The US took on North American rivals, Canada, in what’s apparently called the Continental Clásico on Wednesday evening in Washington DC. This was the last friendly of this summer international window which ended 3-0 for the US.

Head Coach Emma Hayes rolled out the same starting XI that she played last Thursday but had Lynn Biyendolo in at the striker role over Ally Sentnor. I think it’s safe to assume that this would be the preferred starters out of this group. The question remains whether Claudia Dickey got the nod in this game to see how she performed in goal against a tougher opponent than the Republic of Ireland, or because she’s leapfrogged Mandy McGlynn in the depth chart.

Overall, I don’t think that Canada ended up being the big hurdle that many were anticipating, which kind of just demonstrates where the USWNT is at right now. The Canadians put a little bit more pressure on the US than Ireland. Lilly Reale had a little bit of a tougher time in this match and the midfield could be a bit disjointed at times. Despite this the US still dominated the game putting three past goalkeeper Kailen Sherridan from Sam Coffey, Claire Hutton, and Yazmeen Ryan. Two of those were off of set pieces, which has been an area that has been needing serious improvement as of late. Dickey was challenged a bit more in goal this game but not by much. When she was needed, she came up big. For the most part, though, Canada wasn’t able to gain any real momentum and only logged three shots on target. Similar to the US, they were missing some players such as Quinn and Adriana Leon but I still don’t think viewers were expecting such a lopsided result. I don’t think any US fans cared though. Winning is fun!

This is a great sign for the USWNT. The dominance displayed by the players in this camp shows that the depth chart is filling out nicely. The reality is that most of the young players that have been getting a lot of experience in the 2025 camps thus far are fighting for spots as substitutes or backups for the 2027 World Cup. I think there’s an argument to be made that players like Alyssa Thompson and Michelle Cooper might actually be in positions to challenge the assumed starters. It speaks to the work that Emma Hayes is doing to develop the player pool that a group of mostly less experienced players led by a leadership group that didn’t include the primary captain was able to put up three great performances and score multiple goals in each game. To remind everyone, this time last year many fans were worried that the US had a scoring problem when they drew Costa Rica 0-0 before leaving for the Olympics.

Hayes has said that the next camp and beyond will be more focused on a core of players she hopes to take to Brazil in 2027. It will be really interesting to see who made a strong enough case for themselves to be included in that core rather than be waiting on the bubble or sent to the U23’s. We will have to wait until October for that! Until then, we have the UEFA Euros 2025 taking place in Switzerland to entertain us until NWSL picks back up in August.