Women’s World Cup: U.S. Rallies to Tie Netherlands on Second-Half Goal From Horan (2023)

They pushed and they shoved. They gave as well as they got. They traded shots and then they traded goals. But through 90 supremely physical — and at times thrilling — minutes on Thursday, the United States and the Netherlands could not separate themselves at the Women’s World Cup.

And so they walked off after the most eagerly anticipated game of the group stage with a 1-1 draw that will have to be good enough.

The current standings in Group E:

United States, 4 points, plus-3 goal difference

Netherlands, 4 points, plus-1 goal difference

Portugal, 0 points, minus-1 goal difference

Vietnam, 0 points, minus-3 goal difference

Portugal and Vietnam play next in Hamilton.

The top two teams in the group will advance, but winning the group has its advantages: The runner-up will most likely earn a round-of-16 date with Sweden, a top contender, while the group winner has an easier road.

Full time in Wellington: U.S. 1, Netherlands 1. Start crunching the math, because Group E is probably going to be settled by goal difference.

90′ +3 That was a wicked head-to-head collision between Rose Lavelle and Danielle van de Donk, who stayed down for a few minutes while the Dutch trainers tended to her. She is staying in.

90′ +1 Five minutes of stoppage time added. The U.S. continues to press. The Netherlands continues to chase. The score continues to be 1-1.

84′ The chances are coming fast now as the U.S. chases a winner. Rodman’s shot is quickly followed by a fizzed screamer from Andi Sullivan at the top of the penalty area off yet another corner. Feels like something’s brewing here …

81′ Sophia Smith led Trinity Rodman with a perfect pass, but Rodman curled the shot just wide of the post. Missed out on an ideal chance to score and lift the U.S. team.

80′ Oooooh that was a close call for the U.S. defense: Jill Roord slides a ball straight through the middle, and Esmee Brugts appears to have it lined up for the second goal, but Julie Ertz slides in out of nowhere to save the day.

Mere minutes after Lindsey Horan was jerked to the ground by Danielle van de Donk, and mere seconds after the referee admonished them both, Horan soared above a crowd in the box and tied the score at 1-1 with a powerful header off Rose Lavelle’s corner.

The morals of the story, friends: Don’t make Lindsey mad, and good things tend to happen when Lavelle plays against the Netherlands in the World Cup (see: final, 2019).

Horan’s goal, in the 62nd minute, came on the Americans’ seventh corner kick of the match, and supplied hope and relief all at once after a desultory first half.

75′ Trinity Rodman, like Sophia Smith a few minutes ago, takes a dangerous ball down the wing, creating a chance, and then wastes it by dawdling on the ball. The Netherlands is covering well, and its defenders are far too experienced to give the U.S. wings time to pick them apart. The time just isn’t going to be there.

73′ It goes without saying Rose Lavelle has changed the game with a solid first 20 minutes off the bench: Her corners have been consistently dangerous, she got a yellow to send a message and then she dropped a perfect ball onto Lindsey Horan’s forehead for the U.S. goal.

67′ GOAL? Alex Morgan makes it 2-1 for the U.S., off a lovely cross into her path from Trinity Rodman.

But the celebration is over before it starts: The flag is up for offside.

66′ One has to wonder if this game, rough and tumble and not a little bit nasty at times, will dial back a bit now that it’s tied. Don’t bet on it, given how the first hour went.

The ref, Yoshimi Yamashita, spent a few minutes lecturing Lindsay Horan and Danielle van de Donk, bringing a bunch of players from both teams to gather around them. Whatever the ref said seemed to rev up Horan. She scored on the next play. Take that, van de Donk.

What a response by Lindsey Horan, who dusted herself off when the trainers left, marched right into the crowd in front of the goal and ran straight on to Rose Lavelle’s header. The relief in that U.S. celebration, and among the American supporters in the stands, is palpable here.

62′ GOAL! The U.S. scores a header off Lavelle’s corner, and we’re tied in Wellington.

60′ Horan goes down in a heap in front of the U.S. bench under a challenge from Danielle van de Donk. Her treatment gives the entire U.S. coaching staff a chance to lay out the persistent unfairness of the world to the referee, Yoshimi Yamashita. But she’s not having it.

