U.S. women’s soccer victory over Brazil becomes a showcase for World Cup hopefuls
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Saturday’s women’s soccer friendly between the U.S. and Brazil was billed as a rematch of last summer’s Olympic final. That was a bit of a misnomer since two-thirds of the women on the 23-player U.S. roster weren’t in Paris last August.
Even the uniforms weren’t the same.
As for the result, only the score was different, with the U.S. riding goals from Trinity Rodman and Lindsey Heaps to a 2-0 win before a crowd of 32,303 at SoFi Stadium.
And all that was fine with coach Emma Hayes, who is using her first full year in charge of the team to audition a wave of young players ahead of the next major international tournament, the 2027 World Cup. Two of those women nailed their tryouts Saturday, with Alyssa Thompson running through, around and over the Brazilian defense all afternoon, while Manchester United goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce made six saves in her first appearance for the senior national team to earn the shutout.
“I love playing in L.A., obviously,” said Thompson, who grew up the San Fernando Valley and plays for Angel City FC. “Knowing that my family’s here, knowing that my friends are here, my teammates. It just made me feel so much more comfortable and I felt like I could be more myself on the field. So it was really nice.”
Thompson made her presence felt early, assisting on Rodman’s goal in the fifth minute. After taking a one-bounce header from Crystal Dunn at midfield, Thompson weaved through the center of the Brazilian team — deking fullback Mariza so badly she went to the turf — before splitting two defenders with a low through ball that hit Rodman in stride for the easy finish.
“She’s been building her confidence and consistency in her performance, and I think it showed,” Hayes said of Thompson. “It’s a really good steppingstone for her.”
The goal by Rodman, who has battled a back injury for the last seven months, was her first for the U.S. since the Olympic quarterfinals.
“I felt so good to be in this atmosphere again, be with the team,” said Rodman, an Orange County native who also played in front of family and friends in the first professional women’s sporting event at SoFi Stadium.
After her score, Rodman playfully grabbed at her back and pretended to limp away from the goal — a stunt that originally alarmed her coach.
“I didn’t think she was pretending, so I will have a word with her,” Hayes said with mock anger. “I turned to the physios and I said, ‘Her back’s hurting.’ Then I realized she was tricking us.
“Just having her back is just such a difference. She’s a game-changer and we know we have to look after her.”
As the U.S. women’s national team prepares to face Brazil for the first time since the Paris Olympics, Trinity Rodman is ready to adapt to her new teammates.
Twelve minutes later the speedy Thompson nearly scored, making a run across the top of the box to create space before sending a right-footed shot toward the far corner that Brazilian keeper Lorena Leite barely kept out of the side netting.
Thompson had three better looks in the second half, but Leite smothered the first two, then leaped to lift the third try — an athletic shot by Thompson, whose back was to the goal — over the crossbar to keep the game close.
So it fell to Lily Yohannes to set up the second goal, going down in the box after being tripped, allowing Heaps to double the lead on a penalty kick.
Tullis-Joyce made it stand up with six saves, the most by a U.S. keeper since Alyssa Naeher’s seven against Germany in the Olympic semifinals. Tullis-Joyce made her national team debut after Hayes told her several days ago she would start against Brazil, but the keeper said she didn’t tell her family members who attended the game.
“I couldn’t verbally. There was a frog in my throat,” Tullis-Joyce said. “They only knew when the [lineup] was announced on social media.”
Meanwhile Hayes, a former standout club coach who has lost just once in 19 games in her first try at managing a national team, said she’s beginning to feel comfortable 10 months into the new job.
“I feel at home with this team,” she said. “I feel like I could make a difference, build an environment that I want to be in and the players want to be in and I think it’s pushing me to new heights. When you’re at a club, you can’t breathe. You’ve got a game every three days, you’re on the road.
“I feel like this is the first camp in my tenure where, quite frankly, I feel like I’ve got my menopause under control. I think that’s been really challenging for me. I didn’t realize how challenging it was.”
SoFi Stadium experimented with an innovative hybrid grass system. Here is how they set up the pitch and what they learned ahead of the 2026 World Cup.
Hayes’ team wasn’t the only thing that was tested. The hybrid playing surface at SoFi, stretched over the artificial turf the Rams and Chargers play on, held up well. The grass carpet was installed about a month ago for four CONCACAF Nations League games and was left in place for the women’s friendly to see how it would grow and adapt to the stadium’s unique indoor/outdoor conditions ahead of next year’s men’s World Cup.
SoFi will play host to eight World Cup games and FIFA rules prohibit the use of artificial turf in the tournament.
Otto Benedict, the stadium’s senior vice president for facility and campus operations, said the removal of the turf will be done in collaboration with SoFi’s field contractor.
New sod will be laid down ahead of the CONCACAF Gold Cup match, featuring Mexico, on June 14.
