UC Santa Barbara’s Harder Stadium underwent a makeover and rolled out the red carpet for the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team for an international match for the first time ever on Tuesday night.
Local soccer fans in town and from up and down the Central Coast showed up and showed out for the international friendly against Chile, selling out the stadium with 14,797 attendees.
The USWNT gave its fans plenty to cheer about, cruising to a 5-0 victory over Chile, which marked the end of the first camp of 2026 for the USWNT.
“I have not been to Santa Barbara often, but it’s a beautiful place,” U.S. standout Trinity Rodman said. “This stadium was cool. I like when it’s intimate like that. You can hear almost every fan. Even during the game, I can hear more comments, which I think is fun at times.
“Obviously, when we scored, it’s even louder, so I enjoyed that a lot and I liked playing here.”
It was a match full of firsts for the U.S., as midfielder Croix Bethune, forward Jameese Joseph and defender Emily Sams all scored the first goals of their international career in the opening half.
The U.S. boasted a starting lineup full of players making their first starts at the international level, as this year’s squad is one of the youngest in the team’s history.
“For me, it’s consistency in what we’re looking for. The way that we coach the players is that it doesn’t matter who’s got the crest on, you know what that is expected in that role,” U.S. head coach Emma Hayes said. “When you have players that don’t play a lot of minutes, able to deliver a tactical performance like that, I think that’s what gives me most joy.
“I think we always know the U.S. produced players that can win soccer games, maybe a certain way, but I feel like we have learned how to break opponents down in much different ways… That’s the level that this program sets, and I feel like we’re returning to a level that was here a while ago.”
The USWNT applied plenty of pressure in the early stages, including a shot on goal from Joseph in the opening minute of play.
The early pressure turned into a score in the 18th minute when defender Ayo Oke delivered a lead pass to Bethune, who collected herself and beat the Chile goalkeeper in a 1-on-1 for the 1-0 lead.
The U.S. doubled its lead eight minutes later when Yazmeen Ryan delivered a pinpoint pass to Joseph at the top of the box. Joseph turned and fired a goal into the back of the net to make it 2-0 in the 26th minute.
The offensive barrage continued in the 33rd minute, as Emma Sears received a pass inside the box and crossed it to captain Sams, who slid in and scored for a 3-0 advantage, which held into halftime.
The Santa Barbara crowd responded to the three-goal first half with a wave that wrapped around Harder Stadium several times before dying down.
Hayes mentioned the wave in her postgame press conference and was pleased with the energy levels both from her team and in the Santa Barbara crowd.
“I said to the players in the locker room, let’s go out there and lift the roof, and then I came out and realized it didn’t have a roof,” Hayes said. “But as [Rodman] reminded me, it doesn’t need a roof to lift something.
“I wanted the team to give a performance that would keep a crowd engaged, but also know that [the crowd] is going to bring the energy, so let’s keep up with them.”
The U.S. didn’t waste a moment continuing the momentum into the second half, as Sears streaked down the sideline and scored in the opening minute to extend the lead to 4-0.
In the 63rd minute, the Santa Barbara crowd rose to its feet as Rodman entered the game as a substitute.
Rodman rose to the occasion in the 68th minute, as she collected a pass from Riley Jackson, dribbled into the right side of the box and fired an impressive shot across the net and into the back left corner to make it a 5-0 lead.
The 23-year-old immediately sprinted across the field to celebrate with a dance with Hayes before firing up an already-electrified crowd.
“I’m proud of myself. I told you guys I was gonna do it, and I did it,” Rodman said of dancing with her coach. “I’m just really happy and happy that Emma was confident enough to do it with me.
“She didn’t have a choice… I let her know for sure, like I’m coming up to you again, so it’s on you if you want to ignore it or if you want to just feed into it and she did.”
That proved to be the final goal of the match, as the U.S. held on and secured the clean sheet to wrap up its first camp of the 2026 season. The U.S. also defeated Paraguay, 6-0, on Saturday at Dignity Health Sports Park.
The next time the U.S. team will be in action will be for the SheBelieves Cup in Nashville, Tennessee, at the beginning of March.
“I think this has certainly opened up the year with what we’ve identified as the key themes to take us through to qualification,” Hayes said of the season-opening camp.
“I think this camp has given us the reference points to be able to say, these are the things we need to add to go to the next level, these are the things we are looking for, and for the players that come back in for SheBelieves, it will be really clear what that looks like.”