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The USA and England women’s football teams came together at the Wembley Stadium to raise awareness about the safety of women in the sport after the Yates report exposed the National Women's Soccer League’s failure to protect female players from sexual and emotional harassment.
The independent investigative report created by Sally Yates released on Monday, addressed the systemic abuse within the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) and that league officials and governing body U.S. Soccer failed to adequately protect its players.
The 173-page long report had over 200 interviews of people involved in women football in the USA. The report was made after multiple detailed sexual harassment allegations against former Portland Thorns manager Paul Riley, former Racing Louisville manager Christy Holly and Chicago Red Stars coach Rory Dames.
Both the US and England women’s teams held a teal banner 15 minutes before the start of their fixture in London which said, 'Protect the Players'. Both teams also wore teal armbands to show solidarity. Despite the socio-cultural importance of this fixture, football wasn’t on the back foot.
The crowd of almost 77,000 at Wembley was witness to an intense duel between two of the best teams in women’s football. The Lionesses took an early lead thanks to the 2022 PFA Women's Young Player of the Year Lauren Hemp. The Manchester City forward opened the scoring in just 10 minutes.
The USA responded when Sophia Smith fired in an equaliser, but the reigning European Champions were awarded a penalty for a high boot on Lucy Bronze after referee Riem Hussein referred to the VAR monitor. Georgia Stanway also added and titled the fixture in the home team’s favour with a 2-1 score. Moments later, USWNT once again levelled only to have their goal ruled out for a marginal offside.
After the match the US coach, Vlatko Andonovski said he was proud of his players for "even being on the field". He said, "Obviously, it's been an extremely difficult week for everybody and I'm proud of the players for even being on the field and playing the game. It wasn't easy.
"For some of them who were in the environment to see and experience everything they went through, I applaud their bravery and I applaud their fearless mentality and relentlessness. Once again, they showed that nothing can stop them playing the game that they love. I'm very proud of them and hoping we never have to go through that again."