CHESTER, Pa. — For almost its entire existence, the U.S. has been the envy of the women’s soccer world. From unmatched success and abundant talent to fan support and cultural influence, the Americans have set the standard for the sport and, along the way, collected World Cup trophies and Olympic gold medals like coaches picking up pinnies after practice.

But as soccer-first countries have begun investing in the women’s game, particularly in Europe, the Americans find themselves, on very rare occasion, the hunters instead of the hunted.

That is the case with Spain, the reigning world champion and FIFA’s top-ranked team, which defeated the No. 2 U.S., 2-0, on Saturday in Washington. They’ll face each other in another friendly Tuesday night at Subaru Park.

Make no mistake: The Americans remain elite. They are defending Olympic champions. They have not lost consecutive matches in four years and haven’t stumbled at home in back-to-back outings since 2017.

But it was telling after Saturday’s game when coach Emma Hayes said her team is “much closer to [Spain] than we were three years ago.”

Indeed, with the World Cup less than a year away, the U.S. is chasing Spain. (European champion England is in that ultra-elite mix, as well.)

The margin is not insurmountable and one Hayes will aim to narrow by next summer’s tournament in Brazil.

“So what is the gap?” Hayes said Monday. “You can determine and say finishing or preventing goals. Well, yes, that’s part of it, but when you analyze it, when we analyze the game through our lens and through the things we know to be true to impact the result, I know what it looked like in 2023 to what it looks like now, and Spain and USA are right side by side. But it’s maybe the confidence they have being world champions. There’s an efficiency to what they’re doing in that regard.”

Spain took hold of the match Saturday by efficiently converting early opportunities into goals. The U.S. did find its way into the match, particularly in an encouraging second half, but wasted chance after chance after chance, including Lily Yohannes’ missed penalty kick.

“We want to stay at a high standard, and we need to keep progressing,” captain Lindsey Horan said. “You look at the game and you sit there and say how many chances you created, but also, if we want to be on top come the World Cup, those kinds of chances we have to score. We know at this point we will create them — and we’re creating them against the best teams in the world.”

Beyond the goals, though, Spain was collectively better with the ball — it’s the Spanish way, for men and women, after all. Still, the Americans did have enough opportunities to produce at least a draw.

“There were times we had really good control and created great opportunities,” center back Tierna Davidson said. “It’s now making sure we take advantage of those opportunities and are clinical in those positions. On the flip side, for such an attacking team, we did limit them to fewer quality chances on goal than they’re typically used to getting.”

But there were enough to produce a two-goal lead after 14 minutes. Both goals came on quality finishes, but in both cases, a brittle U.S. defense opened the door to opportunities.

Even after a rare multigoal loss, the Americans were feeling pretty good about themselves Monday. They spoke about fine-tuning “small margins and details” and being both more engaged from the start and sharper in the final third of the field.

Without goals, of course, the U.S. is not going to beat anyone, let alone a Spanish side that, aside from two away missteps against England, hasn’t lost in regular time since the 2024 Olympics. (In the June international window, Spain thumped visiting England, 4-0, and routed Iceland, 6-1.)

Hayes, though, relishes another crack at Spain.

“You play the same opponent twice, and there’s things within that you can do a bit better,” she said. “Our team has a really good habit of bringing [those] things into the second game, but we have to do them. You can get away with things against weaker opposition. You just can’t with [Spain], and so I’ll be looking for us to apply that detail to what we’re doing.”

Irrespective of the outcome Tuesday, Hayes said her team will benefit in the long run from playing the best.

“If I’m here to merely protect a wins record, then I’ll pick a lesser opponent,” she said. “I’m not here to do that. I’m here to see how much does that gap close with them and how far away are we from that. [The U.S. will] keep working towards it, because [Spain is] the best team in the world for a reason.”