November football carries a different kind of weight.
It’s the final breath before a new cycle begins — the moment when a team sees itself clearly, stripped of excuses, stripped of the calendar’s noise.
For the United States, this friendly against Italy in Orlando is exactly that:
a final assessment, a checkpoint before World Cup qualifying begins in 2026.
For Italy, it is something else entirely — a chance to measure their evolution against one of the sport’s enduring giants, after a summer that taught them as much through heartbreak as through success.
The two sides have not met in fifteen years.
Their first-ever meeting, forty years ago, launched the USWNT into existence.
So much changes across generations, but football has a strange way of circling back on itself. Moments echo; paths cross. This one is heavy with significance.
And Inter&Co Stadium, an arena that has recently become a home for American dominance, hosts the reunion.
A Team in Transition, A Coach in Control
USWNT coach Emma Hayes has asked for difficult matches all year.
Not for spectacle, but for truth.
“If you want to win World Cups, you can’t just play the same teams the same way. You need diversity.”
Italy provides exactly that. They’re ranked 12th in the world, tactically mature, physically disciplined, emotionally hardened by the Euro semifinal against England — the one that slipped away in added time.
The Americans arrive with scars of their own:
a shock loss to Portugal, a team still adjusting to Hayes’ demands, and a goalkeeper group with only eight career caps between them.
But they also arrive with firepower.
Lavelle in championship-winning form.
Sears in her best scoring year.
Shaw growing by the week.
Girma returning with urgency.
Howell back after almost three years away.
This is not a team drifting into the off-season.
This is a squad being sharpened.
Tonight is the last grindstone.
The NWSL Finals Hangover: A Test Beneath the Surface
Hayes isn’t sentimental about this window — she’s analytical.
Seven players reported to camp just days after the NWSL Championship on November 22, still carrying the intensity of club finals in their legs.
The US federation quietly monitors ACL risk during these transitions.
The recovery time is short; the demands are high.
But Hayes sees something else:
resilience, the kind that defines major tournament winners.
Rose Lavelle’s last match was a title decider.
Croix Bethune has barely had time to decompress.
And yet both are expected to help dictate rhythm against Italy’s carefully layered midfield.
This is the reality of late-year USWNT friendlies:
tired champions trying to summon clarity one last time.
Italy Arrive With a Different Kind of Momentum
Under Andrea Soncin, Italy have become something rare in modern women’s football:
a side that learns quickly and consciously.
He talks often about consapevolezza — awareness, understanding, recognition of detail.
Their Euro semifinal loss wasn’t just a heartbreak; it became a turning point.
“La squadra deve crescere in consapevolezza. Quel minuto ci sta insegnando tanto.”
“That minute is teaching us so much.”
This Italy carries lessons in their movement.
They control the ball with patience.
They defend with discipline.
They break pressure with bursts of geometry — diagonal passes that cut through the pitch like confident strokes of a pen.
Players like Giugliano, nearing her 100th cap, anchor the team emotionally as much as technically.
Caruso complements her with the ability to slip between pressure lines.
And then there is Boattin, with her NWSL experience, and Cantore, who trains daily in American intensity.
Their understanding of US tempo is a rare advantage in Italia calcio.
The Italian delegation calls this opportunity grande orgoglio.
Great pride.
And it shows.
The Return of Girma and the Re-Emergence of Howell
There are players whose mere presence steadies a team.
Naomi Girma is one.
She missed the previous window through injury — and she wasn’t quiet about wanting back in.
She told Hayes repeatedly:
“I’m fit. I’m coming.”
She didn’t need to say it.
But that urgency reflects the standards Hayes is trying to create.
Standards where availability, commitment, and clarity are non-negotiable.
Against Italy’s structured attack, Girma’s reading of the game becomes the hinge on which the US back line swings.
And then there’s Jaelin Howell, returning after 37 months away from the team.
Her season with Gotham was forceful, dominant, unavoidable — and Hayes rewarded that.
Howell’s intensity, her ball-winning instinct, her willingness to break transitions, all matter against a side that values time on the ball.
Italy want slow circulation; Howell denies slow circulation.
This duel may define the match.
Midfield: Where the Shapes Collide
Italy’s strength is clear:
a disciplined midfield triangle that rotates cleanly, spreads wide when needed, and condenses into a block when forced backwards.
They are prepared for a 3-5-2 or a deep 5-4-1, depending on how aggressively the US press.
The Americans, by contrast, prefer turbulence.
They want high tempo.
Fast wins in transition.
Runs into the channels.
Sears attacking the near post.
Lavelle slipping behind midfield lines.
Shaw linking during second-phase pressure.
This meeting is one of styles, identities, and accelerations.
Italy seek control.
The US seek momentum.
The winner may simply be the side that finds their preferred rhythm first.
Goalkeepers Under the Spotlight
Three American goalkeepers.
Eight total caps.
And an Italian team that thrives on set pieces.
Italy will aim to test them early — corners, free kicks, switched diagonals landing on the back post.
The US will rely heavily on Girma, Davidson, or Sauerbrunn’s organizing voice to steady the group.
There is a quiet vulnerability here.
And Italy know it.
Orlando’s Setting: A Stadium of Warm Light
Inter&Co Stadium doesn’t intimidate.
It invites.
It has been a fortress for the USWNT, who remain undefeated here.
The locals know women’s football; the Orlando Pride’s 2024 NWSL title raised the city’s profile as a hub of the sport.
The second match in Fort Lauderdale is labeled a Fan Appreciation Match, but this first one in Orlando has the energy of a special reunion.
Two nations.
Two histories intertwined.
Two fanbases that rarely share the same breathing space.
Italy arrive wearing their new adidas home kit — debuting on American soil.
A small detail, but a symbolic one.
A fresh identity unveiled under the Florida lights.
What This Game Represents
For the US:
clarity.
structure.
confidence before a defining year.
For Italy:
evidence.
proof of their growth.
a chance to test their consciousness against one of the sport’s fiercest realities.
For women’s football:
a bridge across worlds — NWSL intensity meeting European technique, Orlando’s warm energy meeting Italy’s tactical discipline.
And for the supporters:
a reminder that even at the end of a long year, the game still provides reasons to gather, to believe, to feel.
Matches played in late November always carry a quiet honesty.
The legs are tired.
The memories are long.
The stakes are understated but important.
This one brings a cycle full circle:
from the first USWNT match in 1985,
to the playoff in 2010,
to Orlando 2025 —
forty years of history returning to the same shared space.
In the calm Florida evening, two teams step out not to finish a year, but to begin the next one with clearer eyes.
May their touch be clean,
their tempo steady,
and may the game — as always — offer truth.
doragon sports 