USWNT vs. Canada score: USA soccer cap perfect summer with another shutout victory

The U.S. women’s national team closed out their three-match summer window in style with a commanding 3-0 win over Concacaf rivals Canada at Audi Field with goals from Sam Coffey, Claire Hutton, and Yazmeen Ryan. In front of a sold-out crowd on Wednesday, the USWNT extended their win streak to five consecutive games against their biggest challenger this summer.

The Stars and Stripes connected on goal against the run of play and on refreshing set pieces, with pinpoint service by Rose Lavelle. Coffey’s goal came off a long-distance lob that Avery Patterson helped settle in the box, before Coffey sliced the ball through on goal.

Hutton then doubled the lead just after the half-hour mark with a leaping header off a corner kick. The goal was the first-ever national team goal for the 19-year-old defensive midfielder.

Just minutes away from a narrower scoreline, but late-game substitutes Tara McKeown and Ryan combined for a third goal.

Ryan’s goal turned a more narrow scoreline into a blowout. For Canada, the match was also a bit of a performance metric for a program in the midst of transition. Head coach Casey Stoney was hired for the role in January, and the first six months of the year have been an adjustment period of getting to know players, staff, and the ins and outs of Canada Soccer. The manager was quick to point out that the group has much farther to go after half a year on the job.

“Tonight we were miles off. So, it’s almost the games we’ve had in prep to this haven’t prepared us. They really haven’t. This is the first top opponent we’ve played, and it shows where we’re at,” Stoney told reporters after the game.

“First and foremost, we need to get fitter, like, we weren’t fit enough to even sustain anything tonight,” Stoney said. “We need to be better technically on the ball; too many unforced errors and turnovers. If you’re going to do that, you’ve got to be even fitter.”

“We can keep talking about winning a World Cup, we can keep talking about what we’re going to do, or we can actually put things into action,” Stoney said. “So, I will go away and reflect on the game plan, the selection, the prep. The players need to go away and reflect on their own individual performances and what they need to do to be better come October.”

Outside of an early stretch of effective highline play from Canada, the USWNT were largely in control of the match. However, head coach Emma Hayes has been adamant throughout the window that the group capitalize on their chances when they come, and there will be lots to go over with just three goals on 21 shots. Still, a very impressive window, with 11 goals scored, three shutouts, and a victory against a top opponent, and Hayes expects the group to continue the work back with their respective clubs.

“I said to the players in the end, in the huddle, is that if you want to compete to win the biggest things, it’s not what you do here that matters. It’s what you do when you go back to your club,” Hayes said. “If you want to be a proficient set-piece taker, for example, you have to rehearse it every day. If you want to be a great one-v-one defender, you have to rehearse it every day. And every player knows where their gaps are.

“So, my expectation is that they are training [all] that in their own environments. But as I’ve said many times, I’m all about improving the whole ecosystem, and I think more opportunities for more players at the national team level will improve the NWSL because it gives players hope and belief that if they perform, that they’re going to get an opportunity. That means whether you’re Izzy Rodriguez, going back to club, Sam, Mesa, Jordyn Bugg, I don’t know whether they’re going to be called in again, but I know that they understand what it takes, and it will give them the ambition and the appetite to be here.”

With no international window for the USWNT till October, there are roughly four months until the group gathers together again. When they do, it might be a different team moving forward. Hayes has previously indicated that the summer window was a deadline for her and the staff to narrow down the heavily expanded player pool that has grown over the previous six months.

Hayes now faces tough decisions as she evaluates her roster ahead of upcoming tournaments. With a blend of veterans and rising stars, she’ll have to refine this deep squad as they build toward the 2027-28 cycle. For the coach, there’s still plenty of work to do and a wide range of lessons to grow from over the first half of 2025.

“I don’t mean to be a Debbie Downer, but we haven’t won anything. We’ve just won a game. There’s a long way to go to do those things, but there were, I think, felt for me, things that I I’ve been looking for in terms of dictating tempo, controlling the game from start to finishing, finishing strongly, all the messages, all the learnings, especially from Brazil, from Japan, I felt we dictated and we played the way we wanted to. It’s not about the opponent, it’s about what we do, and I felt that was extremely dominant tonight.”