CHESTER, Pa. – The U.S. women’s national team needed to start solidly against Spain on Tuesday, four days after the visitors took a two-goal lead in 14 minutes and never looked back. The steady start came but by the 32nd minute, the USWNT were in the same exact pickle. Two defensive lapses cost them against the reigning world champions and the USWNT were in need of a problem-solver with roughly an hour still left on the clock.

On a team that boasts several likely suspects, one finally emerged – Ashley Sanchez.

Sophia Wilson darted towards goal but with a defender inching closer, she sent the ball to her left. It slowly drifted towards Sanchez, who had the space to do whatever she wanted. She cut inside and entered the penalty area, unbothered by the two defenders in front of her who had otherwise proven to be up for the task of handling the U.S. team’s historically capable offense. They left a crevice of space that only the most talented of players could exploit, Sanchez rising to the challenge effortlessly. The ball took a bounce near the goal line but she took the hit for a reason – no one was in a position to stop it and so it landed in the back of the net, just as she had intended.

The moment of brilliance is hardly a surprise from the NWSL’s golden boot leader, the 27-year-old in the form of her life and as well-equipped as any to rattle an otherwise sturdy Spain back line. Sanchez had earned her spot in the starting lineup on Tuesday, the USWNT’s most dynamic attacker a natural inclusion on a day they hoped to show the attacking end product that was missing in Saturday’s loss. The overall results were mixed – the U.S. team still came out with a 2-2 draw, Spain the aggressors this time on a day where their attacking might was genuinely hard to miss. In Sanchez, though, the USWNT had a bright spot.

“Her experience, her maturity and the ability to be able to transfer knowledge,” head coach Emma Hayes said post-match. “Even she said to me at the end, ‘There’s so much I still need to be able to do,’ which is natural but I thought she did a great job. I’m really happy for her to get a goal.”

Until Sanchez’s goal, the USWNT had gone goalless in 139 minutes of play against Spain and not for a lack of effort. Finishing was an issue – they generated 2.26 expected goals without actually scoring, the issue exemplified in Lily Yohannes’ missed penalty midway through the second half. Matters felt worse at halftime of Tuesday’s defeat, the U.S. team only generating 0.23 expected goals from six shots. They were in desperate need of someone who would finally make a difference and Sanchez stepped up, both at a timely juncture for the team and for herself.

Sanchez had been out of the national team picture for two years until this month’s friendlies, though her return had become undeniable by the time Hayes named the roster two weeks earlier. She had pulled off the feat after a position change at the North Carolina Courage, enjoying the best season of her career as a left winger after years of playing in midfield. Finding a way to impress against Spain would be another challenge entirely but one Sanchez ultimately embraced, making her case not a moment too soon.

“I think it felt natural, but obviously I think there’s a little bit of, still, tactical adjustment that I need to have and because I haven’t been here for that long,” Sanchez said, reflecting on her first USWNT camp in two years. “It has only been a week. I know that I, defensively, could do a little bit better, so I think for me, that’s my biggest takeaway. I’m really happy with the goal, but I think it did feel comfortable on the field with the connections that I have, but ultimately, I know I still have some [room for] improvement.”

The Spain friendlies were always destined to test the USWNT’s depth, especially without a few key players through injury, Sanchez adding to the narrative in all the right ways. She started in the place of Alyssa Thompson, who was amongst the positives on Saturday and still very much looks like a potential starter at the Women’s World Cup in eight months’ time. That spot on the left of Hayes’ preferred three-person front line, though, is as competitive as any on a team that has aimed to have cover in just about every position on the pitch.

Hayes has a good type of problem on her hands in that position, if this week’s games are anything to go by. How she picks between two talented players who seem poised to make a difference on good days and bad is one of the many questions that await over the next eight months, though in some ways it may not need answering. On days where the U.S. team’s shortcomings are on display, particularly in defense without the injured Naomi Girma and Sam Coffey, that very specific type of depth might be the exact thing to bail Hayes’ side out of trouble in a make-or-break situation.

USWNT depth on full display

Sanchez was hardly the only person to offer a reminder of the USWNT’s historic dominance in attack. Mallory Swanson’s 86th-minute equalizer marked her first goal for the national team since welcoming her daughter Josie nearly a year ago, the forward slowly working her way back into the group in just her second international game after maternity leave.

“I honestly thought Michelle [Cooper] was going to finish it, but the defender did well and recovered, and she made the right decision in the box, and I was just able to take a touch and come across my body and finish it.”

It was vintage Swanson, her goal calling back to her crowning achievement thus far with the U.S. team. She played a central role in the gold medal run at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, scoring four goals, including the lone goal in the final against Brazil. In a week that was ultimately defined by the USWNT’s inability to convert their chances, Swanson’s goal was a welcome development for Hayes and company.

“I think Mal has shown improvement every day in training,” Hayes said. “Didn’t think she was quite ready for 45, so we did push, and I said to her, ‘You’ve got another one in you at this level,’ and she’s in a better place to be able to perform more consistently, but I say it all the time — she’s an important player on our team, and I think the more we have her back, the better it’ll get. I think she missed a big chance. It reminded me of the Olympic gold medal moment. I was like, ‘This is the one player you want in this position,’ and she lifted it, but she didn’t miss the second one. That’s what you have to do at this level, though. You don’t get many. You got to finish them.”

There is still time on the clock for the USWNT to fully flesh out their World Cup identity, while the job of actually qualifying for next summer’s tournament in Brazil is technically still on the to-do list — next month’s Conccacf W Championship quarterfinal against El Salvador is essentially a win-and-in game. Hayes’ embarrassment of riches in attack, though, might make up for the weaknesses in the back that were apparent over the course of both friendlies against Spain. Though the U.S. team played with a more traditional No. 6 in Claire Hutton on Tuesday, the defensive unit as a whole still succumbed to their opponent’s attacking brilliance. The newness of the connections might be to blame, at least partially. Tierna Davidson and Kennedy Wesley only played their second game together at center back, while they had a different goalkeeper behind them this time in Phallon Tullis-Joyce.

“It’s really important to be able to build a partnership, I think, especially as a center back partnership because it’s not just like us having to do our jobs but it’s a lot of us organizing forward,” Davidson said. “To be able to kind of learn each other’s tendencies and build that relationship is really important because I think going into tournaments, the strength of our team is our depth, so whatever combination of players that needs to be on the field for us to win, the more that you can have all of the relationships built, the better. So I think it’s a really important thing for us to do in these types of games is to kind of be in those pressure moments and build, and honestly, sometimes it is making mistakes. Maybe it is we’re not fully on the same page, but these are the moments to get that right.”

Unseating Girma, arguably the game’s best center back, is perhaps an unrealistic expectation for Wesley or anyone else technically in the running. By force or otherwise, though, Hayes continues to leave no stone unturned when it comes to actually handing players’ experiences well before their major tournament debuts come around.

“We’ve got to develop a group and in one game, you’re going to rely on one situation,” Hayes said. “Another group, it might be another. The importance is the whole pack, especially in a game where you’ve got eight subs. At a World Cup, don’t know what the sub pattern will be but the benches are critical. Gone are the days of an 11. That’s finished in top flight football so I always wonder why people keep asking, ‘What’s the settled 11 going to be?’ That’s a story of the past in football. You’re never going to always have your best players available because of whatever reason — injury, form — so you have to have enough who know how to play and the same with Spain. Spain still maximized eight subs. They’ve got a whole development system where they can slip one out, one in. Seamless. Doesn’t matter if they’re missing some of their best players. They demonstrated in two games why they’re world champions so we have to get up to that level.”