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USWNT vs Canada SheBelieves Cup takeaways: Mallory Swanson stars again for Americans but Canada protests take center stage

Mallory Swanson continued her incredible start to 2023 as the U.S. women's national team topped Canada 2-0 to open the SheBelieves Cup.

Swanson scores twice more
USWNT begins SheBelieves Cup with win
Canada protests pregame

TELL ME MORE: Swanson opened the scoring early as the U.S. began the game with waves of pressure. That pressure ultimately turned into an early goal, with Swanson firing the U.S. into the lead in the seventh minute. Swanson then doubled the lead in the 34th minute, taking advantage of a bad back-pass to finish into an open net.

The match was played amid a battle between Canada's team and its own federation, with the players wearing armbands for gender equality and shirts stating "Enough is Enough".

THE MVP: It has to be Swanson, who simply can't stop scoring. The USWNT striker now has five goals to start the 2023 campaign, and it's all coming at a pretty good time with the World Cup just ahead. Swanson looks like an entirely different player and, based on form, it's hard to imagine her not playing a key role this summer.

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THE BIG LOSER: Given everything Canada is going through, it was hard to expect them to be ready for a test quite like this, even with their pedigree as Olympic champions. The USWNT came out of the gates on fire for Swanson's first goal, but her second was a result of a totally unforced error. Vanessa Giles' bad back-pass effectively put the game out of reach on what ended up being a frustrating night on the field for a Canadian team that has much to focus on off of it. We won't name a loser here under circumstances, but she'll wish that mistake hadn't happened.

MATCH IN THREE PHOTOS: