After more than 90 minutes of rough, gruelingly physical gameplay, the US Women's National Team pulled out a 1-1 tie against the Netherlands Wednesday night. I've never been so satisfied with a tie. Smushed into a chair crowded around a pool table inside Ballard's Rough & Tumble Pub, I think I experienced the whole spectrum of human emotion watching this game. 

Every USWNT game at the World Cup is a big deal thanks to how dominant they are and the infectious fervor behind women's soccer. This game, though, was an even bigger deal because it was a rematch of the 2019 World Cup final. The USWNT handily won that game 2-0. Naturally, the Netherlands would be out for blood—and revenge—in this 2023 group-stage game. And, fuck. They were. 

You know who else was out for blood? Everyone trying to get into fucking Rough & Tumble, Seattle's only women's sports bar and the home of the official OL Reign match watch party. Despite arriving early to the last USWNT game, I didn't make it into the bar. This time, I arrived right as the bar opened at 3 pm—three hours before the game started. Watching the USWNT in this bar was now my white whale. 

The line at Rough & Tumble before doors even opened. NATHALIE GRAHAM

When I joined the line, it was halfway down the block from Rough & Tumble's entrance. By the time I got into the bar, the only seating left was around the two pool tables the bar had covered to turn into makeshift regular tables. I squeezed into my seat, legs squished against the ball return slot, and watched the chaos. 

"I hate having to tell so many people no," bar owner Jen Barnes said. And she had to tell a lot of people no. People who arrived minutes after me weren't guaranteed to get into the bar. And the line kept growing. 

The crowd inside buzzed with enthusiasm. The entire OL Reign team (sans the five players at the World Cup) showed up to do autographs. Reign player and USWNT defender Sofia Huerta's friends and family partied on the Rough & Tumble deck. Okay, so this was what the line was all about. 

I counted my lucky stars and ordered a feast of sweet and spicy Billie Jean chicken wings, a Reignstorm burger, and a Title IX Banh Mi, plus a hard kombucha to wash it down. The chicken wings—perfectly crunchy on the outside, soft and moist on the inside—were some of the best I'd ever had. 

Everything was fine until the game started. The TVs in our section were 11 seconds ahead of the rest of the bar. We would react to almost-goals with screams and groans, spoiling the suspense for the majority of the bar. Then, like an echo, they'd mimic our reactions 11 seconds later. This was funny until the 16th minute when the Netherlands' Victoria Pelova hit a pass to Jill Roord who drilled it into the corner past USWNT keeper Alyssa Naeher's gloves. 

The Rough & Tumble staff synced up the TVs after that. 

For the rest of the first half, the bar stayed mostly quiet aside from shouts of "What was that?!" and "Ref!" The Netherlands were physical on and off the ball, bodying our players, grabbing jerseys and ponytails, and maintaining possession. The ref, Yoshima Yamashita, called a loose game. She let fouls fly without warning and seemingly refused to pull out a yellow despite flagrant transgressions. 

Look, I like a physical game. I'm all for bodychecks and slide tackles, but at a certain point, the game starts getting out of hand when players realize they won't be penalized. Midfielder Savannah DeMelo took the brunt of this physicality from the Netherlands. By the end of the first half, she started throwing sloppy fouls herself. 

Overall, the USWNT's first-half performance felt defeated. This was the first time since the 2011 World Cup quarterfinals vs. Brazil that the USWNT trailed before the half. They lost possession after sloppy first touches, passed into traffic, and made some perplexing decisions. Forward Sophia Smith seemed stifled by the Dutch defense. On the opposite wing, Trinity Rodman kept turning over the ball or dribbling right into people. 

After the half, Rose Lavelle subbed in for DeMelo. Lavelle, who plays for the OL Reign, sat most of last season out with a knee injury. She's supposedly healed, so, why isn't she starting? That's a question for US manager Vlatko Andonovski. Her presence invigorated the USWNT offense. We started possessing the ball, making smarter plays, and moving more proactively off the ball. 

The real game-changing moment happened when Daniëlle van de Donk on the Netherlands (what, you couldn't tell from her name?) hip-checked USWNT midfielder Lindsey Horan. Van de Donk's tackle collided with Horan's already-hurt knee. Horan buckled, favoring her taped-up knee. The two are teammates on the Olympique Lyonnais soccer club. 

Some minutes of medical examining passed before Horan reentered the fray. On the field, the players were setting up for a USWNT corner kick. Horan ran onto the field, she shouted something at van de Donk, face screwed up in fury. Van de Donk shouted something else, strutting toward Horan. Heated, Horan gave van de Donk a shove. The ref, channeling some sort of playground mediation tactics, blew the whistle and summoned the two of them together to talk it out. It was weird. 

Once things seemed smoothed over enough, Lavelle took her corner kick. Horan arced into the box, leaped up, and snapped her head at the perfect moment. Her head collided with the ball and she sent it speeding into the back of the net. Talk about a mic drop.  

Rough & Tumble erupted into ear-splitting cheers. Goosebumps ran down my arms. Euphoria incarnate. My pool table compatriots knocked our knees against our crowded quarters as we jumped up and down, hugging strangers, screaming. She did that!!!!! We love feminine rage in this pub! 

"I don't think you ever want to get me mad because I don't react in a good way usually [for the opponent] and I want something more," Horan said in a post-game interview. "I want to win more. I want to score more. I want to do more for my team. That moment—that little tackle, big tackle—changed the shift in my head. I want to do everything for my team, and let's win this game."

The momentum changed after the goal, but nothing came of it. What may have played into the inability to score again was how Andonovski refused to make more subs. Our forwards were clearly tired, Smith and Rodman looked gassed by the end. Why not put in some fresh legs to bring this thing home? Andonovski said he didn't want to mess with the rhythm. What rhythm?! Whatever. Hopefully, he takes his head out of his ass next game.

Despite a more disappointing-than-expected performance from the USWNT, this game was an absolute battle. With Portugal next, the USWNT will need to win in order to make it out of the group stage. The next game is  Tuesday at 12 am. Yep. Midnight. Maybe I'll watch that one from bed.Â