HARRISON, N.J. — The U.S. women’s national team didn’t run riot by any means at the 2026 SheBelieves Cup, but they did find different ways to win in all three matches.
Emma Hayes’ squad lifted the tournament trophy for the eighth time in its existence after defeating No. 20-ranked Colombia 1-0 at Sports Illustrated Stadium. The result gave the Americans their ninth-straight win and eighth clean sheet in a row, extending their shutout streak to 805 matches dating back to last fall.
Although the USWNT weren’t at their best in the final third, they did find a way through Alyssa Thompson’s second-half stunner. Hayes credited her players for finding a way through, knowing that opponents will continue to very compact against the U.S.
“In world football, everyone is really compact and well coached now but sometimes you’re going to need something from deeper areas because you’re not going to be able to break blocks,” Hayes said postmatch. “If you think about this tournament, Lindsey Heaps, Jaedyn Shaw, Alyssa Thompson, the types of goals we’ve scored it’s because teams respect that space in the box and not giving us much of it. It was a wonderful from her [Thompson] and one that was coming, I thought we deserved that based off the second half.”
The USWNT’s pair of victories in January came during the middle of the European season, but for the most part, Hayes has had plenty of her regular talent to choose from. From Thompson to Heaps to Emily Fox to Naomi Girma, plenty of the USWNT’s core have been available and have featured over the past six months.
Although Colombia made it difficult for them on Saturday, the USWNT grinded their way to three points, capping off the March window in winning fashion. Hayes praised the effort of the entire squad, admitting that each type of performance and style of game is needed to win bigger tournaments.
“We’ve got a split season with half of our players in season and half out,” Hayes said when asked about the team’s overall pride in finding ways to win. “I think the performances in SheBelieves Cup reflects that, there’s some really composed moments and then some not quite. Like I told the team, winning major things requires different games and different approaches in every game. I think we’ve showed all of those sides in all three games.
“We’ve shown how to win when we’re not at our best, we’ve shown the versatility, we’ve shown the depth, we’ve shown the maturity, as a coach I love those things,” she added. “I love shutouts but more importantly I love that we haven’t given up a lot of chances. Sometimes when you’re winning a game 1-0 things can get tight with corners and all of a sudden a game can flip. I think we’ve done well to minimize games from becoming transitional.”
Hayes’ first involvement in the SheBelieves Cup ended with the USWNT finishing second-best to Japan. Fast forward 12 months, the USWNT are back on top of the annual tournament, showing the strengths once again that have made them a consistent giant in world football.
When asked about the differences between the USWNT’s 2025 and 2026 SheBelieves Cup squads, Hayes referred back to that loss to Japan as a spark to the squad’s overall development of depth.
“If we think about the Olympics we talk about a team that was really resilient, difficult to beat, and the “Triple Espresso”,” Hayes said. “Now we talk about all the other players in addition to that, it’s a team that can support Soph [Sophia Wilson] and Mal [Mallory Swanson] when we welcome them back to the team but they just had their babies, others have been able to carry that mantle and that’s a great place to be.
We got Trin [Trinity Rodman] who has been out for a period of time, plays 60 minutes, she’s in preseason and she looks it,” Hayes added. “She dug in and when she leaves the field, you can bring an Emma Sears on knowing you can maintain that quality. The difference is the experience that has been developed within that depth. They can do it now and do it because of the experiences of losing to Japan.”
The USWNT will now have a four-week break before kickoff of a three-match April window against Japan on the West Coast.
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