The USWNT can’t let Lily get away

The USWNT has a generational talent on its hands with options for her international future

The U.S. women’s national team knows what kind of talent it has with Lily Yohannes.

After the 16-year-old scored on her USWNT debut on Tuesday night, the praise from some of the team’s most established players was unanimous.

‘Lily is a baller,” Sophia Smith said on the TNT broadcast after the game. “From the first day she came into camp, she was making these passes that you don’t see a 16-year-old make — you don’t even see veteran players make.”

“This one will be special,” Lindsey Horan said on her Instagram story.

“You have a bright, bright future,” Mallory Swanson said on hers.

That Yohannes is a player for the future has been known for some time. But Tuesday night’s display — though it only took place over 20 minutes — showed that the Ajax midfielder could be ready to play a significant role for the USWNT right now.

It wasn’t just the goal, as composed as that finish was. It was her entire display: composed, strong on the ball, an expansive passing range, field awareness. It was the entire package.

“She doesn’t look like a 16-year-old,” head coach Emma Hayes said after the game.

The performance will lead to even more speculation over the next step for Yohannes, both in the short term and over the long haul.

In the short term, a previously unthinkable question now seems like a plausible one: Should she make the Olympic roster?

It may still be too early, but it suddenly doesn’t seem so outrageous that the teenager could compete with Korbin Albert for what looks to be the last withdrawn midfielder spot on the 18-player roster.

If Yohannes does improbably make the squad, it would emphatically answer the more long-term question surrounding her future: Which country will she represent?

Yohannes was born in Virginia and moved to the Netherlands with her family when she was 10 years old. She is not yet eligible to play for the Dutch, but she is expected to gain her citizenship soon.

As of last month, the midfielder said she was still undecided on her international future. Netherlands head coach Andries Jonker has claimed that Yohannes wants to play for the Dutch.

If Yohannes makes the USWNT Olympic squad and sees the field, her international future would be sorted. Hayes won’t put Yohannes on the roster just to cap-tie her, but it would undoubtedly be an added bonus.

Hayes coached Chelsea against Ajax in the Champions League this season, so she knows better than most what kind of talent she has on her hands.

“I think playing in Europe has accelerated her learning,” Hayes said. “[She] plays for a big club in Ajax, plus she’s been playing in Champions League — I remember her having a good game when Chelsea played them — so she’s had exposures that many American 16-year-olds have not had. And it shows.”

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