The U.S. women’s national team has lost back-to-back games for the first time in more than five years after a 2-0 loss to Spain in a friendly on Tuesday in Pamplona, Spain.
The Americans failed to recover from a 2-1 loss to England on Friday that ended a 13-game winning streak.
Laia Codina gave the Spaniards the lead in the 39th minute and Esther Gonzalez doubled the lead in the 72nd.
The last time the USA lost two straight was at the 2017 SheBelieves Cup — 1-0 against England on March 4 and 3-0 against France three days later.
The match was played amid chaos in the Spanish program. The squad was missing 15 players who refused to play for coach Jorge Vilda, citing that his management and coaching style had a negative impact on their mental health. Of the 11 starters for the quarter-final match against eventual Euro 2022 champions England this summer, only four are on the current 23-man roster.
The Spanish federation said the protesting players must apologize before they will be allowed back.
In addition to the 15 holdouts, stars Alexia Putellas and Jenni Hermoso were unavailable due to knee injuries. Without them, Spain still drew 1-1 with Sweden in a friendly on Friday.
The USA was also minus several standouts, including injured Alex Morgan and Mallory Pugh, who had a family commitment.
While the U.S. fielded a young team, it essentially went against Spain’s “B” team, which took the lead in the 39th minute off a corner kick. The clearance bounced around in the box and Codina toe-nailed the ball into the goal.
Casey Murphy kept the Americans within one with a sweeping right-handed save off an Olga Carmona shot with 20 minutes remaining. But Murphy was helpless to stop Gonzalez’s unmarked volley from the center of the penalty area off Oihane Hernandez’s cross.
The USWNT next plays Germany twice, on Nov. 10 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and three days later in Harrison, NJ
–Field Level Media
Source: sn.dk