It was a beautiful and chilly night here at Inter&Co Stadium, and the USWNT was set to play Italia for an international friendly. Although Emily Sams was not present, the USWNT, led by Emily Hayes, fielded a forceful lineup against their European counterparts.
In the second minute of play, Moultrie scored the first goal for the USWNT, following a wonderful buildup by Rose Lavelle. It was Moultrie’s 11th cap and fifth goal with the USWNT. Italy tried to match the USWNT’s intensity but failed terribly; the Americans’ press was too hot to handle. The USWNT was ready to score a second, but they missed easy chances. Again, Italy would regain the ball but then lose it almost instantly. The turnovers were costing the Italians a lot, and momentum was dwindling toward the Americans. Much of the first half was being played in the midfield, with both squads fighting for the ball, going into attacking transition but losing the ball against their respective backlines. The Italians were also working on pressing the Americans a bit more and causing the USWNT to turn over the ball constantly. In the 37th minute, Beccari came close to scoring for the Italians, but Claudia Dickey superbly neutralized her shot. Lavelle attempted a shot from the box’s edge in the 38th minute, but Giuliana easily cleared it with a punch. Then in the 39th minute, Beccari again was 1v1 with Dickey and tripped, making it simple for Dickey to save the chance. Italy was gaining momentum, resulting in a back-and-forth contest between both teams.
It was halftime, and the game was 1-0 USWNT. In the latter minutes, the game became a back-and-forth affair; however, until the goal, the USWNT had dominated. Thereafter, Italy regained momentum and looked solid at the end, creating back-to-back chances to tie the score.
The statistics show that the USWNT had 69% ball possession compared to 31% for Italy, indicating complete domination in possession by the Americans. 2 big chances for Italy, 0 for the Americans, and 5 total shots for the USWNT, with 3 on target. So far it’s been a highly competitive half for both, with a slight edge to the US since they dominated possession and had more shots on goal. Let’s see what Emma Hayes and her squad do in the second half.
The U.S. got off to a positive start, and Lavelle got a corner kick in the first minute. The set piece wasn’t served well, though, so the Yanks couldn’t score. People in the United States thought Moultrie’s goal in the 49th minute put them ahead, but Thompson was called offside before the goal.
The home team kept pushing. Lavelle sent a lovely pass across the box to the back post, but an American player couldn’t get to it. In the 52nd minute, Moultrie attempted a goal, but it went straight to the goalie. After one minute, Lavelle was facing away from the goal when the ball reached her at the top of the six. She attempted a covert backheel shot due to the absence of teammates to pass to, but she missed Giuliana and directed the ball directly at her.
Lavelle had another chance in the 54th minute. Moultrie took the ball outside of Italy’s box and passed it to Lavelle on the left. But she missed the goal.
Italy quickly lost the ball and made a fantastic chance by passing it to Cambiaghi on the left side. Dickey dove to block the shot, putting her arm down and then jumping to catch the loose ball.
The U.S. had a few corner kicks, but they didn’t make use of them. Girma got his head on a ball that came back into the area in the 58th minute, but he couldn’t get it to go anywhere near the goal. In the 63rd minute, Macario had another chance to score, but his shot went right at Giuliana.
The U.S. scored its second goal after a minute. Coffey sent a fantastic through ball to Macario from the left side. In the 64th minute, Macario beat Giuilana and put her shot inside the right post to make it 2–0.
The US kept on attacking. In the 66th minute, Coffey took another shot from outside the box, but this time Giuliana stopped it.
Emma Hayes made her first changes in the 70th and 71st minutes. She took Moultrie and Lavelle out and put Jaedyn Shaw and Lily Yohannes in.
Even so, that didn’t help the U.S. Thompson cut inside from the left to the right and took a shot, but Giuliana blocked it within a minute of the substitutions. When Shaw hit the ball out of the air, Giuliana quickly saved it so it wouldn’t go out.
Yohannes sent a beautiful curling ball from the right sideline to Macario in the 76th minute. Macario got to the top of the box and blasted a shot into the top right corner to make it 3-0.
After the third goal, Orlando Pride defender Sams took Girma’s place. The crowd cheered loudly. At the same time, Jameese Joseph replaced Macario and made her first start for the USWNT.
The game got a little rough near the end after both teams made many changes. Sams made a brilliant move in the 87th minute to prevent Sofia Cantore from escaping as Italy attempted to score a consolation goal.
For both the USWNT and Italy, the match will be their last game of the 2025 season. On Monday night, they will play each other again in Fort Lauderdale.
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