Rose Lavelle scored in her first national team match of the year after ankle surgery and the United States defeated Ireland 4-0 on Thursday night.
Avery Patterson, Sam Coffey and Alyssa Thompson also scored for the United States. Lavelle last played for the national team in December against the Netherlands.
Patterson, making her third start for the national team, scored on a header off a short corner from Lavelle in the 18th minute. It was her first international goal.
"It's surreal. I think at halftime someone asked me what was going through my head, and I don't think I fully came down and realized what had happened until two water breaks afterward," Patterson laughed. "I need to watch it again because I kind of blacked out."
Coffey added a goal before halftime, with a shot that cut across to the far post. It was her third national team goal and second in the last three games.
Lavelle made it 3-0 in the 53rd, scoring handily off a well-placed pass from Ally Sentnor. Thompson ran the ball from the center line, danced around a defender and finished with a blast from atop the box in the 63rd.
"I felt that pressure was coming so I took a touch around her, I've been in that situation a lot of times in this game, and I was like `I need to score this one,'" Thompson said. "So I did my usual move and then hit it to the far side."
Coach Emma Hayes gave her Europe-based players — including Lindsey Heaps, Catarina Macario, Crystal Dunn and Emily Fox — time off after their seasons. The exception was defender Naomi Girma, who is working her way back from a calf injury.
Goalkeeper Claudia Dickey, who plays for the Seattle Reign, and Lilly Reale, a defender for Gotham, started for the United States in their national team debuts. The youngest player on the squad, 18-year-old Jordyn Bugg, made her debut as a second-half substitute. Six of the 11 starters had less than 10 appearances with the national team.
Lavelle, with 111 appearances on the team, was one of the veterans in the lineup, along with defender Emily Sonnett.
The United States has faced Ireland 16 times and never dropped a match. The Irish have scored just one goal against the United States.
The United States plays Ireland again on Sunday in Cincinnati, Lavelle's hometown. The team plays Canada on July 2 in Washington, D.C.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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