Christen Press, Lindsey Horan, and Megan Rapinoe headlined the U.S. Women’s National Team training camp roster for the upcoming 2020 SheBelieves Cup.
Vlatko Andonovski named a 26-player on Monday, with the final roster being reduced to 23. The USWNT will face three of the top 15 ranked teams in the world, such as No. 6 England, No. 10 Japan and No. 13 Spain.
“As a team, we have lots of positive feelings coming out of Olympic Qualifying, but I think we all know that there’s still a lot of room for growth for this group and there’s no better way to continue that process than to play teams like England, Spain and Japan,” Andonovski said. “Our end goal is the Olympics, but we’re looking forward to a productive camp in Orlando and the challenge of playing three fantastic sides over the seven days. The rhythm of the SheBelieves Cup schedule directly matches what we will face in group play at the Olympics, and the value of getting a test run against this level of competition cannot be overstated.”
The USWNT begins play in the SheBelieves Cup on March 5th against England in Orlando, Fla. Matchday 2 will see the USWNT face Spain in Harrison, N.J., on Sunday, March 8 before concluding the tournament on March 11 in Frisco, Texas against Japan.
All 20 players from the recent Olympic Qualifying Tournament win will be in Andonovski’s roster. The USWNT qualified for Tokyo 2020 this summer after a 5-0 record.
Here’s the entire 26-player roster:
GOALKEEPERS: Jane Campbell (Houston Dash; 3), Adrianna Franch (Portland Thorns FC; 3), Ashlyn Harris (Orlando Pride; 25), Alyssa Naeher (Chicago Red Stars; 61)
DEFENDERS: Abby Dahlkemper (North Carolina Courage; 58/0), Tierna Davidson (Chicago Red Stars; 25/1), Crystal Dunn (North Carolina Courage; 101/24), Ali Krieger (Orlando Pride; 107/1), Kelley O’Hara (Utah Royals FC; 129/2), Margaret Purce (Sky Blue FC; 1/0), Becky Sauerbrunn (Utah Royals FC; 174/0), Casey Short (Chicago Red Stars; 31/0), Emily Sonnett (Orlando Pride; 44/0)
MIDFIELDERS: Jordan DiBiasi (Washington Spirit), Julie Ertz (Chicago Red Stars; 99/19), Lindsey Horan (Portland Thorns FC; 83/18), Rose Lavelle (Washington Spirit; 42/12), Samantha Mewis (North Carolina Courage; 64/18), Andi Sullivan (Washington Spirit; 16/0)
FORWARDS: Tobin Heath (Portland Thorns FC; 165;33), Carli Lloyd (Sky Blue FC; 291/122), Jessica McDonald (North Carolina Courage; 17/4), Christen Press (Utah Royals FC; 134/56), Mallory Pugh (Sky Blue FC; 62/18), Megan Rapinoe (Reign FC; 165/51), Lynn Williams (North Carolina Courage; 25/9)
This is a solid squad, and I will assume anyone missing here is not available due to injury or medical unavailability. I think I would be concerned with playing everyone here (other than the GKs) at least a full half against the 3 teams as opposed to making winning the prime objective. Whomever makes the final 20-player roster for the Olympics has to be able to
at least hold their own against any opposing player on any opposing team they face. So here is the best place to find out if they can.
With respect to the positioning of all the roster players, I would make one change. I would put Emily Sonnett at the #5 Midfield Position behind Ertz/Horan/Lavelle/Mewis and not on the back line. Emily is a tenacious competitor and at midfield she has the skill sets to be able to keep the ball in the opponents end of the field. A couple of times while on defense, when the opponents were able to muster a full-field counter-attack, she fell back too close to the GK, and didn’t pick up the attacking player closest to her until that player had unleashed a shot with one scoring and the other just missing. She doesn’t seem to be able to orient herself to those type of situations soon enough. While those situations do NOT happen very often against our back line, you have to assume that it will at least once in the knockout round of the Olympics. And when that happens, you don’t want the wrong player in the wrong position, like what happened against Sweden in the last Olympics when that same situation lead to Sweden’s goal which eventually lead to the U. S. getting knocked out.
Emily is one of my favorite players, but not at EVERY position.