SEATTLE — The United States women’s national team continued its three-game series against Japan on Tuesday, but couldn’t hold the momentum from Saturday’s win. In a rainy matchup at Seattle’s Lumen Field, the USWNT lost 1-0 to Japan, falling flat after an early Japanese goal.
U.S. head coach Emma Hayes, who has been open about using this window to experiment with the U.S. lineup, swapped out all 11 players from Saturday’s game. Twenty-year-old midfielder Claire Hutton, who took the captain’s armband for the first time in January, started as captain, anchoring a younger lineup than the first matchup.
In goal, Hayes opted to rest Seattle Reign keeper Claudia Dickey, who played on Saturday, and start Phallon Tullis-Joyce — a former goalkeeper for the Reign, who got a hearty cheer during the announcement of starting lineups.
But even with the younger lineup stumbling, Hayes stood by the choice to rest most of her most veteran players until later in the game.
“Listen, when you’ve got eight seniors on the field, these things are a little easier. But like, I’m a developer of players and they need to go through these things,” Hayes said in a press conference postgame. “It’ll get us one step closer to where we are, but we cannot always simply play just for the result. But yes, we don’t like to lose.”
The lineup’s youth was apparent early in the game. Japan, a team known for punishing responses to opposing team’s mistakes, had multiple dangerous chances, putting a lot of pressure on Tullis-Joyce in the back. Meanwhile, the U.S. progressed the ball well, but struggled to connect in the final third to get past Japan’s defense.
Japan’s pressure hit a breaking point in the 27th minute, as Maika Hamano beat Lilly Reale on the outside before sending in a beautiful shot.
Japan open the scoring in Seattle through Maika Hamano 🇯🇵 pic.twitter.com/tmQiWcU5dm
— B/R Football (@brfootball) April 15, 2026
As the USWNT’s missed connections continued into the second half, Hayes made a quartet of changes in the hopes of revitalizing the game, bringing on Trinity Rodman, Sophia Wilson, Gisele Thompson and Tierna Davidson to shore up both ends of the field. A few minutes later, Lindsey Heaps came on to try and stabilize the midfield. Tierna Davidson, who has been out for the past year with an ACL tear, subbed in late in the game for her first USWNT minutes since February 2025.
But the USWNT’s crosses and chances continued to fall flat, cut off by the Japanese backline up through the end. The Americans’ best chance came in the final seconds of stoppage time, with Heaps sending a low header on target, but Akane Okuma got her hands on it for her best save of the game.
Moments later, the officials blew the whistle to secure the 1-0 victory for Japan — just the third win over the U.S. in the history of the rivalry.
The friendly marked the USWNT’s first return to Seattle in over a decade, as the team had long avoided Lumen Field over its artificial turf, which was replaced with grass ahead of the 2026 men’s World Cup.
Even with the loss — and the unrelenting rain and wind — Seattle gave the U.S. a warm welcome in its return, with an announced attendance of 36,128 fans despite the weather.
It was Hayes’ second loss to Japan, after the team bested the U.S. to win the 2025 SheBelieves Cup. But Hayes made it clear that games against top opponents, win or lose.
“I think if I play solely to win, we maybe don’t change a lot in these games,” Hayes said. “But that’s not where I’m at.”
Hayes was asked postgame about the difference in preparing for the same team multiple times, and compared it to her time coaching Chelsea before taking the USWNT job in 2023.
“I always felt when I was coaching in the Champions League, if you won the first game, the second one was always tougher, because the losing team always, they study their things that they need to do better,” Hayes said. “I think being able to handle different environments, different weather patterns, we’re going to altitude now, it’s preparation for major tournaments, so I think they’re important.
“If we would have picked a lesser opponent,” she continued, “and I’d have sat here and said ‘What a great night, we won by multiple scorelines,’ I’m sure I’d feel good and I’d fill your columns with lots of things that further enhance the reputation of the team, but I don’t believe in it. When you can push yourself to play against the very best opponents in every situation, that is how you improve.”
In that sense, the game definitely served as a learning experience for this USWNT pool, being forced to play from behind against a unified, suffocating Japanese team. But if it was meant to be a test, then the U.S. has some more studying to do before they face Japan a third and final time on Friday.
