SheBelieves Cup wrapped up this afternoon with United States Women’s National Team going up against Colombia in what was a battle for the tournament title. With Canada and Argentina having played to a regulation draw, with Canada winning on penalty kicks, both sides came into this match knowing what needed to be done. For Colombia, not only did they have to win this afternoon, but with the goal differential deficit they faced, they needed to win by three or more goals to lift the trophy in the end.
For USWNT, all they needed to do was not lose by three, but we all know the mentality was win the match, go unbeaten, and get crowned champions in vintage dominating fashion to close out the tournament.
In what has been the theme for the tournament, USWNT opened up the match with aggression, putting the pressure on Colombia early and often throughout the first 10 minutes of the match. They didn’t have too many clean looks at goal, but were getting the ball forward and finding Alyssa Thompson with space for her to cook. And, in what has been the theme for the tournament, after the initial opening domination, once Colombia settled into the match, they had their turn to make things a bit nervy for the United States as the following 10 minutes was spent watching them put the pressure on and come close to an opening goal on a couple of occasions.
Washington Spirit’s own Leicy Santos, along with Linda Caicedo, unsurprisingly, put on a show in the first half. Their ability to slice through the defense and put together some pinpoint creative passing, had them asking the most questions in the first half. Fortunately for the United States, Colombia just couldn’t piece together the final finishing touch despite all of their opportunities as both teams went into halftime break even and scoreless. For USWNT, while the win is obviously the goal, going into break even, all things considered, was a win as they only needed to avoid conceding and losing by three, in order to walk away SheBelieves champions. That said, we have seen all tournament that this team is no stranger to close matches, and fully expected them to turn it up in the second half as they looked to come away with the win to make it an unbeaten trophy run this tournament.
As expected, United States came out for the second half in much more dominant fashion. A handful of changes around the 60th minute mark saw fresh legs and some different play styles come into the match to try and get past a pesky Colombian side that had, up until that point, been in control. However, as we have talked about with this squad, they are comfortable going into the deep end of matches and more often than not, know how to wear down opposition and with how well they were doing finding chances in the second half, it looked like it would happen again this afternoon.
It took 82 minutes, but United States eventually found the goal they had been hunting for. Jaedyn Shaw was able to draw in a couple of defenders as she attacked inside the Colombian box, and was able to find Alyssa Thompson at the top of the box with a great pass. Thompson didn’t waste anytime letting it fly, unloading a screamer that went upper 90, top bins, with nothing the keeper could do about it as Thompson gave USWNT the late lead.
The singular goal was enough to see USWNT past Colombia in what was a very competitive match. Even without the goal, United States was well on their way to lifting their eighth SheBelieves trophy, but the win makes this run all the sweeter as they finish the tournament having won all three matches, and doing so in perfect fashion not having conceded a single goal throughout. This may not have been the outright dominant showing many perhaps had hoped for, but as the team prepare for some much more important, and much tougher, matches down the road, this was an excellent way to kickstart what is officially the road to FIFA World Cup 2027.
