U.S. women’s national team manager Vlatko Andonovski said he’s “positive” that he won’t have his 23-player World Cup roster decided after two upcoming games against Ireland.
The matches against Ireland — on Saturday in Austin, Texas, and again three days later in St. Louis — mark the final matches the U.S. will play before Andonovski selects his roster for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, which starts July 20.
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“I’m positive that we’re not going to come out with the 23 in mind,” Andonovski told reporters on Friday. “And it’s going to be hard for us because we have players that we’re still looking at that are not in this camp right now.
“So the number is a little bit higher than [23]. But unfortunately, we don’t have any other camps. So decisions will be made in this camp. But also, some decisions will have to be made between this camp and the next [pre-World Cup] camp.”
To that end, Andonovski said he plans on taking a look at as many players as possible over the next two matches.
“We understand that this is our last opportunity to see certain players in certain positions,” he said. “I can’t say we’re going to see everyone on the field, but we will see most of them on the field at certain points in time in these two games.”
