October 08, (THEWILL) – Lauren Hemp and Georgia Stanway scored each side of a goal from Sophia Smith on Friday night in a friendly match between European champions England and the USWNT, maintaining Sarina Wiegman’s incredible unbeaten streak as England manager.
Due to the absence of Ellen White and Alessia Russo, Wiegman was forced to start left winger Hemp through the middle. Within 10 minutes, the unconventional striker gave England the lead by burying Beth Mead’s teaser cross.
Just before the half-hour mark, Smith brought the USA to within one goal, turning the match into a nail-biting end-to-end contest. After Hailie Mace was given a penalty by the video assistant referee (VAR) for a high boot on Lucy Bronze, England regained the lead just five minutes later. Stanway made up for her earlier mistake by calmly converting the penalty.
Trinity Rodman had the ball in the net for USWNT but VAR determined that Smith had been just barely offside during the buildup and in the second half, Smith shot just wide when she should have scored.
In the dying minutes, the USA reversed a penalty decision by video assistant referee (VAR) after Rose Lavelle’s strike had been incorrectly adjudged to have struck Hemp’s arm. Ella Toone and Smith wasted some other chances as time ran out, with the final whistle confirming England’s win.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
