Given how things have gone for Emma Hayes as manager of the USWNT so far, it would be hardly wrong to think that every experiment she tries is going to be a success. When you don't ever lose, win your first major tournament, and watch pretty much every debut into the national team look great, there might be a Midas-ian feeling about things. Wednesday night against Japan though, some of that came unstuck.
Lily Yohannes promises so much. Even at just 17, she is so technically gifted, and her vision isn't far behind. The USWNT hasn't really had a midfielder like her in some time. Lindsey Heaps is more of a box-crasher, Sam Coffey is more in the metronomic cleanliness mold that keeps a team ticking, Julie Ertz was a defenisve shield, etc. Yohannes could dance through the raindrops and then release the hounds of the US's "Triple Espresso" with a through-ball, all with a flick or two of either foot. She can be the symphony in what has been a pretty thrashy US method of attacking recently. Thrash-y in the early Metallica, very direct style of attacking sense.
That's certainly how Johannes's national team career started. But that didn't come against the well-oiled machine that is Japan, specifically Japan's midfield. It was a harsh education for Yohannes and the rest of the younger US players on Wednesday night.
Japan taught Lily Yohannes and the USWNT necessary lessons in SheBelievesCup
Hayes's tactics didn't help, though some of that could be chalked up to more experimentation from the manager. The US is used to pressing opponents furiously and consistently, because most teams do not have Japan's technical ability to play through it. Funny thing though, Japan does have Japan's technical ability to play through it. So the US had to back off more often than they're used to. Hayes had them set up in a 4-4-2 mid-block when not pressing.
The problem is that set-up left Yohannes and Coffey outnumbered in midfield, sometimes badly. Either Yui Hasegawa or Fuka Nagano would set up right behind Heaps and Macario, with the other combining with Yuka Momiki as Japan's #10, a dropping Mini Tanaka basically surrounding the two US midfielders. With Japan's wide attackers tucking in to leave space for their marauding fullbacks, it was a full-out flood in the US's defensive midfield. It looked a lot like this at times:
It's not just being outnumbered. Hasegawa is one of the best midfielders in the world. She might be the best behind Aitana Bonmati. Dealing with her when the numbers are even is hard enough. Giving her clear lanes for passing and then losing her runs into the box because there's too many others to deal with is asking for death. The US backline didn't help, as they were unsure whether to follow Tanaka into midfield or stay back and provide her and Hasegawa and Momiki space in between the lines.
When the US had the ball, the numbers game was still a problem. Heaps is no slouch with the ball, but the main strength of her game is joining in with the attack with late runs without the ball. Yohannes and Coffey were left on their own against Japan's press a lot, and it was a pretty furious one. Japan's opening goal sprang from pressuring the US into a scrambly, misplaced pass leading to a Japan throw-in.
Just a minute later, here are three Japanese players around Yohannes before she even gets the ball:
This was the story most of the night, as Japan's midfield three were just all over what was a midfield two for the US when Heaps was closer to Macario than she was Yohannes and Coffey. The good news for the US is that there are few teams as organized, disciplined, and fit enough to press them like this for a full 90. Their ball-progression should work. In addition, Mal Swanson, Trinity Rodman, and Sophia Wilson will be back to provide the more direct options that punish teams for pressing too high against the USWNT.
Defensively, kind of the same story. The top three forward choices are better pressers and will make it harder for teams to pass the ball into midfield. But it is something to solve, especially as Heaps gets into her 30s and a little easier to pass around.
Even with a chastening 90 minutes, there are still plenty of caveats. When Naomi Girma is in the lineup, the US has the option of simply going over an opponent's press much more easily, given her world class skill of launching diagonal balls to Swanson, Wilson, and co. Hayes was focused on seeing if the US could progress through Japan more incrementally just for funsies than she will be say, in a World Cup match or as she was in the Olympics last summer.
But there will come a time when the US in a big match will have to solve a top-tier midfield and plan from an opponent like Japan with a new generation. Hayes and Yohannes got a glimpse at the size of the task on Wednesday.