Trinity Rodman scores early in her return from 8-month injury absence, and US women beat Brazil 2-0

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Trinity Rodman drilled her shot into the bottom corner of Brazil's net and promptly got mobbed by her teammates. She broke away from the goal celebration and grabbed her lower back, pretending to seize up with pain — only to stand up tall and laugh while flipping her pink hair over both shoulders.

After eight months of recovery from back woes, Rodman is feeling close to her old self again. The U.S. women's national team also showed signs of its top form while coolly handling another world power.

Rodman scored in the fifth minute of her return from a lengthy injury absence, and the Americans beat Brazil 2-0 Saturday in a friendly rematch of the Paris Olympics gold-medal match.

Rodman, the 22-year-old star and Orange County native, delivered her 11th goal for the U.S. by finishing off a brilliant run by Alyssa Thompson. Rodman hadn’t played for the U.S. since the Olympic final due to persistent back problems — hence her cheeky celebration.

“The medical staff was freaking out, but I felt like I had to do it,” Rodman said with a grin. “It felt so good to be in this atmosphere again, to be with the team. The stadium was crazy."

Phallon Tullis-Joyce made six saves while keeping a clean sheet in the 28-year-old goalkeeper’s U.S. debut. Captain Lindsey Heaps also scored a second-half penalty goal in the first of two California friendlies in four days against Brazil, who lost 2-1 in Paris as the U.S. secured its fifth Olympic gold medal.

“I think it shows where this group is going,” Heaps said. “Our group is just getting better and better, and there's not massive gaps between players. These young guns coming in ... it's such a cool thing for us to see.”

Played before a lively crowd of 32,303, this game was billed as the first professional women’s sporting event at SoFi Stadium, the nearly 5-year-old home of the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams.

The teams meet again Tuesday night in San Jose, California.

In their most recent outing in late February, the U.S. women took their first defeat of coach Emma Hayes’ tenure, falling 2-1 to Japan in San Diego in the final of the SheBelieves Cup. The Americans had been 15-0-2 since Hayes took over in June 2024.

Back at it in SoFi, the Americans struck early — and with style.

Studio City native Thompson got a midfield touch and made an impressive run through Brazil's formation, sending one defender to the grass in confusion before pushing a perfect pass to Rodman for her cool finish.

Rodman's celebration was a treat as well — for most observers, anyway.

“Except I didn’t think she was pretending,” Hayes said with a grimace. “I will have a word with her, because that was like a 'cry wolf' moment. I turned to the physios and said, ‘Her back’s hurting,’ instantly. And then I realized she was tricking us.”

Later in the first half, Rodman appeared to be dealing with actual pain, which she blamed on a charley horse from getting kneed by an opponent. She still played 16 minutes into the second half before coming off.

The U.S. was awarded a penalty when substitute Lily Johannes was tripped in the box. Heaps hammered it home for her 37th goal.

The depleted U.S. defense had several rough moments in front of goal. The Seleção carried significant stretches of play and forced Tullis-Joyce to work hard, but the Long Island native who plays for Manchester United handled every chance capably.

Tullis-Joyce is competing for the first-string job after the retirement of Alyssa Naeher. Her parents and brother attended the match, but they didn't know she would start until the lineup was announced an hour before kickoff.

“I love a clean sheet,” Tullis-Joyce said. “Happy for my teammates as well. That back line, they really gritted it out. Everybody was putting their body on the line. Credit to Brazil.”

The Americans will be without starting center backs Naomi Girma and Tierna Davidson for the near future. They were replaced by Emily Sonnett and Tara McKeown, who only broke into the U.S. lineup earlier this year.

Two weeks after the Mexico men's team won the CONCACAF Nations Cup at SoFi, this friendly match was another early chapter in a series of upcoming soccer events in the Los Angeles area, including the 2026 men's World Cup, the Los Angeles Olympics tournament and probably the Women’s World Cup in 2031.

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/soccer

United States forward Trinity Rodman (2) shoots to score as she is defended by Brazil forward Ludmila (14) and defender Isa Haas (23) during the first half of a women's international friendly soccer match in Inglewood, Calif. Saturday, April 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

United States goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce (21) makes a save against Brazil defender Tarciane (3) during the first half of a women's international friendly soccer match in Inglewood, Calif. Saturday, April 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

United States forward Trinity Rodman (2) passes the ball during the first half of a women's international friendly soccer match against Brazil in Inglewood, Calif. Saturday, April 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

United States players celebrate a goal by forward Trinity Rodman, third from right, during the first half of a women's international friendly soccer match against Brazil in Inglewood, Calif. Saturday, April 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

United States forward Trinity Rodman (2) celebrates her goal during the first half of a women's international friendly soccer match against Brazil in Inglewood, Calif. Saturday, April 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Five years ago, video images from a Minneapolis street showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd as his life slipped away ignited a social movement.

