The US Women’s National Team play their final game of a successful year in the Hague this afternoon. The match will be Alyssa Naeher’s last for her country after 115 appearances in goal.
In the first game of this European tour of friendlies, the USWNT played against England to a scoreless draw, apparently struggling to build an attack without Triple Espresso and with the midfield still a work-in-progress. Washington Spirit’s Casey Krueger was one of the bright spots of that match and will be available off the bench today, as will Hal Hershfelt.
Check out the full lineup here: https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2024/12/usa-vs-netherlands-starting-11-usa-lineup-today-players-team-notes
The Netherlands had a more successful showing over the weekend, beating China 4-1 despite missing leading scorer Vivenne Miedema to injury. Like the US, they’ve had a successful year and are unbeaten in their last nine matches, although they did not qualify for the 2024 Summer Olympics.
USA vs. Netherlands
Advertised Kick-off Time: 2:45 p.m. Eastern, 11:45 a.m. Pacific
Venue: Bingoal Stadium, the Hague, Netherlands
Available TV: TNT (English), truTV (English) Universo (Spanish)
Available streaming: Max (English), Peacock (Spanish)
Woohoo! Thanks Annie.
Lily on the bench, but I do imagine she’ll get significant second half minutes. If anything, her not starting makes me wonder further how much Hayes wants Horan-Lavelle to get going again as a dominant midfield creative hub, and if she’s maybe doing the sunk cost fallacy a bit. But, I’m really looking forward to this game!
I would definitely liked to see some different midfielders get a start, mostly Lily and Hal. I’m not sure whether all four of Lavelle, Horan, Coffey, and Albert will be mids, though, or if someone’s going in the forward line.
It’s possible Lavelle is on the right in the forward line, will be interesting to see how it is
Initial thought is that this is a 4141, with Coffey and Shaw as the ones
Also interesting, Lavelle is far left as a winger
Dutch with an early chance that is certainly wasted
Lavelle proves she’s not great at scoring with her right not long after
Well, lot of midfielders, but not a lot of understanding or protection for the backline
Weird to say, but Hayes might not have respected the Dutch enough with this experimentation and lineup.
I write this as the first Dutch goal flies in
I think she may be overestimating the abilities of some of her mids.
Agreed, nobody is working particularly well in their midfield roles, so the aggregate is devastating
Nighswonger also having a bit of a nightmare as a pure left back.
The Dutch could/should be up 3, 4 nothing
How bad is it?
There is occasional evidence that our players have individual talent.
Naeher goes down. Either she’s struggling, or the savviest dark arts time out I’ve seen to regroup
Looks to be the latter
Stellar save by Naeher. Thank goodness she’s alright 😉
I’m gonna laugh if we somehow equalize before half
Omg, Nostradamus. Own goal.
That’s gotta be the most lopsided drawn half I’ve ever seen
Sonnett and Williams coming in. Not sure for whom
4-2-2-2 at this point?
Do we think Hayes has something against Hal Hershfelt?
Good point. Albert hasn’t been that great, and I imagine Coffey would love Hal as a partner right now
I have loved Lavelle in the past, but Lily needs her time
Hey, hey, looks like Hal is coming in, as is Thompson and Lily. Out are Albert, Horan, and I’m trying to figure out who else
Lavelle
Wow, I just said “goal” out loud, but no. Naeher
Williams puts it in! 2-1 US!
Thompson released into space by a nifty header from Lily. Thompson finds a sliding Williams. Great play
Whoops, Ryan with the assist, my bad
Look, Hayes is a very, very good coach. Basically a genius at it. Here’s my final thought, though
Sorry I couldn’t watch with y’all. I got a call about 2:30 that my dad needed a Jumpstart. He’d gotten to my brother’s place of work to pick him up then when he went to start the car again it wouldn’t start. Looks like the battery as we were able to jump it with my jump box.
Looks like Hayes has an extra dimension as a coach— raw luck.
In a lot of LitRPGs Luck is a stat characters have.