USWNT to play for Shebelieves Cup title Tuesday in Columbus
The U.S. women’s national team plays Canada on Tuesday for the Shebelieves Cup championship at Lower.com Field. The game starts at 7 p.m.
It was Lindsey Horan’s go-ahead penalty kick in the 77th minute that helped the U.S. women’s national team advance to the title match with a 2-1 comeback victory over Japan on Saturday in front of a record crowd at Atlanta. The Mercedes-benz Stadium crowd of 50,644 was the largest on U.S. soil for a non-world Cup and non-olympic match in USWNT history.
Horan scored to the lower left corner for her 35th career international goal after Sophia Smith, who entered in the 63rd minute, drew a foul by Hina Sugita.
Kiko Seike stunned the U.S. with a goal 30 seconds into the match before 19year-old Jaedyn Shaw got the equalizer in the 21st minute to continue her hot streak. Shaw has seven goals in her first 11 matches and is the only player in USWNT history to score in her first five career starts.
Seike’s strike from the right side of the box to the far post marked the first time the U.S. conceded in the first minute of a match since a friendly vs. Italy on Oct. 22, 2003.
Starter Mallory Swanson, and 78thminute substitute Catarina Macario, made their long-awaited returns. Swanson last played for the U.S. on April 8, 2023, before sustaining a knee injury that kept her out of the 2023 World Cup. Macario’s last U.S. appearance was in April 2022. She tore her anterior cruciate ligament soon after.
The match Tuesday will be the final for interim U.S. coach Twila Kilgore before Emma Hayes takes over as head coach beginning with two matches against the Korea Republic in June in preparation for the Paris Olympic tournament from July 25-Aug. 10. Kilgore has a 10-1-2 record.
Since its inception in 2016, the U.S. has won six of the eight titles in the Shebelieves Cup, including the past four.
Canada earned its spot in the championship game by beating Brazil in a penalty shootout. Japan and Brazil will meet in the tournament’s third-place game at 4 p.m., also at Lower.com Field.