Lily Yohannes scores in her USWNT debut, headlining a 3-0 win over South Korea

The U.S. women’s soccer team wrapped up its last gathering before the Olympic team is set with a 3-0 win over South Korea in St. Paul, Minn.

New U.S. manager Emma Hayes promised she’d make a lot of lineup changes from the group that started Saturday’s 4-0 win in suburban Denver, and she delivered. Nine new starters were rotated in: goalkeeper Casey Murphy, centerbacks Sam Staab and Emily Sonnett, right back Casey Krueger, midfielders Korbin Albert and Rose Lavelle, and forwards Jaedyn Shaw, Alex Morgan, and Crystal Dunn.

It was Dunn’s first start as a forward for the U.S. since 2017, and her first time playing at the position for the national team since January 2021. She usually plays as a forward or midfielder at club level but has been a left back for the U.S. for many years — to her annoyance and to the even greater annoyance of many fans.

That annoyance got booted into South Korea’s net in the 13th minute, when Dunn scored her first national team goal since 2018. Lindsey Horan started the play with a steal in her own end and short pass to Dunn, who then fed Morgan and took off down nearly three-quarters of the field.

Morgan charged ahead too, eventually passed left to Jenna Nighswonger, and she swung a cross that Dunn got to first near the goal line. South Korea didn’t defend the cross well, but that wasn’t Dunn’s problem.

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The problem is that Dunn has long been so good at left back, and there have been so few other candidates, that she has been stuck there. She has accepted it, and made sure fans have heard her say so often, but that doesn’t mean she has liked it.

Now that Nighswonger (coincidentally Dunn’s teammate at Gotham FC) has emerged as a starting-caliber left back, Hayes could take Dunn to the Olympics as a forward. That would have a big effect on the rest of the roster.

But it’s no certainty that Dunn has been freed from the back line for good. When Hayes made her six allotted substitutions midway through the second half, one of them moved Dunn to left back.

» READ MORE: Emma Hayes starts her USWNT tenure with an impressive 4-0 win over South Korea

Nighswonger, Krueger, Shaw, Morgan, Albert, and Lindsey Horan were subbed out across the two substitution windows. Sophia Smith, Mallory Swanson, Trinity Rodman, Sam Coffey, Emily Fox, and Lily Yohannes entered — the last making her much-anticipated U.S. debut at just 16 years old.

Yohannes became the youngest player to play for the senior U.S. team since Amy Steadman and Kristen Weiss in March 2001, and the eighth-youngest all-time.

Morgan did not score, meaning she still has just two goals for the national team this year. She didn’t take a shot Tuesday, leaving the combination play on Dunn’s goal as her only highlight.

Smith scored the night’s second goal in the 67th, five minutes after entering. It started with a Rodman steal, then Smith and Swanson joined the ensuing fast break. After Swanson laid Rodman’s pass on to Smith, she worked her way around South Korea’s Lee Eun-Young and goalkeeper Kim Jung-Mi to finish from a tight angle — falling over amusingly as she contorted herself for the shot.

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Yohannes entered in the 72nd and commanded the spotlight from there.

She has yet to decide whether she’ll play for the U.S., where she was born, or the Netherlands, where she currently lives with her family and plays for Dutch club Ajax. So there might just have been some lobbying when Yohannes scored a well-taken goal from 12 yards out in the 82nd minute and was swarmed by the entire team on the sideline.

“I’ve seen that. I’ve experienced that all week, to be honest with you,” Hayes said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen an environment so embracing, so caring about everyone in it. And she doesn’t look like a 16-year-old.”

It made Yohannes the third-youngest goal scorer in U.S. women’s team history, after Kristine Lilly in 1987 (the youngest) and Tiffany Roberts Sahaydak in 1994.

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Hayes revealed that she’d told Yohannes a few days ago that she’d play Tuesday night, and it wasn’t the first time Hayes watched her. Before taking the U.S. job full-time in late May, Hayes coached Chelsea against Ajax in the women’s Champions League quarterfinals. Yohannes played the series opener and was suspended for the finale because of yellow card accumulation.

Hayes has said repeatedly that she didn’t try to recruit Yohannes during the series. (Though U.S. forward Catarina Macario, who plays at Chelsea, admitted to doing so.) She said it again Tuesday, but she didn’t hide how highly she thinks of the player.

“She knows what I think about her … I have really pushed and wanted her in this squad,” Hayes said. “Yes, I’ve seen her a lot, being the former Chelsea coach, so I knew what her talents were, and she’s a player I’ve admired even as Chelsea manager. So, delighted for her to get her first cap, and you could see what not only it meant for her — and I’m sure her family, who I’ve spent time talking with — but also what it meant to her teammates.”

And while Hayes didn’t join in the mass celebration, she said “it was lovely to watch.”

» READ MORE: Emma Hayes is friends with Dawn Staley. How did that happen?

Yohannes probably won’t make the Olympic team, but she could be a nonplaying alternate who travels in case of emergency. Being an alternate would not tie her to the U.S. program, though one might wonder if accepting the role would come with a commitment.

A mention is also due to Murphy, a Rutgers product. No. 1 goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher is out injured, but is expected to be healthy by July. Murphy may have locked up the second goalkeeper spot on the 18-player squad with three strong saves Tuesday.

The Olympic roster is due to FIFA and the International Olympic Committee by July 3. Now the clock is officially ticking, for Hayes and everyone else.