Hayes wants the details fixed against Spain, and the back line is the first one

The United States and Spain play again at 7 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday at Subaru Park in Chester, Pennsylvania, on TNT and HBO Max, three days after Spain won 2-0 at Audi Field. It is the last match the United States play before the Concacaf W Championship quarter-final against El Salvador on November 27, which decides a place at the 2027 World Cup. Whoever Emma Hayes picks for that roster, Tuesday is the last 90 minutes she gets to watch first.

She has said a good deal since Saturday. None of it named a back four.

What Hayes said about the goals#

Hayes's account of Saturday is about two moments, not 90 minutes. "If you give up two goals with 0.67xG, you can't expect to win the game," she said, in a U.S. Soccer story published Monday night. "We have to tighten up on those things because they didn't create a lot of chances." The figure is her own; ESPN's research unit had Spain at 0.43. On either count, Spain scored twice from very little, on three shots on target all match by the federation's report.

On Monday at Subaru Park she went further, by Jeff Kassouf's account for ESPN. Players are used to man-to-man marking at their clubs, she said, and need to defend more zonally for the national team, and on-field relationships take time to build after four months between camps. "My big request to the team is to do it earlier," she said. "Like, start earlier with the things that really matter."

That is a coach describing a back line that has not had time together. It is also the closest she has come to explaining the one she picked. Emily Fox, Tierna Davidson, Kennedy Wesley and Avery Patterson had never started a match together, by U.S. Soccer's lineup notes, and Patterson came off at halftime for Gisele Thompson without a published reason. Naomi Girma, injured, was removed from the roster before camp opened.

Two of the four, on the record#

Two of Saturday's back four spoke on Monday. Fox asked for more aggression, by Kassouf's account: "If that is more physicality, if that is being more front-footed, if that's just reading the game a bit better." Davidson asked for "a really calm confidence," and in the federation's story treated the two matches as practice for a tournament: "As you go through a tournament, you have to be able to evolve and react to what each game gives you."

Spain's side of it came from Oihane Hernández, the Orlando Pride defender, who did not play on Saturday. "I honestly expect like a really more physical game," she told reporters on Monday. Spain committed 12 fouls on Saturday to the United States' four, by the federation's report.

The open call under this byline, filed Monday, is that Davidson does not start. It resolves when the eleven is published, and nothing said since moves it either way.

The precedent Hayes has already set#

The federation's own preview draws the parallel to June. The United States lost 2-1 in Brazil on June 6, conceding twice in the first 15 minutes, and won the rematch 1-0 three days later. Between the two, by ESPN's lineups, Hayes changed two of her back four: Patterson replaced Gisele Thompson at left back, and Wesley replaced Davidson at center back.

This window has already run the left-back change the other way. Gisele Thompson played the second half of Saturday's match in Patterson's place. If Hayes keeps Fox, Davidson, Wesley and Patterson together on the argument she made on Monday, that relationships need minutes, then Gisele Thompson, Tara Rudd, Lilly Reale and Kate Del Fava go into the November selection on what they showed in training. Rudd, Reale and Del Fava did not get on at all on Saturday.

The five who have not played#

Hayes used 16 players on Saturday. None of the five uncapped players on the 26 played: Trinity Byars, Jordan Silkowitz and Evelyn Shores did not dress, and Pietra Tordin and Del Fava were unused substitutes. The federation counts 32 debuts in Hayes's first 32 matches and none since, which after Saturday is nine in a row. Before the window, U.S. Soccer reported her as saying two matches meant less experimentation.

My call is that the run reaches ten: none of the five plays on Tuesday. Hayes asked reporters on Monday whether they would be asking about the gap to Spain at all if her team had scored, and told them a tournament requires your best players available and your chances taken. A coach saying that the day before the last match before qualifying is picking for the result. The other side is her own record, five first caps in the January camp alone and 32 in her first 32 matches, and a federation preview that names all five as possible debutants.

What Spain are missing#

Spain lose Athenea del Castillo, sent off in stoppage time on Saturday for pulling Michelle Cooper's hair, by U.S. Soccer and ESPN. They have added Lucía García, of Monterrey, after sending Claudia Pina and Mapi León home injured, and remain without Aitana Bonmatí, Mariona Caldentey, Vicky López and goalkeeper Cata Coll. Patri Guijarro, Alexia Putellas, Salma Paralluelo and Eva Navarro all started Saturday and all remain on the list.

Hayes's last point on Monday was about tournaments, not friendlies. "If we'd have taken an injury in the 2024 Olympics, I don't think we would have won it," she said. Her November roster gets named off whatever Tuesday shows, and Girma, Sam Coffey and Emily Sonnett will not be on the field for any of it.

Sources: U.S. Soccer, "USWNT Looks to Apply Lessons from Spain Loss in Rematch," De Turner, October 13, 2026; U.S. Soccer, "After Setback in Washington, D.C., USWNT Look to Rebound Against World Champions in Philly," match preview with both rosters, October 12, 2026; U.S. Soccer, "Matchday Guide: USWNT vs. Spain at Subaru Park," October 13, 2026; U.S. Soccer, match recap and report, United States 0, Spain 2, October 10, 2026; U.S. Soccer, "USWNT vs. Spain: Starting XI & Lineup Notes," October 10, 2026; Jeff Kassouf, ESPN, "Hayes wants fast start from USWNT in second game against Spain," October 12, 2026; ESPN lineups for the United States against Brazil, June 6 and June 9, 2026.