Italy — who were semifinalists at the 2025 Women’s EURO tournament — last featured against the U.S. in the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup playoffs. The U.S. went on to place second, behind Japan, in the 2011 World Cup.

The two sides will face off in Orlando, Florida, on November 28, at Inter & Co. Stadium, the home of the Orlando Pride and Orlando City SC. Then, Italy and the U.S. will face off again on December 1, at Chase Stadium, home of Inter Miami CF of Major League Soccer.

“As we prepare for World Cup qualifying at the end of 2026, we want to play teams from all parts of the world with different styles and different strengths, so getting to play Italy, one of Europe’s up-and-coming teams, will be a great way to end the year,” U.S.coach Emma Hayes said. “This has been a very productive year for our team, learning about each other while embracing our philosophies and standards, so we’re looking forward to two more games against a quality team to continue to grow.”

The U.S. is currently ranked No. 2 — only behind Spain — in the FIFA women’s national teams ranking. Meanwhile, Italy moved up to No. 12 on the recent listing. In 2025, the U.S. has won eight matches and lost two. In February, the U.S. competed in the SheBelieves Cup and placed second, while Japan won its first title.

The U.S. recorded its two losses against Japan (in the SheBelieves Cup) and Brazil in an April friendly. Both matches finished 2-1.

The matches will air on TNT and HBO Max in English, along with Spanish broadcast available on Universo and Peacock. Tickets will go on sale on Tuesday, September 16.

Gotham FC has officially acquired Jaedyn Shaw from the North Carolina Courage for a record-breaking intra-league transfer fee of $1.25 million, the teams announced Thursday. 

Per Gotham, “Gotham and Shaw are now working toward an updated and extended contract.” Founder of The Equalizer Jeff Kassouf originally reported for ESPN that Gotham was looking to sign her through the 2029 NWSL season. Her contract with the Courage was through the 2026 season. 

The $1.25 million fee is the largest of its kind in NWSL history, the previous record having been set in August when the Kansas City Current acquired Ally Sentnor from the Utah Royals for $600,000. The league’s inter-league record was set last month by the Orlando Pride, who acquired Mexico forward Lizbeth Ovalle for $1.5 million from Tigres.

Earlier Thursday, Shaw told reporters that being the subject of a record-breaking intra-league transaction isn’t something she thinks much about. “It’s the club showing that they’re investing in me and they see my potential and they see my value, and that’s something that I’m really grateful for,” she said.

The $1.25 million fee would set an intra-league record for a National Women’s Soccer League trade, more than double the previous record set in August when the Kansas City Current acquired Ally Sentnor from the Utah Royals for $600,000. The fee, which “would be paid over multiple installments and entirely in NWSL intra-league transfer funds,” would also rank among some of the most expensive transfers globally.

The NWSL’s secondary transfer window closed on Aug. 25 for incoming international transfers, but intra-league trades can still be made until the league-wide roster freeze on Oct. 9.

Gotham currently sit in sixth place in the standings with a 7-6-6 (W-D-L) record and were looking to add a creative player to their squad. The club plans to sign Shaw through the 2029 NWSL season. She was previously signed through 2026 with the Courage.

The move will be Shaw’s second of this calendar year as she joined North Carolina in January after requesting a trade from the San Diego Wave. That deal involved the Courage sending $300,000 in allocation money, an international spot for the 2025 and 2026 NWSL seasons, and $150,000 in intraleague transfer fees to San Diego.

Shaw, 20, is one of the brightest young American attacking talents. She signed for the Wave in the summer of 2022 as a 17-year-old and scored in her first three NWSL games. Shaw shone as she helped San Diego make the playoffs as an expansion team that year, then win the NWSL Shield and be named to the NWSL Best XI in 2023.

She has eight career goals in 26 appearances for the senior USWNT and won the Golden Ball as the tournament’s best player in the Americans’ first-place finish at the Women’s Gold Cup in 2024. However, Shaw admitted she struggled to meet high expectations since joining the Courage. The Frisco, Texas-native started 10 NWSL games this season, recording three goals and one assist for the 11th-place Courage.

