The U.S. women’s national team will close out the October international window, and it’s a final chance for players to leave their mark with World Cup qualifiers just 13 months away. After splitting two games against Portugal, the USWNT will host New Zealand on Wednesday at CPKC Stadium in Kansas City, Mo.
For the group, it will be an opportunity to end on a winning streak. The team suffered a disjointed, 2-1 loss against Portugal to open their three-game series and bounced back on Sunday with a 3-1 victory. Now they have to prepare for a new opponent before saying farewell till the next international window beginning Nov. 28.
U.S. national team head coach Emma Hayes initially named a 26-player roster to have flexibility over three games and has utilized the roster through two games, including the goalkeeper position. Phallon Tullis-Joyce and Claudia Dickey split the first two games in goal, and players across the bench have featured in substitution windows.
Here are storylines, how you can watch the match and more:
How to watch and odds
- Date: Wednesday, Oct. 29 | Time: 8 p.m. ET
- Location: CPKC Stadium — Kansas City, Mo.
- TV: TNT and TruTV | Live stream: HBO Max
A different opponent and a chance to change things up
While the USWNT settled for a series split against Portugal, they’ll now face non-European opposition. New Zealand are on top of the Oceania Football Confederation, but their record against the USWNT has gaps. Wednesday’s match will be the 22nd game between the teams, and the USWNT lead the all-time series (19W-1L-1D) with a lone loss in 1987 — the first game ever between the two sides.
The most recent meetings occurred in Jan. 2023, as part of 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup prep, when the USWNT visited New Zealand before the global tournament. The Stars and Stripes dominated the Football Ferns over two games, a 4-0 win in Wellington and a 5-0 victory in Auckland.
The two national teams also have a history of playing each other during the Olympic Games in 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020, where the United States were victorious. Rose Lavelle is the only player on the current roster who participated in the 2023 friendlies, and now there is a different USWNT head coach and roster preparing for New Zealand in 2025. Having two games against Portugal, and one of them being a bounce-back game, is helpful, according to Emma Hayes.
“I always say when you’re the losing team, sometimes it’s a lot easier when you win and you dominate the first game, then the opponent adapts to things, and sometimes it can be harder the second game,” Hayes said after the Portugal win. “But I think we took the learnings. We had a lot of small group meetings. I really have to do a lot of work tactically with the team. They love it, the players, because they keep learning about all of the little details you need at the highest level. And I think the difference is the application of that learning.”
Players try to leave an impression
Another chance for players to force difficult decisions on USWNT manager Emma Hayes. It’s 13 months till the squad enters World Cup qualifiers, and time is expiring on player evaluations. With a penultimate game against New Zealand before the final window of the year, players will have to make their mark on the game, as well as on Hayes and the technical staff.
Despite the opening loss, the response was already immediate, whether it was from younger players or 2024 Olympic gold medalist Sam Coffey.
“I think it’s like such a credit to our younger players, because that’s such a hard position to be in coming off of an uncharacteristic loss that was way below our standard, to come out and to take the lessons in two days time and to reapply it in a way where we come back and can beat them, 3-1,” Coffey said on Sunday.
“[Portugal’s] a really good team, and there is not a lot of [USWNT] experience on the field, [and] I think they did an amazing job. So, I’m super proud of the girls.”
There will be games and training camps for more difficult roster decisions, but it’s not far-fetched to anticipate a more specific pool of players moving forward. Hayes has been vocal about this period being a time of narrowing the roster selections, especially with 2026 being a year with potential reintegration of other 2024 Olympic gold medalists not in camp due to injury or on maternity leave. As others return, others may rotate out, especially if not within the U-23 specific age group.
Rust is kicked off for now
No matter who finds themselves in and out of training camps, the program is practicing patience and eventual execution within its principles. If the opening loss to Portugal was an example of time away and combined experience, then the follow-up win was the exact response the group needed in quick succession. It serves as another example of how, even with fewer capped players, the messaging, principles, and coaching are reaching across the roster.
“Let’s start with the fact that 10 players have 100 caps [collectively]. Emily Sonnett has 111. So, when you’re looking at experience amongst 10 players, there’s not a lot there. And I knew that there would come situations that show some of the dynamic qualities they have as less experienced players,” Hayes said.
“I thought positionally, attacking-wise, we were much, much better in all phases of the field. I think it’s a good lesson. The goal we conceded was an exact moment of not jumping out in the wrong moment. Didn’t quite get a detail right. And as we keep telling the players at the highest level, those details matter. So, I have a coaching opportunity in and around the goal, but it’s all of it leading up to that. But I thought we responded well from that, kept playing, kept showing our principles, showed the control element that I felt was lacking in the last game, and it was overall a much better performance.”
A key adjustment was making sure that one loss didn’t define a team. Hayes joked with reporters in the post-game, “How are you when you’ve had a month off over the Christmas break?”
“I think we’ve never had a 113-day break between international games, and for us, it just felt like we just couldn’t get rhythm going. So, what I did is return the team to basics, and those basics look like small pictures, high volume repetitions, creating connections between them, so that we were coming out the session with hundreds of passes between us. So, we got used to the distances, we got used to the relationships, all of those really little things.
“I think that’s why the performance looked like that, because [it] just reminded us of our play again. Each player had to go from their club to like, ‘Oh, alright, these are our principles.’ It just took us a bit of time, but it’s not a disaster.”
Game Prediction
If part of the USWNT’s current strength is the ability to respond and adjust when needed, it might be a long day for New Zealand on Wednesday. Look for more player rotations and efforts to close out the window on a strong note. Pick: USA 2, New Zealand 0
