U.S. Women’s National Team head coach Emma Hayes spoke often heading into and during 2025, about how this was always going to be a year of growth and opportunity for the USWNT. Hayes certainly delivered on those promises and with it came a large dose of excitement and optimism.
In the first full calendar year under Hayes, 43 different players saw game minutes as she balanced earning results with gaining invaluable experience for a young and talented group. Defender Kate Wiesner, who made her first-ever USWNT start in the USA’s final match of the year, a 2-0 win over Italy in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., was the 50th different player to start a match under Hayes in her 30 matches as USWNT head coach. No other full-time manager named more than 36 different starters in their first 30 games in charge.
This was also the first year since 1997 the U.S. went without a draw, earning 12 wins and just three losses.
The year started with the Futures Camp, a development event that emphasized the importance of giving under-23 players aged access to the senior team environment. Seven players who were at the Futures Camp made a senior team appearance in 2025: Jordyn Bugg, Lilly Reale, Gisele Thompson, Claire Hutton, Michelle Cooper, Jameese Joseph and Avery Patterson. Defender Savy King also came into a training camp but did not play in a match.
Players who were in the concurrent Futures Camp or January Camp in Ft. Lauderdale to start the year who also made the final roster of the year – coincidently also in Ft. Lauderdale – were Bugg, Reale, Hutton, Joseph, Patterson, Claudia Dickey, Mandy McGlynn, Naomi Girma, Emily Sams, Emily Sonnett, Sam Coffey, Jaedyn Shaw, Emma Sears and Alyssa Thompson.
The most consistent names on the lineup sheets for the U.S. in 2025 were Sam Coffey, who played in all but one of the U.S. matches – totaling 882 minutes – and Alyssa Thompson, who appeared in 13 of the 15 matches while Catarina Macario started all 10 of her appearances. The other players who had 10 or more appearances this year were Yazmeen Ryan, Ally Sentnor, Claire Hutton, Emily Sonnett, Lily Yohannes, Jaedyn Shaw and Michelle Cooper. Rose Lavelle and Lilly Reale each had six appearances, only missing two matches since their shared first appearance on June 26 – Reale’s international debut and Lavelle’s return to international play after injury.
With an eye on 2027 and 2028, Emma Hayes spent this year working first to grow and then solidify the player pool. Different rosters earned notable wins throughout the year including a 3-0 win over ninth-ranked Canada during a window where Hayes gave the European players time off rest after a long club season, and two shutout wins over 12th-ranked Italy to end the year.
Some of the biggest lessons, Hayes said, came in 2025’s few losses. After 113 days away from international play, the USWNT fell 2-1 to Portugal with Lavelle scoring in the first minute but the USA failed to find that net after that, and the Portuguese used two set piece goals to earn the win. The U.S. managed to turn around quickly and three days later, defeated Portugal 3-1 behind a quick Moultrie brace – one of which was another first minute goal – and a late score from Coffey off a corner kick.
The U.S. was a quick-scoring overall team this year, burying four goals in the first minute, six in the first 90 seconds and nine in the first ten minutes.
Fourteen different goalscorers scored 41 goals in 2025 and 24 of those goals came in the first half. Macario led the team in scoring with eight goals. The Chelsea FC forward scored in the first match of the year to kick off the SheBelieves Cup. She scored in back-to-back matches vs. Brazil and China PR in the spring and then buried braces in back-to-back matches vs. New Zealand and Italy, which became three-straight scoring games after she scored once more vs. Italy to end the year.
Coffey, Ally Sentnor and Lynn Biyendolo had the next most goals on the year with four each, including a brace from both Sentnor and Biyendolo vs. Jamaica. Emma Sears, Olivia Moultrie and Lavelle all had three goals in 2025. Sears scored all three of hers in one match, that coming against New Zealand which was the USA's lone hat trick of the year.
In 2025, of the USA’s combined 41 goals and 28 assists, 51% involved a player under 25. Goals scored by players under 25 include four by 21-year-old Ally Sentnor, three by 24-year-old Emma Sears and 20-year-old Olivia Moultrie, two by 20-year-old Alyssa Thompson, one by 22-year-olds Michelle Cooper and Trinity Rodman, 23-year-old Avery Patterson, 19-year-old Claire Hutton and 21-year-old Jaedyn Shaw. Assists by players under 25 include three from Sentnor and Alyssa Thompson, two from Cooper, Shaw and 18-year-old Lily Yohannes, and one from Sears, Moultrie, Hutton, 21-year-old Lilly Reale and 23-year-old Avery Patterson.
Sixteen different players had assists this year. Lavelle, Sentnor and Alyssa Thompson led the team with three assists each while six different players had two, three of them under the age of 25.
On the other side of the pitch, four goalkeepers played for the U.S. this year, the most since four played in 2021 and only the second time since 2014 that four ‘keepers saw minutes in a calendar year. Impressively, all four that played this year recorded at least one shutout. Jane Campbell opened the year allowing no goals vs. Colombia. Phallon Tullis-Joyce and Claudia Dickey made their debuts in April and June respectively and recorded shutouts in both. Dickey would close out 2025 with four straight starts and three straight shutouts, while earning five overall. And Mandy McGlynn stepped up at the end of June vs. Ireland to earn her first shutout of the year.
Statistically, 2025 was an interesting and productive year for the USWNT, but most importantly it gave a large amount of players the chance to show that they can perform at the highest levels, and with Hayes set the narrow the player pool down a bit in 2026, 2025 will surely be looked back upon as a year which helped launch the international careers of numerous important players.