54′ The Netherlands has alternately looked supremely cool — passing the ball about, accepting fouls, controlling the play — and then chaotic in defense, leaving open spaces for Horan and Rodman, for two, and flailing at clearances as if it’s the last minute, not the 54th. The U.S., meanwhile, is turning up the pressure.

50′ This referee loves to give warnings. Sophia Smith just got the latest, for a foul in midfield. At some point, the ref is going to need to pull out a yellow.

46′ The second half is underway with only the two subs.

You’ve got to think that the Dutch — players and fans alike — are looking at Rose Lavelle and thinking, “Oh, no, not her.” In the 2019 World Cup final, Lavelle dribbled through a bunch of Dutch defenders to score and extend the Americans’ lead to 2-0. That was the U.S. team’s second straight World Cup title.

Rose Lavelle has stripped off her warmups and is loosening at the center of the field, so we may have a change coming at halftime. She’s not the first person one thinks of when one hears “intensely physical midfield battle” but she is the person who might shake up the offense and create something.

A team can prepare for a lot of things — tactics, lineups, weather — but not for a slip. Slips happen, and when the U.S. left back, Crystal Dunn, slipped and fell as the Netherlands swept forward in the 17th minute, it set off a scramble that has the United States trailing, 1-0, at halftime.

Jill Roord scored that goal, the product of some quick thinking and a bit of good fortune, and it has changed a game that was expected to be tight and physical and even, and has delivered on every front.

HALFTIME: Netherlands 1, United States 0. A testy, physical half with plenty of chances for the U.S., but only one goal, and it wasn’t theirs.

45 + 4’ Savannah DeMelo, yanked down multiple times this half, just swiped at Danielle van de Donk, dragging her to the grass in what could be viewed as frustration, fatigue or a healthy combination of the two.

How many times has Savannah DeMelo been pushed to the ground? Three? 13? 30? At this point, I feel like the Dutch know she’s a World Cup rookie and are roughing her up on purpose.

43’ The pressure, fairly or not, falls on potential second-half United States subs like Rose Lavelle, Megan Rapinoe and Alyssa Thompson, who will be expected to change the pace, pierce one of the best backlines in the world and, ultimately, score, if they are to level one of their most critical group-stage matches ever.

The United States is having trouble scoring again. It’s had eight shots so far. In its 3-0 win over Vietnam last week, the team had 27 shots, prompting Coach Vlatko Andonovski to focus on the “mental preparation” that needs to be done to actually put the ball in the net. The players watched lots of video, he said, to analyze what they did wrong against Vietnam — and to figure out how to make it right.

39′ There’s a brief break as Stefanie van der Gragt gets some treatment after the last corner. And while the Dutch mill about or get drinks, the entire U.S. team sprints over to the bench to hear from Coach Vlatko Andonovski.

35′ A terrific bit of footwork by Savannah DeMelo to free herself on the left edge of the Netherlands penalty area. She sends in a cross to Trinity Rodman in the goalmouth, but the young forward is unable to handle it, or turn it goalward. Two corners, and two acrobatic Julie Ertz headers follow that, but both sail wide.

The Americans never trail in a World Cup. Like, never. But now they do, for the first time in their last 18 matches in the competition, because the Netherlands sliced through the United States’ midfield and back line in an attack that began in earnest with Andi Sullivan getting beaten off the dribble.

A nifty pass into an open channel sent Victoria Pelova boring in, alone, on Alyssa Naeher. Rather than shoot, Pelova opted to pass, and the ball caromed off a U.S. defender and to a Dutch player, who found Jill Roord at the top of the box.

One touch, one strike into the lower corner, and the U.S. trails for the first time in a World Cup since its 2011 quarterfinal against Brazil. (The Americans lost in the final that year to Japan in penalty kicks but never trailed during open play.)

31′ Watching Jill Roord’s celebration, I’m thinking she may not have been telling me the truth the other night in Dunedin when she said: “It’s a big game — we’re looking forward to it. But it’s just a game. And it’s the group stage, so it doesn’t really matter.”

30′ Dominique Janssen, the Dutch left back, just laid into a sweet volley from outside the box that juuussst sailed over Naeher’s hand and the crossbar.

