WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Some of the big questions surrounding the U.S. women’s national team heading into this World Cup revolved around its relative inexperience. Could the team, with 14 players performing in their first World Cup, deal with the pressure cooker environment? Could they handle moments when things weren’t going their way, especially against the best teams in the world?
The final answers to those queries won’t come until later, but one question was answered in the affirmative in the 1-1 draw with Netherlands. Can the U.S. take a punch? You betcha. Shoulder charges, too.
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For much of the opening 60 minutes, the U.S. was losing the battle in all manners of ways. The Dutch possession game was humming with metronome-like efficiency. This was reflected on the scoreboard, with Netherlands ahead 1-0 following Jill Roord‘s 17th-minute goal.
The physical encounters taking place on the field were going Netherlands’ way as well. It certainly didn’t help that referee Yoshimi Yamashita was taking the lightest of hands when it came to meting out discipline. Dutch midfielder Jackie Groenen committed six first-half fouls while somehow avoiding a yellow card, while U.S. midfielder Savannah DeMelo probably deserved to go into the book as well. It seemed the height of absurdity when, in the 51st minute, U.S. midfielder Rose Lavelle was booked for a foul after seemingly being impeded by Groenen — the only caution of the match.
And then, in the 59th minute, the U.S. got mad. Danielle van de Donk barged into U.S. midfielder and Olympique Lyon club teammate Lindsey Horan, sending her sprawling. When the U.S. won a corner at the end of the sequence, Horan let Van de Donk know what she thought about the challenge, and Yamashita came over to make sure temperatures didn’t rise further.
A yellow card to Horan at that moment would have been her second of the tournament, resulting in a one-game suspension.
“I got a little heated and [van de Donk] got to hear it,” Horan said after the game. “Julie [Ertz] came up to me in the box and she was like ‘Linds, please, just don’t get another yellow card. Just score this goal to shut everyone up.'”
