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Lily Yohannes commits to making the USWNT her international soccer home

Despite living and playing her club soccer in the Netherlands and pursuing Dutch citizenship, Lily Yohannes has officially committed to the USWNT for the duration of her international soccer career.

By Marjani Taylor

USWNT's Lily Yohannes celebrates goal v South Korea
USWNT's Lily Yohannes celebrates goal v South Korea / Brad Smith/ISI Photos/USSF/GettyImages
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When your friends are filing off a plane from Paris with gold medals strapped to their necks, that's a pretty compelling advertisement for US Soccer. To everyone's great joy (and probably not much surprise) Lily Yohannes has committed to playing her international soccer for the USWNT.

After deliberating between the United States and the Netherlands, Yohannes gave the final nod to her birthplace. (But now tell us truthfully Lily, was it the color scheme? Orange may have had its moment as the new black but it's never been the new red, white, and blue).

Perhaps the scale was tipped by her memories made in the US from age 0-10, the love for her extended family living in the States, the prospect of potentially winning the biggest competitions in the soccer world, playing for a female coach with tremendous club and international success, training with the world's best...are we sure this decision needed deliberation?

At 17 years old with much still to prove, there's no guarantee that either county had/has plans for her international future that match her own grand aspirations, but the unmistakable, unique talent she's exhibited to date leads one to believe she'll be given the opportunity to prove she can strengthen the USWNT midfield.

Lily Yohannes had a dream USWNT debut

Lily Yohannes made her USWNT debut in a June 2024 friendly against South Korea. She entered the match and boom went the dynamite. A goal and a notch in the record books later, she was grinning her way back to the Netherlands. She'd established herself as a hot commodity worth pursuing by both countries.

Having spent many years climbing the Ajax youth ladder before making her first team debut in 2023, the Netherlands might have been a safe place to land but it wasn't THE place to land.

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With years before the next World Cup, USWNT head coach Emma Hayes has ample opportunities to test young, unseasoned talent with few consequences should they fall short. Yohannes will get her minutes. Coincidentally, they might just come next month against the Netherlands.