Nineteen-year-old Jaedyn Shaw reminded Americans what they had missed when she returned to the U.S. women’s national team during the October international break. After being sidelined this summer at the Olympics by an untimely leg injury, Shaw showed off footwork and an incomparable control over the past week that had U.S. head coach Emma Hayes heaping on praise. Shaw’s performances also reiterated her promise as perhaps just the threat the United States needs as a forward or an attacking midfielder.
Filling a role typically reserved on the USWNT for the likes of veterans including Lindsey Horan and Rose Lavelle as the No. 10, Shaw showed off her touch and tenacity when she netted a go-ahead goal in the first of two exhibition matches against Iceland off the bench. She then started the second and served as the only returning starter in the team’s closing win over Argentina on Wednesday.
Even amid a three-game series filled with impressive performances from many fresh faces, Hayes — recently named winner of this year’s Ballon d’Or women’s coach of year award — still spoke particularly highly of Shaw. After her score against Iceland, she described the striker’s abilities as unmatched in the player pool.
“Every single one of our locker room is over the moon for Jaedyn Shaw, knowing what she experienced in the summer,” Hayes told media in a press conference after her team’s first 3-1 win over Iceland. “Her ability to create and score goals is second to none in this country and her feet were fabulous. She took her goal well and looked very threatening.”
The San Diego Wave forward — who held the honors of being the youngest on the American Olympic roster — was ruled out of last summer’s tournament opener on the team’s final day of training with a quad injury that eventually took her out of contention for the entire gold-medal campaign in France. Despite having just three goals in club competition this NWSL season in 12 starts for the 13th-ranked Wave, and missing a handful of matches after returning from France and seeing limited minutes since, Shaw’s presence on the pitch for the United States was far more prominent.
This three-game preview, however impressive, was just taste of what Hayes expects from Shaw as she returns to peak performance post-injury.
“I think the season ending is coming at the wrong time for her,” the former Chelsea boss said. “She’s a unique talent. Her feet are special in those tight areas. I don’t know too many players that can do what she does.”
Building on this performance and remaining healthy are the next steps for Shaw, who credits a childhood spent playing futsal for her undeniably deft footwork. The teenager is a noticeably different type of player from Horan or Lavelle — both incredible talents in their own right.
Shaw’s remarkable ability to move the ball with impeccable precision, and the ease with which she can take on defenders 1-v-1 en route to the net, makes her perhaps just the sort of versatile solution Hayes needs as she sorts out her squad’s midfield. With the skill to create opportunities and the confidence to capitalize, Shaw serves as a No. 9 who can also more than capably (and perhaps preferably) play the No. 10 for this U.S. women’s national team.
“I’m just happy to be back in general, let alone score a goal,” Shaw told reporters after the match. “I’m just really happy that I could contribute to this win and hopefully can continue onto the next.”
It certainly didn’t hurt that the goal happened in her home state of Texas.
What a talent like Shaw gives Hayes is, as the coach described it, depth in her roster “at the highest areas, which is fantastic.”
Shaw’s return to the international scene comes almost exactly one year after her first senior national team cap as an 18-year-old debutant, and her first goal for the U.S., which came in the second of last fall’s two matches against Colombia. Her spring appearances with the squad were equally as strong prior to her injury. If Shaw’s showing this break had to be summed up, perhaps it would go something like this: more promising performances, plus one heck of a goal.
“I just say it’s all God’s plan,” Shaw said after scoring in the first game against Iceland. “It was a really tough month for me [at the Olympics], but it was also the best month of my life, and I learned a lot from it. And so it just made me hungrier to come back and produce the same if not more.”
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