{"id":231141,"date":"2026-03-02T10:10:02","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T10:10:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/02\/leaning-on-leadership-from-heaps-hayes-tests-young-squad-in-chippy-shebelieves-cup-opener-equalizer-soccer\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T10:10:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T10:10:02","slug":"leaning-on-leadership-from-heaps-hayes-tests-young-squad-in-chippy-shebelieves-cup-opener-equalizer-soccer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/02\/leaning-on-leadership-from-heaps-hayes-tests-young-squad-in-chippy-shebelieves-cup-opener-equalizer-soccer\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaning on leadership from Heaps, Hayes tests young squad in chippy SheBelieves Cup opener \u2013 Equalizer Soccer"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto copyright Steve Roberts-Imagn Images.<\/span><\/p>\n

While there were plenty of young faces in head coach Emma Hayes\u2019 opening 2026 SheBelieves Cup lineup, one veteran presence grounded the U.S. women\u2019s national team in its 2\u20130 victory over Argentina: captain Lindsey Heaps<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Scoring the opening goal and assisting on the only other, Heaps anchored the Americans in more than just the midfield. Though the team\u2019s play was not always as crisp or consistent as Hayes may have wanted, Heaps was steady, patient and present at all the right times on Sunday night in Nashville, Tennessee.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And, importantly, she was ready when Emma Sears<\/a> made a judgment call and cut the ball back to the veteran captain at the 19-minute mark. Heaps, who was waiting at the top of the box, sent a perfectly-placed rocket into the back of the net in response. It marked her 39th international goal and came in her first start since December 2025.<\/p>\n

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Photo copyright Steve Roberts-Imagn Images. While there were plenty of young faces in head coach Emma Hayes\u2019 opening 2026 SheBelieves Cup lineup, one veteran presence grounded the U.S. women\u2019s national team in its 2\u20130 victory over Argentina: captain Lindsey Heaps.\u00a0 Scoring the opening goal and assisting on the only other, Heaps anchored the Americans in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":231142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6805],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-231141","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-womens"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}