It isn’t immediately clear where Shaw fits into a stacked Gotham roster that boasts Esther Gonzales, Geyse, Ella Stevens, Gabi Portilho, Midge Purce, Katie Stengel, Rose Lavelle, Sarah Schupansky, and Josefine Hasbo, among others, as attacking options. Given Lavelle’s injury history, however, and the similar role she and Shaw can play, Shaw could slot in well when Lavelle is unavailable or playing restricted minutes.

Alex Morgan’s legacy can be hard to define with one sentence, as her longtime professional career included fighting for equal pay, helping to grow the National Women’s Soccer League, the sport itself, and the wider world of women’s sports.

But one part of her legacy that doesn’t get as much mention is Morgan’s fight to return to playing after giving birth to her firstborn daughter, Charlie, back in 2020. While she benefited from earlier generations of U.S. women’s national team players who paved the way in continuing to play after motherhood, Morgan herself helped secure stronger protections and standards for mothers in the sport.

“One really special moment is when we had five moms on the team at once between myself, Casey [Krueger], Julie [Ertz], Crystal [Dunn] and AD [Franch],” Morgan recalled during her retirement press conference last fall. “That was a really special moment to be able to enjoy with some of my teammates knowing how far we’ve come and the support that we now get as moms and still as professional athletes.” 

While there’s a growing acceptance for mothers returning to elite levels of sport, it wasn’t always that way. And Morgan was very much part of the generation that proved that it was possible to do both, particularly within the NWSL, and changed the way those things look for players as they return. 

The reality of Alex Morgan is that she has been in our lives since the turn of the 2010s, and there is no sign of her leaving any time soon. Women’s soccer first came to the forefront three decades ago and the game in the United States has seen many stars come and go on the field. Few have had the staying power of Morgan.

It has been a year since Morgan walked away as a player. At the time she was struggling to score goals and retirement came with news she was pregnant. It still came as a shock. She has since found time to become a Wave minority owner, and it certainly appears she will be more than a figurehead.

It is remarkable to think about all the ways Morgan has delivered for the game of soccer. It is easy to remember the famous Megan Rapinoe to Abby Wambach equalizer against Brazil in the 2011 World Cup quarterfinals. But buried in that history is how close the United States came to missing that World Cup altogether. The most important goal along the way came from a 21-year-old Alex Morgan, a stoppage time winner in November of 2010 to lift up a wrecked U.S. team in the intercontinental playoff away leg in Padua.

Remember the epic Olympic semifinal at Old Trafford when Canada led three times only to be undone by a resilient U.S. side and some questionable officiating? It was Morgan who beat Erin McLeod with a header in stoppage time of extra time to send the U.S. through a gold medal match they would win over Japan.

When the National Women’s Soccer League kicked off in 2013, Morgan was a clear choice to be one of the faces. The Thorns made her one of three Americans “allocated” by U.S. Soccer. The Thorns immediately became the model club in the league and took down the inaugural championship.

The Thorns were the first of three NWSL clubs to hitch their early fortunes to Alex Morgan. The initial plan called for Orlando to join the league in 2017. But the new owners knew that it was time for Morgan to move on from Portland, and they wanted her as the cornerstone. Her tenure in Orlando was a bit hit-and-miss from a soccer perspective, but her presence in the inaugural Pride team made the club an immediate marquee attraction.

Six years after the Pride, in came the Wave. And they wanted Morgan. And Morgan wanted to live in California again. It was a match made in heaven. In the Wave’s first regular season home match, Morgan scored four goals. By season’s end she had scored 15 for the Golden Boot and the expansion side not only made the playoffs but won its quarterfinal on an extra time goal—by Alex Morgan. In 2023 the Wave won the Shield.

Along the way, Morgan was the pretty, marketable face of the NWSL and U.S. national team where she was rarely out of favor through the 2023 World Cup. She was always smiling, always accommodating. She rarely turned down an interview, even in the worst of times after big losses. Time will tell the story, but early on in her life as an owner, it appears Morgan will still be available, still willing to put her face on the sport she has carried at times.

But perhaps Morgan’s greatest contribution to the NWSL was carved out behind a keyboard. As the league reeled from the bombshell reports of sexual coercion from Paul Riley’s tenure with the Thorns, the usual bevy of statements, denials, and promises were being slung around the Internet. Morgan posted a screenshot of an email then-commissioner Lisa Baird had sent to Mana Shim, informing her that a prior investigation into Riley was closed and would not be revisited.

