After two victories in four days, the U.S. women’s national team arrive the final match of the 2025 SheBelieves Cup exactly where they wanted to be: in position to claim yet another trophy.
In truth, winning this tournament has been commonplace for this group. They’ve won all but two of the nine prior editions, including the last five. But, for several reasons, this year feels different. This year, as the U.S. gears up to take on Japan in the final match Wednesday at 10:30 p.m. ET in San Diego, the SheBelieves Cup takes on a different meaning.
This isn’t a full-strength USWNT group. It’s missing several notable stars – including Sophia Wilson, Trinity Rodman, Mallory Swanson and Naomi Girma – but, so far, Emma Hayes has managed that about as well as she possibly could have.
Hayes has walked the fine line of both playing to win and bringing in new faces and – and so far, she’s balanced it perfectly. The U.S. has beaten both Colombia and Australia over the past week, and Hayes started 22 different players to earn those two wins. New faces have stepped in seamlessly, in most cases, and more familiar players have set a tone that has led the U.S. right back to this trophy chance.
It won’t be easy. This Japan team is no pushover – remember, Japan gave the U.S. all it could handle just last summer in the Olympics, and now they’ll be looking for some measure of revenge.
GOAL takes a look at five key USWNT storylines for the 2025 SheBelieves Cup final.