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CHESTER, Pa. — Spain forward Salma Paralluelo extended her arms wide like airplane wings Tuesday night, much to the dislike of the U.S. crowd.
Five minutes after its first goal, Paralluelo had doubled Spain’s lead on the U.S. women’s national team. Alexia Putellas had scored the first goal then recorded the assist on the second. It felt like a similar script to the U.S. women’s national team’s 2-0 loss to Spain just three days prior.
But the Americans showed in the second half that they can, in fact, punch back.
Sophia Wilson fed Ashley Sanchez, who tucked the ball past Spain’s goalkeeper and into the far corner.
Then, in the 86th minute, Mallory Swanson scored her first goal with the national team since the 2024 Olympic gold medal game after having a child. She ran and jumped into Jaelin Howell’s arms to celebrate.
“That’s the U.S.’s DNA,” Howell said after the 2-2 draw. “It’s just grit and fire and never-say-die mentality, and so I think that’s what you saw from everybody today. And proud of the group, but obviously a lot of work to do, too, and everybody knows that continuous climb together, and it’s important.”
For the first time in recent memory, and with the FIFA Women’s World Cup just seven months away, the U.S. isn’t the team to beat. That title belongs to reigning World Cup champion Spain, which has bloomed from an up-and-coming federation to a global powerhouse.
This unfamiliar position has forced the U.S. to confront a new reality in which reclaiming the top spot will require measuring itself against the team that holds it.
A pair of exhibition matches against Spain — a 2-0 loss Saturday in Washington then Tuesday’s draw — offered the U.S. a chance to gauge where it stands, expose its weaknesses and see what it will take to challenge for the world title in Brazil next summer.
“They’re world class, we’re still in progress,” U.S. coach Emma Hayes said. “They’re deserving of being world champions. Our job is to hunt that.”
U.S. midfielder Lindsey Heaps said the matches against Spain were an “incredible experience” for the Americans, who are set to begin their World Cup qualification journey at the Concacaf W Championship in November.
“It was nice to leave on a little bit better note tonight,” Heaps said. “Obviously we’re still disappointed because I think we could get the win tonight, but this is a tough opponent and it’s a difficult team to play against with some quality, quality players.”
Spain looked like the better team for most of the two friendlies — even without arguably the world’s best player, Aitana Bonmatí, who remains out as she deals with lingering pain in the leg she broke last year. Ex-Gotham FC star Esther González was surprisingly not called up.
“Doesn’t matter if they were missing some of their best players, they demonstrated in two games why they’re world champions,” Hayes said. “We have to get to that level.”
The U.S. had been at that level for more than two years. The Americans have finished no lower than third place in eight of the nine World Cup tournaments.
Spain won the last World Cup while the U.S. suffered its earliest-ever exit in Cup history when it got bounced in the Round of 16.
The U.S., ranked No. 2 in the FIFA world rankings, is eager to reclaim the top spot.
“That’s the goal,” Sanchez said. “When you’re on a team like the U.S., I mean, that’s always the standard that we’ve had. … The goal, it’s always the goal to win.”