NASHVILLE, Tenn. — U.S. women’s national team forward Trinity Rodman left the field in tears after being hit with a hard foul in the final minutes of the team’s 2-0 victory over Argentina at the SheBelieves Cup on Sunday.
Rodman screamed in pain immediately after being hit in the back by 18-year-old Argentine defender Milagros Martin. Rodman was trying to catch the ball from Giselle Thompson near the sideline when the defender collided with her.
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As she knelt, Rodman grabbed her lower back and rolled on the ground in pain. As Team USA teammates surrounded Rodman and motioned for the coach to come on, Martin was quickly shown a yellow card. Rodman lay on the ground for several minutes, wiping tears while coaches evaluated her.
The Joda Park crowd was rapt and rapt in this hard-fought game, cheering the Americans’ tackles and showing disdain for the fouls and glaring missed calls. But when Rodman went down, the noise quieted down.
It’s a worrying scenario for the 23-year-old forward, who has spent much of 2025 recovering from recurring back problems that have left her “in constant pain”.
Rodman described the injury on ESPN’s “NWSL: The Final Third” as the result of “time building up” and playing through pain. After taking some time to recover from the issue, she returned to the court after suffering a sprained knee in October. Rodman finally returned to the U.S. Women’s National Team in January, days after signing a record-breaking contract with the Washington Spirit that makes her the NWSL’s highest-paid player and one of the highest-paid players in the world.
Rodman left the court after her coach helped her off the ground. On the sidelines, she stretched, bounced on her toes and even briefly jogged. Team USA head coach Emma Hayes did not provide an update on Rodman’s status when asked about the forward’s condition. Competitor Postgame media availability.
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“Never met her,” Hayes said. “She would be off the court. She was in the locker room. I don’t usually see the team until they debrief about an hour and a half after the game. So, I can’t give you one. Don’t know.”
Rodman came on for Lily Yohannes in the 62nd minute and received loud applause. She was one of three substitutes as Hayes adjusted the lineup to counter Argentina’s physical style of play.
Gotham defenseman Lily Real also left the court when Rodman entered the game, with the NWSL’s 2025 Rookie of the Year appearing to injure his right foot after a tough tackle.
After the final whistle, goalkeeper Claudia Dickey and midfielders Lindsey Heaps (Captain of Team USA), Jadine Shaw and Olivia Moultrie spoke to the media in the mixed zone about the intensity of the game – both physically and emotionally. According to ESPN statistics, the United States committed 12 fouls to Argentina’s 21, which included hair pulling, tackles and face-to-face situations between players.
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Two Argentinian players received yellow cards. That was one of those assessments in the first half when a player knocked Shaw down by tugging on part of her jersey and ponytail. After the game, Shaw reflected on the lessons provided by navigating the emotional roller coaster of a difficult game.
“Oh yeah, for the first time in my career, I didn’t screw it up,” Shaw said. “But I think for me, what I was doing was just my emotional control in the game, so I think from that point on, I needed to, you know, recover quickly, but, yeah, it wasn’t fun.”
Dickey, who was eliminated for the seventh time in her international career, said the match was “a little more stressful than we expected.” The U.S. came into the game respecting Argentina as a good team, but she admitted “they surprised us with their physicality. … I think we had more fouls than we were called, so mentally it was hard to hold on, but we planned for it as well. We talked about it at halftime and it was like a game within a game, and Lindsay (Heaps) led the team and did a great job of keeping it level and trusting the game plan and each other.”
After fouling Rodman, Heaps addressed the referee directly. After the final whistle, she was seen talking to an Argentinian player on the pitch.
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“I’m just saying, I want to protect my players,” Heaps told reporters when asked about that conversation. “There were some challenges that I didn’t enjoy and I didn’t think were necessary in a game like this. It was one challenge after another, and it wasn’t just one or two. Trin kind of pushed me over the top.”
“For me, it’s like – yes, it’s a tournament. I know everyone wants to win. We try to rise to the challenge, but, at the end of the day, some of these challenges are really dangerous and I don’t like it and I want to protect my team. For me, it’s the referee’s job to control it as much as possible. There’s only so much I can do and say.”
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
U.S. Women’s National Team, Women’s Soccer
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