Whenever there is a roster announcement for the U.S. women’s national team, there is guaranteed to be the question: “Why wasn’t [insert player’s name] called up?” It is an evergreen inquiry, one that gets asked on every media call about a roster announcement.
Over the past year under head coach Vlatko Andonovski, the names involved have been more prominent, and the answers have been more difficult as he transitions a new generation of players into the team. Even as additional players earn call-ups, fans and pundits have questioned the absences of both youth and veteran names — everyone from World Cup-winners like Tobin Heath and Christen Press to up-and-comers like Mia Fishel.
The 2023 World Cup is less than a year away, which raises the question: Is there room for everyone who might deserve a spot?
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No, is the short answer. That is how a World Cup roster works, especially for a perennial world power like the USWNT.
The initial roster for this international window, when the U.S. will play Nigeria twice, was the exact group that won the CONCACAF W Championship qualifying tournament in July, which the USWNT won, minus an injured Emily Sonnett. A couple of replacements have since been made, but the message is clear: this is the core group working toward next summer, when the USWNT will try to win an unprecedented third straight World Cup.
“We’re not coaching with an eye toward the next game — we’re coaching with an eye toward the World Cup,” Andonovski said last week. “Everything that we do now is a preparation for the World Cup, and that started after winning the second game in CONCACAF [qualifying].”
Only seven players on the USWNT’s official 23-player roster for the games against Nigeria were on the 2019 World Cup-winning squad. Kelley O’Hara (who would have been the eighth) was replaced on this roster due to an ongoing injury, and several other players who were on that 2019 squad are out with major injuries.
Hailie Mace, a versatile player who frequently features at wing-back for the Kansas City Current, replaced O’Hara on the roster for her first call-up in over four years, and National Women’s Soccer League rookie of the year candidate Savannah DeMelo replaced Trinity Rodman, who will miss out due to a family commitment. Those additions reiterate that club form matters, which Andonovski has said since he took the job nearly three years ago. Yet they also suggest there are still opportunities to crack into the squad that will ultimately go to the World Cup.
Sauerbrunn, at 37, is in her second stint as captain. Rapinoe, also 37, was always part of Andonovski’s plan and has justified the coach’s long view with her recent form: since returning from the CONCACAF W Championship, she has four goals and three assists in four games, including a stunning assist and dramatic stoppage-time winner for OL Reign on Saturday.
Reintegrating other veterans from previous World Cup cycles, beyond those already part of the plan or returning from injury, looks unlikely. Whereas former U.S. coach Jill Ellis stuck ultimately decided to stick with more veterans for the 2019 World Cup after experimenting earlier in the cycle, the U.S. roster that will compete at the 2023 World Cup is likely to be younger than the squads that won the last two editions as the oldest team at the tournament each time.
“I am happy with where we are at,” Andonovski said. “We are able to still figure out the right mix. I think that we’re on the right track, we’re moving the right direction. And when I say the right mix, I mean the right mix of youth and experience, because we do need the young players — but not any young players. We are talking quality, young players like Sophia Smith and Mallory Pugh, Catarina Macario. We see Naomi Girma now and [Emily] Fox, they are doing very well.
“But we also need the experienced players to be there to show them the way. I think that the most important group is the middle group, to me, and that’s the Lindsey Horans and Rose Lavelles, that still have the drive, the desire, the willingness to do the dirty work, but also have the experience, have been in big tournaments, have won big tournaments.”
By year’s end, this group will have played several more high-profile games together, and that’s not a coincidence: Andonovski devised a plan last year to arrive at this point with a core that now has a taste of playing in pressure situations. That is why he didn’t make a change from his starting XI in the 1-0 win over Canada in July’s CONCACAF W Championship. He wanted his team — which featured five starters playing in their first senior qualifying tournament — to feel what it was like to be in that situation.
Then the calendar turns to 2023, at which point Andonovski is likely to know most of the players he plans on taking to the World Cup. Included in that group could be several important players returning from injuries. How those last few roster spots get filled will — or at least should — come down to form in the spring.
“No player who is playing for her club, whether it is NWSL or anywhere outside of the NWSL, is out of the picture for selection for camps and matches,” Andonovski said.
