USWNT beats Japan 3-0, displaying dominance after Tuesday’s loss

USWNT beats Japan 3-0, displaying dominance after Tuesday’s loss

On a cool night at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colo., the U.S. women’s national team didn’t just beat Japan, it looked like itself again.

And at the very center of their 3-0 score was defender Kennedy Wesley.

After a scoreless first half, Wesley set up Naomi Girma in the 47th minute, who calmly finished at the back post. Seventeen minutes later, Wesley’s moment came — she got on the scoresheet after meeting a corner from Jaedyn Shaw for her first international goal. In between, Rose Lavelle delivered a stunner that kept the momentum firmly on the U.S. side.

The 25-year-old center back from California, who currently plays for the San Diego Wave, delivered exactly the kind of all-action performance Emma Hayes demands from her squad: a breakout display that helped drive the U.S. past a technically sharper, more cohesive Japan team.

“[Japan’s] players are extremely technical, and their positional play model has been developed from very early ages,” Hayes told reporters before the match. “I think traditionally against the United States, you would see Japan dominant in possession, the United States dominant in the encounter attack. I think the roles have reversed, and I think by that, I think defensively, I think Japan is the best team in the world.”

But they could not clinch this time.

From the opening whistle, the USWNT’s tempo was relentless. After losing Tuesday’s friendly against Japan, with Colorado-born Lindsey Heaps at the helm, the midfield pressed high. Despite two members of the “Triple Espresso” trio — Sophia Wilson and — on the front line rotation looking for opportunity, it was a midfielder and center backs who ultimately brought Hayes’s side the victory.