The U.S. women’s national team has always had an abundance of strong leaders and recognizable stars throughout its 40-year history. Many iconic players competed across multiple generations, with 14 of them accumulating 200 caps or more, and three eclipsing the 300 mark. Today’s USWNT, however, is marked by youthful inexperience, as head coach Emma Hayes experiments to decide who will join her on the path to the 2027 World Cup.
Hayes started the youngest USWNT lineup in 24 years against Brazil last month. She has doled out 23 first-time call-ups since being hired in November 2023. Fifteen players on the current roster have 10 camps or fewer, and the three goalkeepers have a combined four caps.
All of which underscores this changeover in generations as a jarring moment in USWNT history: For the first time in a long time, there is no obvious face of the team or spokesperson for the larger group.
Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, and Becky Sauerbrunn prominently filled those roles over the past decade, leading the USWNT to back-to-back World Cup titles and standing on the front lines of the fight for equal pay off the field. All three have retired in the past 18 months.
Transitioning generations is natural and necessary for any team, so is it even that big of a deal? Well, yes, it is, considering the uniquely high standards of a USWNT program that has won four World Cups and five Olympic gold medals — world records in both. It is not the first time that a new generation has had to pick up where its predecessors left off, but the player turnover happening in this cycle is arguably unprecedented.
“Sometimes we just assume that everybody knows what the demands or the standards are for a U.S. women’s national team player,” Hayes said recently. “But as I’ve mentioned, we’ve got a lot of new players that lack a lot of experience. We have to transfer that, and we have to transfer it in the right way.”
Sauerbrunn’s generation had to publicly fight the U.S. Soccer Federation and U.S. President Donald Trump as part of its years-long quest for equal pay, which increased attention and scrutiny on the USWNT. Sauerbrunn said she hopes the next generation doesn’t have to shoulder as much of a burden off the field — but she also said it isn’t really a choice.
“It’s not even if they want to [take on those things], because I think they have a responsibility with this platform,” Sauerbrunn said. “But it’s what they’re comfortable doing within that platform.”
Coffey, who has 33 caps, is the captain of the Portland Thorns and one of the USWNT’s several emerging leaders. She said her leadership looks different each day based on the USWNT’s needs, but she told ESPN “we’re in trouble when we’re quiet,” which means she is constantly a vocal source of positive reinforcement.
Coffey barely played alongside the past generation of stars, but she still regularly seeks advice from Sauerbrunn, her former Thorns teammate, who she calls “the gold standard of what it means to be a leader.”
Sauerbrunn was the USWNT’s captain at multiple points over the past two World Cup cycles. Rapinoe and Morgan were the faces of the team who became global superstars. Wambach previously filled that spokesperson and star role, and Mia Hamm — among others — before that.
Rodman is electric when she is on the field, and the media attention she has attracted suggests she is already becoming The Next Big Thing™ for the USWNT. Staying healthy is her biggest challenge right now. She said earlier this year that she didn’t think her back would ever be 100% healthy.
There is an argument that Hayes is the biggest personality on the team, which further reflects the volatile nature of the player pool. She won the first Ballon d’Or women’s coaching award last year, and she instantly commands attention, whether she’s in a locker room, boardroom or packed convention hall.
Hayes has appeared to use her platform to absorb and deflect the external pressures placed on a team full of young, talented players like Rodman, Jaedyn Shaw, and 17-year-old midfielder Lily Yohannes. She has preached patience as the group discovers its identity.
“I think you’re seeing that this less experienced team are growing up,” Hayes said after the team’s 2-1 win over Brazil on April 5.
Who among them will take on the vaunted role as one of the next faces of the USWNT? The lack of an immediate answer is an unfamiliar, uncomfortable position for a team so accustomed to having one, but it isn’t necessarily something that needs fixing. It’s a natural step in the transfer process.
