ST. LOUIS (AP) — Ally Sentnor and Lynn Biyendolo each scored two goals and the United States beat Jamaica 4-0 on Tuesday night after the team honored longtime defender Becky Sauerbrunn.
Sentnor scored in the 19th minute, then formed a heart with her hands in celebration. She scored her second off a deflection 10 minutes later.
The 21-year-old 2024 U.S. Soccer Young Player of the Year, who now has four international goals, credited her teammates.
“They’re really easy to play with at moving the ball,” Sentnor said. “I’m still trying to work to get better for them.”
Biyendolo scored in the 60th minute, three minutes after coming into the game as a substitute. She added a second in the 88th minute off a cross from Avery Patterson. Biyendolo has 24 career goals.
“I do feel like, there is so much more to us than there was 12 months ago. And that’s how you have to look at progress,” coach Emma Hayes said. “With Ally Sentnor, unbelievable finisher. Lynn Biyendolo, to come into a game and close it out, (it’s) really good for us to have both those options.”
Phallon Tullis-Joyce made her second consecutive in goal for the United States as Hayes looks for a successor to longtime goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher, who retired last year. It was her third straight clean sheet.
While Tullis-Joyce didn’t face any shots on goal, it has been important for her to build connections with her teammates, Hayes said.
“When you play in goal for this team, your behaviors have to be that you wait for one moment, and you have to be alert to that. I can see the progress is being made in Phallon’s game, and I’m quite happy that she had a really quiet evening,” Hayes said.
Jamaica, which has never beaten the U.S, started two sets of sisters — Allyson and Chantelle Swaby, and Kalyssa and Amelia Van Zanten.
The U.S. was coming off a 3-0 victory over China on Saturday in St. Paul, Minnesota. The national team was originally scheduled to play a pair of matches against China, but Chinese officials in April pulled out of the second game and Jamaica filled the spot.
Before the game, the United States honored Sauerbrunn, who retired from soccer late last year.
The St. Louis native, whose international career spanned 16 years, is a two-time Women’s World Cup winner and an Olympic gold medalist. Fans, who received a bobblehead in her image, gave her a standing ovation and chanted her name in a pregame ceremony.
Sauerbrunn, who recently announced that she is expecting her first child with partner Zola Short, also served in her new role as a television commentator for the match.
The United States next plays a pair of matches against Ireland, the first on June 26 in Commerce City, Colorado, and the second on June 29 in Cincinnati. The U.S. will also play Canada on July 6 in Washington D.C.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
