Here’s a sentence you see every four years: The United States is the favorite to win the Women’s World Cup.
Why shouldn’t the public believe the hype this time?
The United States’ resume is top notch: it is the No. 1 women’s soccer team in the world and the two-time defending champion. And unlike any other women’s team, it has four small gold stars sewn above the jersey’s crest to show the program’s pedigree of four World Cup titles.
The team’s World Cup squad was announced on Wednesday and the Americans will arrive at this summer’s tournament in Australia and New Zealand with a carefully curated mix of players with and without experience on football’s biggest stage.
Nine of the team’s players have previously won the championship trophy. For three of those players – forwards Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe and defender Kelley O’Hara – this will be their fourth World Cup. For two other players – goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher and midfielder Julie Ertz – this will be their third. Morgan said she is “just as excited and anxious” for this World Cup as she was for her first.
But knowing what it takes to win and doing it with one of the most inexperienced teams the United States has ever taken to a World Cup are very different things. Of the 23 players chosen for the team, 14 will be World Cup rookies, including a pair of young forwards, 18-year-old Alyssa Thompson and 21-year-old Trinity Rodman.
One of those rookies, midfielder Savannah DeMelo, has never even played for the senior national team. The last time an unrestricted player like DeMelo was on the U.S. Women’s World Cup roster was 20 years ago.
Still, coach Vlatko Andonovski said he was confident this team had the talent to win a record third consecutive Women’s World Cup title. the challenges that come our way.”
In a video call with reporters, he added: “We want to do something that has never been done before and we believe in the quality of the team.”
Andonovski, who coached the team to a bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, has spent the last few years trying to rebuild his squad as this tournament looms, relieving veterans and introducing new talent in an effort to put together a roster. who he thinks can win. this summer and succeed in the future.
He faced a few surprises as he made the roster adjustments, making what was a difficult process even more difficult. Last week he lost his captain, defender Becky Sauerbrunn, who was ruled out with a persistent foot injury. Injuries also cost him the services of Sam Mewis, a midfield regular for the 2019 World Cup champions, and more recently the presence of two valuable attacking options, Mallory Swanson, who seemed to peak at the perfect time, and the Brazil born Catherine Macario.
Still, Andonovski had a core of stalwarts to count on, including stars like Morgan and Rapinoe, who brought with them years of international experience as well as their seriousness as two of the most famous and outspoken female athletes in the world. He also had midfielder Rose Lavelle, the breakaway star of the 2019 tournament after making scoring look all too easy. Lavelle and Lindsey Horan will provide a familiar combination of grit and flash in midfield.
There will be many new stars, including Sophia Smith, 22, who was the National Women’s Soccer League Most Valuable Player last year, and Rodman, the 2021 NWSL Rookie of the Year and daughter of Dennis Rodman, the former NBA All-Star. star.
The Americans’ first game is against Vietnam on July 22 in Auckland, New Zealand – 9 p.m. Eastern Time on July 21. Next comes the team’s biggest match since the last World Cup: a rematch with fellow 2019 finalist, the Netherlands, likely leaving the winner with a much easier path into the knockout stages.
Andonovski might have surprised himself with some of the names he filled in in pencil. But as with several other top teams, injuries forced him to change his plans.
Sauerbrunn, 38, announced last week that she would miss the World Cup with a foot injury. As well as being a tenacious central defender for many years, she was also a respected role model for her teammates: the team’s zen master of confidence and composure, not to mention the anchor of the back line as it won the past two World Cups.
Her announcement came just weeks after Swanson, who had been Andonovski’s most dangerous striker this year, ruptured the patellar tendon in her left knee. Other players with World Cup experience, including Mewis, Abby Dahlkemper, Christen Press and Tobin Heath, have been out with injuries or still coming back from surgeries. Macario, whose international career is booming, simply didn’t have time to get back up to speed after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in her knee while playing in France last year.
However, there will be many well-known and veteran players when Andonovski and his team reunite next week for a training camp in California. Ertz, 10 months after having a baby, has stepped right back into the midfield of the team. Crystal Dunn, who gave birth to a son 13 months ago, will remain a rock on the defensive, as will Emily Sonnett. Dunn is a versatile player and can be moved to other positions, including midfield. Both Dunn and Sonnett played in the last World Cup.
Casual fans will have to learn some new names. In her World Cup debut, Naomi Girma, a 23-year-old defender of the San Diego Wave, former Stanford team captain and daughter of Ethiopian immigrants, will be in line to replace Sauerbrunn. DeMelo is having a strong year for her NWSL team, which is partly why she got this opportunity. And three young forwards – Smith, Rodman and Thompson – have what it takes to push Morgan, Rapinoe and Lynn Williams forward.
Thompson was called up after Swanson’s injury; she is only the fourth teenager named to the United States World Cup squad and becomes the youngest American women’s soccer player to enter the tournament since 1995. Thompson, the first draft pick in this year’s NWSL draft, has the energy, skill and phenomenal speed to be a generation player. But she also just graduated from high school.
“We just have such a great group,” Smith said. “I think it doesn’t matter who you put there, we’ll get the job done.”
Of Thompson, Smith said: “I’m so excited for Alyssa. I think she deserves this so much and she has proven herself. She is ready for this and I can’t wait to go through this with her.
With all the new players mixed in with the old, it remains to be seen if the team that shows up in New Zealand will have the swagger of the last. The team’s superiority in the women’s game is under pressure due to growing investment and the growing power of rivals in Europe. Last fall, the United States lost three games in a row for the first time since 1993.
That the defeats came against three European opponents – Germany, England and Spain – was an unmistakable message to outsiders: the United States is still among the favourites. But the margin may be finer than ever.