From that moment on, there were no more denials. The league had not covered up the story, but had actively attempted to keep it buried. Baird’s tenure as commissioner was no longer viable and she soon resigned under pressure. Much of the NWSL’s explosive growth in the four years since can be traced to that moment of reckoning.

It was just Alex Morgan, delivering for the sport as she has always done.

Angel City has paid a hefty sum three times over in order to get and keep Alyssa Thompson within their ranks.

First, there was the tangled web of rule-shaping to ensure that Thompson would be available to be drafted, having just turned 18 in late 2022, and with no under-18 signing mechanism formally in place yet in the National Women’s Soccer League. The club gave up three college draft picks, including the No. 5 overall pick in 2023 (not to mention passing Yazmeen Ryan through to Gotham), to acquire the No. 1 overall pick and thus keep the Southern California prospect in her own backyard.

The contract Thompson then signed likely wasn’t cheap, either. As a blue-chip teenage prospect who was the top pick of the 2023 NWSL draft and seemed to become draft-eligible that year to be signed only by Angel City, Thompson held all the leverage. A three-year deal for a player already with two caps for the U.S. women’s national team was sure to tie up a great deal of the club’s payroll.

“Over New Year’s, I actually came to the full acceptance that I wasn’t going to be playing, which was like a two-year, some might say three-year process of acceptance,” Heath told listeners.

Heath was a joy to watch for over a decade thanks to her creativity and elite technical skill. An intense student of the game, Heath was known for her tricky nutmegs, sneaky jukes, joyful juggling, slick dribbles and clever passes.

The now 37-year-old had her career cut short by a serious knee injury in 2022 that required several surgeries to repair and eventually ended up being career-ending. Her last U.S. appearance came on Oct. 26, 2021. Her last NWSL appearance was Aug. 14, 2022, for Seattle Reign (then OL Reign).

Despite injuries throughout her career, Heath made 181 appearances in 13 years for the senior national team, scoring 36 goals and adding 42 assists. She won two World Cups (2015, 2019) and three Olympic medals (gold in 2008 and 2012, bronze in 2020/21).

The University of North Carolina alumni began her pro career with the Atlanta Beat after being picked No. 1 overall in the 2010 WPS College Draft. While still a Tar Heel, Heath won four straight Atlantic Coast Conference titles and three NCAA National Championships.

In the NWSL, Heath won multiple Championships and Shields. The attacker won two NWSL championships with the Portland Thorns, in 2013 & 2017. Heath was named the 2013 NWSL Championship MVP for scoring the game-winning goal directly from a free kick. She also won two NWSL Shields, one with Portland in 2016 and the other with the Seattle Reign in 2022. Between 2013 and 2022, Heath made 75 NWSL appearances, recording 13 goals and 24 assists.

It’s no wonder Emma Hayes once said, “They don’t make players like Sam Coffey anymore…a gem.” Coffey has continued to justify that praise with another year of steady, standout performances — further solidifying her place among the world’s elite defensive midfielders.

Since her arrival in 2022, Coffey has become a midfield mainstay on the United States Women’s National Team. She anchors the team in a quarterback role, and her performances have grown in stature over the past few international windows, making every roster despite Emma Hayes’ ongoing experimentation with the squad.

So how has Coffey embedded herself so firmly in the midfield, and why does Hayes rate her so highly?

The role Coffey has taken up for the USWNT over the past year isn’t too dissimilar to her natural playing style. The Portland Thorns midfielder has been an all-round player capable of performing both offensive and defensive midfield duties without a drop in performance levels. Her earlier role was very much as a defensive number six, who’d get stuck into tackles and provide an outlet for the more advanced and forward-minded midfielders to attack. At the time of her debut in 2022, the team was looking to replace Julie Ertz who was the defensive lynchpin for the USWNT and trialed several players before Coffey made the position her own. 

While Canada needs to take some time to recalibrate — and new head coach Casey Stoney said as much in a postgame interview — the United States can conclude its international window feeling good about head coach Emma Hayes’s experimentation and where the team is headed. 

Here are five significant takeaways from the United States’ win over Canada, with a little reflection on this whole international window, too.

