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Jeff Kassoff
Chester, PA – a disappointment United States of America Women’s national team coach Emma Hayes said her group was unrecognizable 2-1 damage to portugal Thursday at Subaru Park.
“I didn’t recognize us,” Hayes said. “We just did everything in a hurry; we went straight in. We didn’t look like the team we were working on, but that’s what happens when you have a 113-day gap.”
The loss was the third loss of the year for the USWNT, a slump that has occurred only four times in the program’s 40-year history. But two defeats earlier this year came against fellow world giants Japan And brazil While Hayes experimented with adding young players to the lineup.
Hayes described Thursday’s defeat, the team’s first in 12 matches against Portugal, as the most disappointing in his 18-month tenure because of the way the team played.
“I was frustrated this evening because I felt like there was some strange game going on,” Hayes said, repeatedly banging her hand on the table in the news conference room to make the point.
“I felt like if I put something out, I was hitting on him. That’s how the game was to me as a coach, and I’ve been doing it for so long. I hate games like that.”
Hayes said the team did everything wrong defensively “from front to back” and did not win the duel. The Americans also conceded both goals on corner kicks, which they attributed to the nearly four months between international windows.
midfielder Sam’s Coffee Were less inclined to use war as an excuse.
“You can make a million excuses, and we won’t do that,” Coffey said. “To say we’re not together or we’re young or whatever I think is a cop-out. This team has a standard to take when you’re not good enough and you’re not playing up to a top-level level. There’s a standard to win, and it transcends all of those things.”
Americans started well as midfielders Rose LavelleScored 35 seconds into the match, which was seen to be offside. But Hayes said his team didn’t carry the momentum from there and failed to build any momentum.
“It felt like a team to me in the preseason, so we’ve got to give it a go,” Hayes said. “But as I always say, don’t make it a habit. What’s important is how we look tomorrow, not how we look tomorrow.”
His players echoed those thoughts. Lavelle and Coffey said there was a lot of individual effort while being captain Lindsay Heaps Adding that “Sometimes it feels like we’re on islands.”
Hayes praised Portugal and told his players that they cannot underestimate European opponents who have more experience in the tournament and “know how to finish games.” But the USWNT coach also believes her team failed in several ways on Thursday.
“The reality is it’s not good enough on the team’s part, not any individual’s part,” Hayes said. “I thought the team was bad tonight, and I told the players afterward that, look, everyone would like to try to solve a difficult game sometimes when it’s not going very well. The problem with that is the team wins the game.”
USWNT will get a chance for revenge as goalkeeper Fallon Tullis-Joyce It was called Sunday against Portugal in East Hartford, Conn. As bad as Thursday’s performance was, Heaps said he couldn’t be more disappointed.
“We haven’t been together for four months, we have to remember that,” Heaps said. “We’ve had two days of training, we have to remember that. You don’t want to be too negative right now because you’ll just bang your head.”
