Ashley Sanchez needed one start to turn a recall into a selection question

Two weeks ago Emma Hayes explained why Jaedyn Shaw and Ally Sentnor were spending this window with the under-23s by naming two other players. "Ally and Jaedyn are still central to our plans," she said in a U.S. Soccer story on September 30, "but I think with Ashley Sanchez and Trinity Byars performing the way they have, there is a competition for places."

On Tuesday at Subaru Park, Sanchez started, scored, and helped the United States come from two goals down to draw Spain 2-2. Byars did not dress for either match.

How it went#

For half an hour it looked like Saturday again. In the 27th minute Clara Serrajordi curled a pass across the face of goal, Clara Pinedo stepped over it, and Alexia Putellas finished from close range at the left post. Five minutes later Emily Fox, under pressure and facing her own goal, played the ball back to Phallon Tullis-Joyce, whose clearance went straight to Putellas, by the federation's recap. Putellas ran at the back line and slipped Salma Paralluelo in on the right, and Paralluelo's shot went in off the underside of the crossbar.

Jeff Kassouf of ESPN reported that Hayes changed to a back three at halftime. In the 49th minute Sophia Wilson broke through a tackle on the right and found Sanchez on the left, and Sanchez stutter-stepped her defender and put a low shot into the bottom right corner. Hayes made five substitutions around the hour and three more in the 80th minute. In the 86th, Kate Del Fava, on for six minutes, hit a long ball down the right to Michelle Cooper, Cooper held it and laid it into the box, and Mallory Swanson volleyed it into the bottom corner.

Spain had 15 shots to 14 and four on target to six, by the federation's match report, in front of 18,648.

The forward places for November#

The next United States match is not a friendly. It is the Concacaf W Championship quarterfinal against El Salvador on November 27 in Mansfield, Texas, and the federation says the winner earns a place at the 2027 World Cup in Brazil.

Sanchez came into this window with no appearance for the United States in 710 days, by U.S. Soccer's count, and leaves it with 104 of the 180 regulation minutes: 24 off the bench on Saturday and 80 as a starter on Tuesday, before Pietra Tordin replaced her. The goal was her fourth in 30 caps and her first for the United States since July 14, 2022. She started on the left of the forward line with Wilson and Trinity Rodman, who started both matches. On Saturday that place was Alyssa Thompson's; Sanchez replaced her in the 66th minute, and on Tuesday Thompson came off the bench. Sanchez came into camp with 20 goals in 26 matches for the North Carolina Courage, by the federation's count on September 30, tied for the NWSL single-season record.

Swanson played 53 of the 180: two substitute appearances, from the 66th minute on Saturday and the 61st on Tuesday. Her goal was her 39th for the United States and her first since the winner in the 2024 Olympic final.

That is the competition Hayes described, and it has two players outside the camp in it. Shaw has 37 caps and Sentnor 23, and both were in the three senior camps before this one, by the federation's September 30 story. Sentnor captained the under-23s and scored in a 5-0 win over the Dominican Republic on October 12, by the federation's report. Shaw was not on that team sheet; Kassouf reported that she left under-23 camp the week before as a precaution because of an unspecified issue. Nobody has said she is injured.

A November roster that takes Sanchez and Swanson and both of the players Hayes called central has to leave somebody else at home. Alyssa Thompson started Saturday and came on for Gisele Thompson on Tuesday, Cooper made the equalizer, and Emma Sears and Tordin got the last ten minutes. I think Sanchez is on the November list. The case against is Hayes's own record: after the January 2025 camp she left Sanchez off every roster until this one, the four 2026 rosters included, and on September 30 she spoke of a core group with "unbelievable credit in the bank" that she wants to keep together.

Two debuts, and three who did not play#

Del Fava, 28, and Tordin were the 33rd and 34th players to earn first caps under Hayes, by the federation's notes, both in the 80th minute. Forty-six different players have now appeared for the United States in 2026, which U.S. Soccer says is a program record for a calendar year; the old mark was 44.

The other three uncapped players finished the window without a minute. Evelyn Shores was an unused substitute on Tuesday after not dressing Saturday. Jordan Silkowitz and Byars did not dress for either match. Byars had 10 goals and two assists in the NWSL when the roster was named, by the federation's count, and is the one player Hayes named alongside Sanchez as the reason for a competition. Of those two, one played 104 minutes and the other none.

The back four, again#

Hayes made four changes from Saturday: Tullis-Joyce in goal, Sanchez, Claire Hutton and Gisele Thompson. Fox, Tierna Davidson, Kennedy Wesley and Gisele Thompson had never started together, the federation's lineup notes said, which made it two matches and two back fours with no start together behind them. Avery Patterson, who started at left back on Saturday, was an unused substitute.

Wesley played all 180 minutes of the window. Davidson played 170, replaced by Del Fava in the 80th minute on Tuesday.

Naomi Girma and Emily Sonnett, one or both of whom started at center back in seven of the eight matches before this window, were both out injured. The next back four Hayes picks plays for a World Cup place.

Sources: U.S. Soccer, "U.S. Women's National Team Battles Spain to 2-2 Draw in Rematch as Ashley Sanchez and Mallory Swanson Score," recap, additional notes and match report, October 14, 2026; U.S. Soccer, "USWNT vs. Spain: Starting XI & Lineup Notes," October 13, 2026; U.S. Soccer, De Turner, "Emma Hayes on October Roster," September 30, 2026; U.S. Soccer, under-23 women's national team match report against the Dominican Republic, October 12, 2026; U.S. Soccer match report, United States 0, Spain 2, October 10, 2026; Jeff Kassouf, ESPN, "USWNT's never-say-die DNA on full display in fightback draw with Spain," October 14, 2026; Jeff Kassouf, ESPN, on Gotham FC and the under-23 camp, October 12, 2026.