Emma Hayes gets two cracks at the world's best as Ashley Sanchez returns in elite form and Trinity Rodman leads a dynamic attack
Oct 9, 2026 at 4:29 pm ET • 4 min read
This international break, soccer fans will be in for a treat as the number one and number two women's national teams face each other in Spain and the United States. During this camp, USWNT head coach Emma Hayes will get to see her squad face one of the top teams in the world as the road to the 2027 World Cup in Brazil continues. With players missing and depth concerns in defense, it's a good camp for Hayes to see what may need to change, and playing Spain twice allows time to tinker between games.
Because of that, I took a look at some things to watch for during camp:
Ashley Sanchez's role in a new position
One doesn't tie the NWSL scoring record by accident, and no matter how you slice Ashley Sanchez's season with the N.C. Courage, it's quite impressive. But when peeling back how it's happening, that's when things get remarkable. For Sanchez's career, she has played as a striker or creative attacking midfielder, but in some of the best form of her career and earning the first national team call in two years, she's doing neither.
Head coach Mak Lind has come in and positioned Sanchez as a strict left winger. Playing as a right-footed forward on the left side, she's been able to cut inside, flip the ball to her right foot, and next thing you know, the keeper is picking the ball out of the back of their net. Looking at her finishes, it's easy to see why she has been overperforming her xG of 13.98. But even if that's stripped away, only Sophia Wilson has a higher xG on the season, and that's quite good company to be in. The front three of the USWNT is something which felt more settled than other positions on the pitch, but when someone is performing at Sanchez's level, they can't be left out of the national team, and that's a good problem to have when creating competition for the World Cup.
Trinity Rodman is a creative force
Looking at one of the ways that Sanchez may get the ball, Trinity Rodman is the heartbeat of the attack because a defender never knows what she'll do. Already dynamic on the ball going forward, Rodman has a strong balance of scoring and creativity, and she could etch her name in NWSL history. In the NWSL regular season, there has never been a player to collect 10 goals and 10 assists in a season, and with 11 goals and eight assists, Rodman could do it with three games remaining in the Washington Spirit's season. She's not alone in chasing that as Cloe Lacasse and Pietra Tordin are also tracking to that number for the Utah Royals and Portland Thorns, respectively. There are a few reasons why so many players are on pace for something that has never been done before, as games have been added to the league and the quality of forwards entering has risen by the day, but a defense also doesn't know where Rodman will pop up to make them pay.
Operating fluidly on the wing, she's just as likely to attack the box from the left as she is the right, and it helps make Hayes' USWNT unpredictable, which is important when facing Spain. If the USWNT aren't at their best, this will be a long international break, and Rodman is one of the keys to unlocking Spain's defense, as no matter where the other forwards move, she can move to set them up or generate her own shot.
Does wing back Alyssa Thompson move back into the attack?
Someone who generally operates as a forward, Alyssa Thompson has also undergone a position shift this season at Chelsea, moving slightly deeper to operate as a wing back. She has still been able to get in the box from left back, scoring a goal for Chelsea on 13 shots, but how this shift impacts her usage will be something to watch during this camp. On the one hand, becoming more well-rounded defensively could give the USWNT another wrinkle to unlock, but it could also lead to shifts among the forward line depending on how Hayes wants to set the squad up.
Attacking-wise, with Sanchez here, there is a chance that Thompson isn't the top forward to bring into the game, but Hayes also doesn't set up in a back three, which is where things get a little wonky. At 21, she is among the members of the squad with the highest ceiling, but ceilings don't always lead to immediate minutes when there are matches to win.
Who is the secondary creator in midfield?
Without Croix Bethune and Olivia Moultrie, midfield is thinner than expected, but Hayes could be able to plug Mal Swanson in wherever she needs as versatility grows among the attack. Swanson may have only played in 12 games this season for the Chicago Stars but she's been back in the lineup and performing well.
"She can play as the 10, she can play as the seven, the nine, the 11," Hayes said at her pre-match press conference. "When I think of a midfielder, I think of Lindsay [Heaps] Lilly [Yohannes]. I think she definitely looks more like herself and has made good progress since Brazil. I've seen some things in training this week that show she's on the right path, and 10 months postpartum, I don't think her road was easy so I expected things to take a little more time and support, but I think she's really finding her feet."
Name-dropping Heaps and Yohannes shouldn't come as a surprise, as they'd be expected to take up the deeper roles in midfield, but who is ahead of them could be anyone's guess, as this is such a fluid team. That's a critical question to answer ahead of the World Cup too, as while some of the injured players could return by then, there is a need for depth in key positions.
