After a loss and a win against Portugal, the U.S. women’s national team played in a different stratosphere against New Zealand on Wednesday night. The first match against Portugal reminded the world what could happen when the USWNT aren’t at their best.
This match, then, reminded the world of what could happen when the USWNT are in form – and that’s a scary, scary sight.
Led by Emma Sears’ first international hat-trick and Catarina Macario’s fourth international brace, the USWNT crushed New Zealand, 6-0, in Kansas City on Wednesday night. Truth be told, it wasn’t even that close. This was a wall-to-wall beatdown, one in which virtually every USWNT player on the field had a moment to be proud of.
Sears, of course, led them all, scoring the opening goal before adding two more in the second half to score her first professional hat-trick.
She was far from the only standout. Macario, too, scored in each half, running the show from up top. Rose Lavelle, who had more caps than the rest of the starting XI combined, scored a stunner just before halftime, having dominated in the prior 44 minutes on the field before coming off after the break.
Michelle Cooper, playing in her club stadium, had two assists, while Lindsey Heaps came off the bench to provide one of her own and Kennedy Wesley – the lone newcomer in camp, and 25th recipient of a first cap from coach Emma Hayes – played well in an electric environment.
“Honestly, I want to give a lot of credit to my teammates,” said Sears, who tripled her previous international goal output in one game. “Especially with that first goal, Michelle served it on a platter for me to tap it in. And yeah, the goals following, it was good to carry on that momentum throughout the game and ultimately get the win.”
Oh, and did we mention this was the least experienced team – cap-wise – that the USWNT has put on the field in the last 25 years? It was a near-perfect performance to end an imperfect, but hopeful, camp. The loss against Portugal certainly served as a wake-up call, and that carried on through to this third game of camp.
In that sense, it was the ending Hayes would have wanted as her young squad throttled New Zealand, marking the most goals the USWNT have scored since their new coach took over last year.
GOAL rates the USWNT’s players from CPKC Stadium.