Lindsey Horan’s go-ahead penalty kick in the 77th minute helped the U.S. women’s national team advance to the championship match of the SheBelieves Cup with a 2-1 comeback victory over Japan on Saturday in front of a record crowd at Atlanta.
The U.S. plays Tuesday in Columbus, Ohio, against the winner of the Brazil-Canada match later Saturday in Atlanta.
The 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.
Since its inception in 2016, the U.S. has won six of the eight titles in the SheBelieves Cup, including the past four.
Kiko Seike stunned the U.S. with a goal 30 second into the match before 19-year-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.
Sam Coffey assisted the goal with a pass just outside the box which allowed Shaw to rip a shot to the left corner.
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 78th-minute 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.
She had a shot cleared off the goal line by Miyabi Moriya in the 15th minute.
Macario’s last U.S. appearance was in April 2022. She tore her anterior cruciate ligament soon after.
The U.S. had to make a change in the 18th minute when defender Naomi Girma left with a calf injury.
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.
–Field Level Media
