# Ashley Sanchez returns as a scorer, and a link for others

As of 17 October 2026.

Sanchez’s Courage season has brought more frequent shooting. Her return against Spain also showed the value of moving the ball on.

## Article

Sophia Wilson broke through a challenge and carried towards Spain’s goal before passing left to Ashley Sanchez. Sanchez drove into the box and finished low with her right foot in the 49th minute at Subaru Park on October 13, starting the U.S. comeback from 2–0 down. Mallory Swanson’s 86th-minute equalizer completed a 2–2 draw.

It was Sanchez’s first international goal since July 2022, on her first U.S. start since October 2024. She had ended her absence as a substitute against Spain three days earlier. Her return connected a club season increasingly marked by shooting with a national team whose coach was asking for better choices around goal, not simply more attempts.

U.S. Soccer’s October 16 account put Sanchez on 20 goals in 27 matches for North Carolina Courage. An earlier statistical snapshot, collected on September 21 and covering 2,419 minutes of her 2026 club season, shows how her opportunities had changed. She was taking 3.46 shots per 90 minutes, compared with 1.77 in 2025. The model also assigned her shots a higher average expected-goal value.

Finishing above expectation remained part of the rise: that earlier snapshot recorded 19 goals against 12.3 expected goals. Her key-pass rate, meanwhile, had not risen alongside her shooting. The numbers describe a stronger emphasis on taking chances, not an across-the-board improvement or proof that she had been assigned a new position.

In U.S. Soccer’s review of the series, Emma Hayes distinguished a lack of goals from a lack of creation in the opening 2–0 defeat. She pointed instead to technical execution, cross timing, over-dribbling and shot selection. That was a diagnosis of the U.S. attack as a whole, not an individual criticism of Sanchez: adding a scorer still left the question of how and when the ball should reach her.

The exchanges between Sanchez and Swanson illustrated both the opportunities and the unfinished work. In the first match, Swanson crossed behind Spain’s back line to Sanchez on the left, but Sanchez’s sliding attempt went wide. Their combination had supplied an opening without converting it.

In the rematch, Sanchez helped send Swanson towards goal without playing the final ball. She found Lily Yohannes in the center circle; Yohannes passed first-time behind Spain’s defense, and Swanson’s left-footed effort was saved. For a player whose club numbers put the emphasis on shooting, this was a useful contrast: Sanchez connected the move, leaving Yohannes to release the runner and Swanson to take the shot.

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