United States women’s national team head coach Emma Hayes said she was unhappy with her team’s poor first-half performance against the Netherlands on Tuesday, but she said that her squad’s response to win 2-1 in The Hague is the sign of a great team.
The come-from-behind victory came despite the U.S. being outshot 22-5 by the hosts and enduring waves of pressure in the first half.
“I thought we started so poorly,” Hayes said. “We were second to everything. And listen, you have to do the basics right in football. I didn’t feel we won our duels anywhere all over the pitch.”
Hayes said her team, the world No. 1 and recent Olympic gold medal-winners, “got bullied and harassed and that frustrated me a little bit.”
Veerle Buurman opened the scoring for the Netherlands by winning a header on a corner kick. By halftime, the Netherlands had outshot the U.S. 14-1, but Dutch forward Jill Roord wasted several chances and Danielle van De Donk narrowly missed another header on a set piece.
Moments before halftime, the U.S. equalized on a set piece when Buurman inadvertently headed the ball into her own net.
Netherlands forward Romée Leuchter consistently beat U.S. fullback Jenn Nighswonger on the U.S. left side, including three times in a four-minute span, the third of which led to the corner that produced the Netherlands’ goal. Hayes pulled Nighswonger off at halftime and subbed on Emily Sonnett to add the defender’s leadership, the coach said after the match.
Lynn Williams also came on at halftime and scored the game-winning goal in the 71st minute.
“I wouldn’t say that this was our prettiest game of soccer ever,” Williams said. And sometimes that’s how games go. But the biggest thing — you can talk about tactics, you can talk about formation and everything, but the biggest thing was matching their intensity, getting to the second ball, getting to the first ball, and that was the shift that needed to happen. And I think that that was the intensity I was trying to bring onto the pitch.”
Hayes experimented with Jaedyn Shaw starting as the No. 9, Rose Lavelle deployed wide left, and Yazmeen Ryan on the right side of the front line.
The midfield trio of Lindsey Horan, Korbin Albery and Sam Coffey struggled to assert itself in the game as the Dutch won the ball high up the field throughout the first half.
The Americans stabilized the game in the second half with six changes over the course of the 45 minutes, including midfielder Lily Yohannes entering the game in the 67th minute. Yohannes, who recently chose to represent the U.S. — where she was born — over the Netherlands, faced boos from the crowd when she got on the ball.
“I think she handled that really well,” Hayes said of Yohannes. She’s been put in, in a situation — and I’ve intentionally put her in that situation, because I think it will help her down the road.”
Goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher made several spectacular saves in her final match for the U.S. before retiring from international duty.
The U.S. remains unbeaten with Hayes as coach, including this summer’s run to an Olympic gold medal. Hayes has 13 wins and two draws since officially taking over as head coach in June.
The 2-1 victory to end 2024 came three days after a scoreless draw against England at Wembley Stadium in London.
“I knew this would be the tricky game of the two, and it played out exactly the way I wanted it to,” Hayes said. “So, I’m really delighted with the team’s ability to find the result when we haven’t been at our best.”
“I felt like second half we got our foot stuck in, which for me is quite basic, so I’m pleased we got that part right. But we also rode it a lot. I’m not sitting here saying we were the better team, but you can still win football matches and not be your best. And I thought today we demonstrated by not being at our best, both in and out of possession, that finding a way to win is a sign of a great team.”