Now, videos from another Minneapolis street showing the last moments of Renee Good's life are central to another debate about law enforcement in America. They've slipped out day by day since ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot Good last Wednesday in her maroon SUV. Yet compared to 2020, the story these pictures tell is murkier, subject to manipulation both within the image itself and the way it is interpreted.

This time, too, the Trump administration and its supporters went to work establishing their own public view of the event before the inevitable imagery appeared.

But half a decade later, so many things are not the same — from cultural attitudes to rapidly evolving technology around all kinds of imagery.

“We are in a different time,” said Francesca Dillman Carpentier, a University of North Carolina journalism professor and expert on the media's impact on audiences.

No one who saw the searing video of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin with his knee on Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes on May 25, 2020, is likely to forget it — and Chauvin's impassive face Floyd insisted he couldn't breathe. United in revulsion, demonstrators began one of the nation's largest-ever social movements. Chauvin was convicted of murder.

The footage “caused many individuals to experience an epiphany about racism, specifically cultural racism, in the United States,” legal scholar Angela Onwuachi-Willig wrote in a Houston Law Review study that examined whether white Americans experienced a collective cultural trauma.

She eventually concluded that didn't happen and that the impact diminished with time. The rollback of diversity programs with the second Trump administration offers evidence for her argument.

“The people who are writing the cultural narrative of the Good shooting took notes from the Floyd killing and are managing this narrative differently,” said Kelly McBride, an expert on media ethics for the Poynter Institute.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem labeled Good, who was demonstrating in opposition to ICE enforcement of immigration laws, a domestic terrorist — an interpretation that Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey dismissed with an expletive. Both President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance suggested the shooting was justified because Good was trying to run Ross down with her vehicle.

On the night of the killing, White House border czar Tom Homan was cautious in an interview with the “CBS Evening News” when anchor Tony Dokoupil showed him the most widely distributed video of the incident, taken by a bystander and posted by a reporter for the Minnesota Reformer. The veteran law enforcement official said it would be unprofessional for him to prejudge before an investigation.

Later that evening, Homan issued a statement calling the shooting “another example of the results of the hateful rhetoric and violent attacks” against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol officers.

Video of the incident has been generally inconclusive about whether Good's vehicle actually hit Ross before he opened fire. Even if she did, many experts question whether that represented grounds for firing his weapon. Clearly, however, that would bolster public sympathy for the officer.

“These ICE videos do present irrefutable facts — a woman drove her car and then she was shot dead by an ICE agent,” said Duy Linh Tu, a documentarian and professor at the Columbia University journalism school. “What the videos can't show is the intent of the woman or the officer. And that's the tricky part.”

Good, obviously, can’t speak to what motivated her to put her SUV in drive and move on Portland Avenue South.

Several news organizations have carefully examined the forensic evidence that has emerged. The Associated Press wrote that it was unclear if Good's car made contact with Ross. The Washington Post wrote that “videos examined by The Post, including one shared on Truth Social by Trump, do not clearly show whether the agent is struck or how close the front of the vehicle comes to striking him.”

The New York Times said that “in one video, it looks like the agent is being struck by the SUV. But when we synchronize it with the first clip, we can see the agent is not being run over.”

Video that emerged Friday from the Minnesota site Alpha News showed the incident from Ross' perspective. It, too, left many questions and no shortage of people willing to answer them.

Vance linked to the video online and wrote: “Many of you have been told this law enforcement officer wasn't hit by a car, wasn't being harassed and murdered an innocent woman. The reality is that his life was endangered and he fired in self-defense.”

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer wrote online that “how could anyone on the planet watch this video and conclude what JD Vance says?” Schumer said the administration “is lying to you.”

When one online commentator wrote that Good did not deserve to be shot in the face, conservative media figure Megyn Kelly responded, “Yes, she did. She hit and almost ran over a cop.”

Poynter’s McBride said the media has generally done a good and careful job outlining the evidence that is circulating around in the public. But the administration has also been effective in spreading its interpretation, she said.

There are more camera angles available now than there was with Floyd, but “I don't know if that adds clarity or more fog to this case,” Tu said. “I think that people will see what they want to see. Or, rather, they'll pick the angle that aligns with what they already believe.”

That nagging sense of uncertainty left by the videos leaves experts like Tu and Carpentier to conclude they will pale in impact compared to the Floyd case. With each passing year, the public is becoming more desensitized to images of violence — as the online spread of footage showing Republican activist Charlie Kirk illustrated, she said.

The spread of AI-enhanced fake images is also teaching the public to question what it sees, she said. Before Ross was identified, BBC Verify said false images were being spread online speculating about what the masked agent looked like, and fake video of a Minneapolis demonstration spread.

“Now you can't believe what you're seeing,” Carpentier said. “You don't know if what you're seeing is the real video or if it has been doctored. I don't think AI is being a friend in this case at all.”

David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.

Federal immigration officers make an arrest as bystanders film the incident Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Bystanders film a federal immigration officer in their car Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)