Peter van den Berg-Imagn Images
United States women’s national team head coach Emma Hayes said she was unhappy with her team’s poor first-half performance against the Netherlands on Tuesday, but she said that her squad’s response to win 2-1 in The Hague is the sign of a great team.
The come-from-behind victory came despite the U.S. being outshot 22-5 by the hosts and enduring waves of pressure in the first half.
“I thought we started so poorly,” Hayes said. “We were second to everything. And listen, you have to do the basics right in football. I didn’t feel we won our duels anywhere all over the pitch.”
Hayes said her team, the world No. 1 and recent Olympic gold medal-winners, “got bullied and harassed and that frustrated me a little bit.”
Veerle Buurman opened the scoring for the Netherlands by winning a header on a corner kick. By halftime, the Netherlands had outshot the U.S. 14-1, but Dutch forward Jill Roord wasted several chances and Danielle van De Donk narrowly missed another header on a set…
