USWNT raising stakes as team prepares for 3-match test against Japan

U.S. head coach Emma Hayes' squad will get a significant test against a Japan team that beat the Americans in their last meeting. Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images Share full articleWith the U.S. women’s national team returning to the pitch Saturday to kick off a three-match window against Japan, head coach Emma Hayes is already seeing her team raising the stakes in camp. The window features the return of some of the team’s most experienced players, including defender Tierna Davidson and forward Sophia Wilson, who are meshing with younger players who have risen through the ranks over the last year in their absence. These next seven days will offer Hayes and her 26-player roster a significant measuring stick as they look ahead to World Cup qualifiers later this year. Their opponent, Japan, is the 2026 AFC Women’s Asia Cup champions and one of the most tactical teams in the world. “There’s a very visible raising of levels,” Hayes told reporters Friday. “Training has been exceptional. It really has. It’s some of the quickest football I’ve seen from us, and considering those players have been out a period of time, they’ve all fitted in seamlessly. Competition is (heating) up, which is exactly what I want.” Davidson, who tore an ACL last spring, is back with the team for the first time in 13 months. Wilson is back after 17 months following the birth of her daughter, Gigi. Forward Michelle Cooper is also back for the first time in 2026 after recovering from injuries that kept her on limited minutes with the Kansas City Current in the NWSL. Houston Dash goalkeeper Jane Campbell is back in the rotation, too, notably after her club’s promising start to the 2026 NWSL season. The U.S. will face Japan on Saturday (2:30 p.m. PT) in San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday (7 p.m. PT) in Seattle and on April 17 (7 p.m. MT) in Commerce City, Colo. It will be the first time the Americans have played Japan since their 2-1 loss in the SheBelieves Cup final last year. Hayes has said she plans to field two different teams for the first two matches, but on Friday said she remains unsure how she will tackle the third match in Colorado. “Playing Japan 12 months ago was a great moment in terms of how much the players had to really experience what a top-level team looked like, and they have to feel that. You have to be in that,” Hayes said. “You feel that sense of, we’re playing a top opponent, and everybody wants to show how much we are improving.” After a year of experimenting and building a player pathway between the U-23 and senior teams, the return of veteran players like Davidson and Wilson shows how deep the player pool really is. The roster remains without some of its regulars, including recent San Diego Wave signee Catarina Macario and Chicago Stars FC’s Mallory Swanson, who, like Wilson, recently became a mom. “It’s been so fun being back with my team and just players that I haven’t seen in so long, (and) new players, new faces. The first few trainings have been a lot of energy, and I feel really good,” Wilson told The Athletic on Friday. “These are going to be really challenging games for us. It’s a good time to really push ourselves and see where we are and see what we need to get better at — so, what better way (to do that) than playing Japan 3 times?” Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Melanie Anzidei is a Staff Writer for The Athletic covering soccer. Before joining The Athletic, she was an enterprise sports reporter for The Record newspaper and NorthJersey.com, where she was for nearly a decade. She’s a graduate of Columbia Journalism School in New York City. Follow Melanie on Twitter @melanieanzidei