Lavelle, who scored 35 seconds into the match, commented that each player seemed to be trying to solve the problems individually. Captain Lindsey Heaps added that, at times, they felt like “islands”.

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This performance recalled some moments from the 2023 World Cup, where the U.S. managed a draw with Portugal by a very small margin, thus avoiding their first elimination in the group stage in the history of the World Cup. Although Hayes was not the coach at that time, the current defeat does not alarm her.

“As Australian conductor Ben Northey would say, ‘Let it go’,” Hayes said.

Emma Hayes

Thursday’s defeat was the team’s third of the year, something that has only happened four times in the program’s 40-year history. Portugal, with its diamond formation in midfield, maintained 60% possession in the first half, finding spaces between the three US midfielders. The problems piled up across the board for the U.S. Hayes lamented the poorly timed defensive challenges and lost duels, as well as the corner kicks. Diana Gomes and Fátima Pinto scored for Portugal after U.S. defensive errors.

“I think there were things that didn’t work all over the field,” midfielder Sam Coffey said.

Sam Coffey

The defeat on Thursday is only the third in the program’s history for the USWNT against an opponent outside the top 20 in the FIFA rankings. The biggest concern was not the result, but the flat and disjointed performance, and the individual way in which the players tried to solve the problems in real time. The lack of problem-solving and creativity was ultimately the team’s undoing. Despite the defeat, the Hayes era has had a good start, and Heaps reiterated that the team cannot be too negative. Thursday’s match was not a World Cup, but the first match for this core group on the road to qualifying for next year.

“It’s a football match, nobody died. We have to improve and I promise you we will be better, or we better be,” Hayes said.

Emma Hayes

The rematch against Portugal in East Hartford, Connecticut, on Sunday, could partly explain that optimism. Goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce summed up what’s on her mind for Sunday: “Revenge, for sure.”