Photo by Christopher Hanewinckel/USA TODAY Sports
By CAITLIN MURRAY
Intentional or not, the U.S. Women’s National Team roster for CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers is out.
In what appears to be an accident, the USWNT roster was posted briefly on U.S. Soccer’s website Thursday before being removed. U.S. Soccer is hosting a conference call with coach Jill Ellis on Monday, when the official roster will be announced.
The leaked roster matches the one that SBI predicted earlier this week, with one exception — Morgan Brian will be pulled away from her senior season with the University of Virginia to participate in qualifiers while Portland Thorns midfielder Allie Long did not make the cut.
Ellis opted to call in all five of the forwards at her disposal, instead cutting elsewhere, including veteran defenders Stephanie Cox and Rachel Van Hollebeke, who have more than 200 caps between them.
Superstar names like Hope Solo, Alex Morgan and Abby Wambach headline the players that made the cut.
Rosters for World Cup qualifiers were due to CONCACAF due on Oct. 1 and changes can only be made for injury or illness before the USWNT’s opener against Trinidad & Tobago on Oct. 15.
Here is the full leaked 20-player roster below:
GOALKEEPERS (2): Hope Solo, Ashlyn Harris
DEFENDERS (7): Christie Rampone, Becky Sauerbrunn, Whitney Engen, Ali Krieger, Meghan Klingenberg, Kelley O’Hara, Crystal Dunn
MIDFIELDERS (6): Lauren Holiday, Carli Lloyd, Megan Rapinoe, Tobin Heath, Heather O’Reilly, Morgan Brian
FORWARDS (5): Abby Wambach, Alex Morgan, Christen Press, Sydney Leroux, Amy Rodriguez
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What do you think of this roster? Surprised by Ellis’ choices? Would you have named a different roster? Is this the best 20 players on the USWNT?
Share your thoughts below.
Not sure why Morgan Brian is on the roster. Is the depth so bad at holding mid that the US cant afford to let her play out her senior year at Virginia? Maybe Ellis will surprise me and give Brian enough minutes to make worth calling her. How’s about some time at the top of that midfield triangle where the US seems to holding open auditions (Holiday, Lloyd, Rapinoe, Heath & Wambach) With so many having taken a crack at it it must be Brians turn.
Nice to see O’Hara back in the fold after her injury. The roster looks solid.
So what happens if Solo’s pending case leads to a situation where she is in fact suspended from action? And we only have 2 keepers on the roster and Barnhart, the long-time #2, isn’t there?
Solo’s trial is after the qualifying tournament ends. Her trial is Nov. 4. Final of the qualifying tournament is Oct. 26. Also, these teams will be really easy to beat.
I sat in the stands and watched us lose to Mexico during qualifying the last time around, so forgive me if I take the latter point with a grain of salt. But thanks for the info on the former. 🙂
There are now 3.5 CONCACAF qualifying spots AND Canada isn’t even playing. So they have to come in 4th place to not qualify. One would expect in that case that Mexico and Costa Rica came in 1st and 2nd. And then the US would have to lose to Guatemala, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, or Trinidad & Tobago in the 3rd place game. That would be a bigger upset than the loss to Mexico! (Plus Mexico seems to have regressed a lot in the past 2 years, did you not see the two friendlies against them?)
Finishing 4th sends the US to a playoff with a CONMEBOL team. And it’s useful to know that Martinique can’t qualify for the WC because they aren’t recognized by FIFA. Theoretically, the US could finish 5th behind Martinique and still go to the WC.
I’m just saying that Mexico was similarly going to be easy to beat, and the qualifying tournament easy to win, on the road to the 2010 WWC, but that’s not the way it went.
Nice roster