27′ The referee is back to giving enough-already warnings. The latest goes to Andi Sullivan, who flattened Danielle van de Donk just now.

22′ The opening goal doesn’t change tactics, but it has added a bit of urgency for the U.S., which immediately forced a save out of Daphne van Domselaar and then won a corner. It won the header there, too, but it was wide.

Definitely a bit more urgency on the U.S. side now. And maybe a little sense of confidence for the Netherlands.

Jill Roord with the goal. But that was a bit of a mess by the U.S. back line. It appeared to have things in hand, but Crystal Dunn, wrong-footed by a neat pass, slipped, and that let Victoria Pelova in alone on the right. She inexplicably chose to pass rather than shoot, which led to a big of ping-ponging. The ball came back to a Dutch player, though, and was laid on a plate for Roord to send a low shot past Alyssa Naeher.

17′ GOAL! Netherlands leads, 1-0. Jill Roord gives the Dutch the lead with a low shot past Alyssa Naeher.

14′ Another crunching tackle, this with Stefanie van der Gragt leveling Alex Morgan minutes after Andi Sullivan hauled down Victoria Pelova, is the latest sign that there will be nothing free today. The referee is already trying to calm things down before something bigger sets a fire she can’t stop.

11′ The Netherlands effortlessly pivots into a back five every time the U.S. attacks, with Victoria Pelova and Esmee Brugts, the outside midfielders, dropping back. But Sophia Smith and Trinity Rodman are clearly faster than all three center backs, and that speed has already exposed some opening IF the U.S. can counter quickly.

Alex Morgan said the team was preparing for a very physical game — and she wasn’t kidding. Emily Fox was pulled to the ground by her shirt collar. Morgan was just shoved down by a push in the back. There are going to be some scratches and black-and-blue marks after this.

6′ Almost a disaster there for the Netherlands as Crystal Dunn stutter-steps and then threads a ball into the area. A bit of confusion on whose job it is to clear it, and the pass rolls dangerously close to Alex Morgan at the spot. But it surprised her, too, and the goalkeeper pounces.

3′ The first real pressure on that Dutch back three comes from Sophia Smith, who drives into the center with Alex Morgan and Trinity Rodman on the sprint ahead of her. The Dutch handle it, but there will be more.

In the weeks before the Women’s World Cup, Sophia Smith admitted that she wanted to be the first United States player to score in the tournament. Of course she did. Like every great athlete, she has long envisioned herself as a star.

On Saturday in the United States’ 3-0 victory over Vietnam, Smith showed — yet again — that there was something to her gut feeling that she would be great.

At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, United States Coach Vlatko Andonovski drew some public criticism from his team for his tinkering: with lineups, with tactics, with what his players thought had been working for years.

At this World Cup, he’s not changing a thing, at least so far. Andonovski’s starting lineup against the Netherlands is the same one he sent out against Vietnam in the opener:

Sports are often about gaps: talent gaps, experience gaps, compensation gaps.

And in the weeks and months before the Women’s World Cup that began last week in Australia and New Zealand, the players on the U.S. women’s national soccer team have found an unlikely bond in jokes, jabs and stories related to what may be their most notable feature: a generation gap.

The subtext all week has been history, even before the United States and the Netherlands arrived in Wellington, New Zealand, for their high-stakes matchup at the World Cup on Thursday afternoon (Wednesday at 9 p.m. Eastern).

Every day, there have been endless questions about how the game is a replay of the 2019 World Cup final. Questions about memories and rematches and revenge. And every day, the players and their coaches from both teams have — patiently, politely, persistently — made clear that the past doesn’t particularly matter to them.

Rose Lavelle is certainly aware that Thursday’s match (9 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday) against the Netherlands at the Women’s World Cup is a big deal.

The game is a rematch of the 2019 World Cup final, won by the United States, and of a meeting between the teams in the quarterfinals of the Tokyo Olympics, also won by the United States. Its result most likely will determine which team will finish first in Group E, and thus which one will get an easier path in the knockout stages.

The game the United States has been waiting for since the World Cup draw was released is finally here: its rematch of the 2019 final against the Netherlands.

Much has changed since the Americans beat the Dutch in France four years ago. Women’s soccer has grown more competitive, with more contenders than ever. The gaps between teams are closing fast.