1. The kids are ready

When the USWNT released their lineup on Wednesday evening, three significant youngsters had made the starting roster once again — Lilly Reale on defense, Claire Hutton in the midfield and Avery Patterson as a full back. For those watching closely during the international window, this would come as no surprise, but for anyone just tuning in, they’re young — the average age between those three is 21 years old. 

But, while youthfulness can sometimes mean overwhelm or inexperience, in the case of these three, it means energy and drive instead. Their fresh legs and desires to prove themselves were on display on Wednesday night, as Reale played the full 90, with Hutton coming off in the 81st minute — after her first international goal — and Patterson playing all the way to the 86th minute.

If friendlies number one and two against Ireland earlier in this window were more of a trial for the youngsters, friendly number three against Canada was Hayes’s opportunity to put her best experiment forward. It’s becoming clearer and clearer that Reale, Patterson and Hutton have passed Hayes’s test and will be a part of her long-term vision.

2. That doesn’t mean the veterans are being replaced

As much as this recent friendly window was an opportunity for the kids to prove themselves, it was also somewhat of a comeback celebration for USWNT star Rose Lavelle. The midfielder, who has been a mainstay on all the recent U.S. World Cup and Olympic teams, had been sidelined for a few months after her latest injury — an ankle problem, for which she underwent surgery in December 2024. 

But Lavelle was back on the pitch earlier in the friendly window, making her first national team appearance in about seven months, and to the likes of roaring crowds — especially during friendly number two, in her hometown of Cincinnati. And during this friendly window, she looked like her old self again — quick and creative on the ball, and turning set pieces into real chances for the team. Lavelle made it clear, to Hayes and to herself: she’s back.

Other veterans also continued the cases for themselves within a young team. Lynn Biyendolo wearing the captain’s armband for the first time in her up-and-down career with the national team was one of the most emotional moments of the friendly window. And though Hayes has been trying stuff out with center back Tara McKeown, when it came down to it against a formidable team like Canada, Hayes went with the 31-year-old Emily Sonnett, who has 109 caps for the United States.

3. A new midfield has emerged

The combination of Hutton, Lavelle and Sam Coffey in the midfield, with Hutton and Lavelle more central and Coffey occupying space up top, seems to be a winning combination. It was a formation that Hayes used repeatedly throughout the friendly window, and it worked for multiple reasons. Not only did the three use their positioning to open wide spaces for their teammates, but they also took their own opportunities as they came — each of them managed to score a goal during this friendly window. 

Questions circulate around midfield mainstay Lindsey Heaps, who has been one of the biggest names and faces fueling the team for years. Heaps has historically shown no signs of breaking, but at age 31 and no major tournaments for two more years, Hayes might be looking closely at players that can step up as Heaps has to begin phasing out from 90-minute performances. It looks like she may have found some.

4. Alyssa Thompson: back and better than ever?

There’s a path that some USWNT forwards travel in the first few years of their career. They start out young and strong, appear in a World Cup or an Olympics or two, and then they fall to the side for some time. Mallory Swanson went through this rollercoaster, only to redeem herself by scoring the winning goal in the 2024 Olympics, and Jaedyn Shaw may be going through it right now. Maybe it’s because of their youth, and the pressure that comes with being labeled a phenom. Or maybe it’s because being a forward is hard on the body, and no one can avoid an injury. But one thing is for sure — these players do not want to be seen as overrated. 

The 20-year-old Alyssa Thompson is the latest USWNT forward to walk this path. She made the 2023 World Cup team, only to be dropped off of the 2024 Olympic squad. She recovered from a back injury, made her way back into the national team rotation, and, during this recent stretch of friendlies, looked back to be at her original form — a player with not only unmatched speed but true determination and grit that fuels her up and down the field. She’s had the ups and the downs, but after the past few matches, she proved that she, too, should be a part of Hayes’ vision for the future.

5. It’s crowded at the top

Thompson’s youthful speed and Biyendolo’s years of experience provided two distinct and effective strategies for the USWNT’s front line during this friendly break. There’s obviously space for others up front, but who there is space for remains unclear. Forwards like Emma Sears, Ally Sentnor and Yazmeen Ryan made big splashes during this friendly stretch and are certainly being given real consideration by Hayes. But the inevitable return of Triple Espresso — although that’s at least months away — means there won’t be room for everyone. Who will make the final cut? Luckily, as the international window closes for now, there’s time to figure that out.