The U.S. Women’s National Team final roster for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics has been announced, with several prominent figures headlining the squad.
Alex Morgan, Carli Lloyd, and Megan Rapinoe headline Vlatko Andonovski’s 18-player roster for the rescheduled competition in July. Kristie Mewis, Emily Sonnett and Adrianna Franch were among the players who won tightly-contested battles for the final spots on the roster.
“It’s been a long process to get to this point, longer than anyone thought it would be, but we collected a lot of information on the players over the past year and half in trainings, in their club matches and in international games and we’re confident that we’ve selected the team with the best chance for success in Japan,” said Andonovski in a statement.
Eleven players chosen on Wednesday were on the USWNT’s roster for the 2016 Olympics in Brazil, while 17 players were members of the USWNT’s 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup championship team.
Lloyd will pursue her third Olympic gold medal after being named to the squad. There had been speculation that the legendary standout might not be chosen, but Andonovski ultimately decided to bring a player who has starred in two previous Olympic gold medal-winning runs.
Kristie Mewis was another player who made the cut, beating out Catarina Macario for one of the midfield spots.
Defensively, Emily Sonnett was selected, edging out Midge Purce.
Tobin Heath had been a question mark due to the fact she has been sidelined by injury for months, but her inclusion in the squad suggests Andonovski believes she is healthy enough to contribute at her traditionally high level.
The USWNT will unite in Connecticut at the end of the June to play its Send-Off Series against Mexico on July 1 and 5 respectively. Following that, the Americans will head to Tokyo for the start of group stage play against Sweden (July 21st), New Zealand (July 24) and Australia (July 27).
“We know there are some very talented players that won’t be in Japan, but these were the difficult decisions that we had to make,” said Andonovski. “We have a very experienced roster that has been through adversity at the highest levels, so it’s no surprise those players have distinguished themselves. They’ve embraced the challenges and have shown tremendous flexibility and determination over the past 15 months to get us to where we are today.”
Goalkeeper Jane Campbell, defender Casey Krueger, midfielder Catarina Macario and forward Lynn Williams were chosen as alternates.
Here is the 18-player USWNT roster for the Olympics:
GOALKEEPERS: Adrianna Franch (Portland Thorns FC), Alyssa Naeher (Chicago Red Stars)
DEFENDERS: Abby Dahlkemper (Manchester City/ENG), Tierna Davidson (Chicago Red Stars), Crystal Dunn (Portland Thorns FC), Kelley O’Hara (Washington Spirit), Becky Sauerbrunn (Portland Thorns FC), Emily Sonnett (Washington Spirit)
MIDFIELDERS: Julie Ertz (Chicago Red Stars), Lindsey Horan (Portland Thorns FC), Rose Lavelle (OL Reign), Kristie Mewis (Houston Dash), Samantha Mewis (North Carolina Courage)
FORWARDS: Tobin Heath (Unattached), Carli Lloyd (NJ/NY Gotham FC), Alex Morgan (Orlando Pride), Christen Press (Unattached), Megan Rapinoe (OL Reign)
Part of me wonders if this roster was put together by a committee made up of players with 150+ caps. Carli Lloyd and Rapinoe will probably play until they’re 65 because who will ever say to them they can’t? Nobody can ever outplay them because no one is ever really given a chance to. I don’t blame the women. The Fangirl culture and general lack of financial support for women’s soccer makes this outcome almost inevitable.
There were some tough calls for coach Andonovski here. And, I will say that we have a VERY GOOD Team going forward to the Olympics. HOWEVER, I will indicate where the coach and I differ and the reasons why. 1) I would have given a slight edge to Marcario over K. Mewis at midfield owing to Macario’s exceptional athleticism. 2) I would have taken Ashlyn Harris over Adrianna French by a slight margin, but both have performed exceptionally in the matches I have seen. Also, I would have picked Ali Kreiger over Tierna Davidson at Deep Back. While Tierna has good speed and soccer skills, she has been a DISASTER in the area of decision making as to when to go for the ball, and where to pass out to. She is simply too indecisive to be put in that position. My feeling here is so strong, that I would put any other player on the Roster in before I would put her at deep back. The reason I am making a BIG DEAL about this, is that in 2016, Allie Long was picked for the final roster spot over Samantha Mewis. While I posted a STRONG lament about this here on SBC, they ever went as far as putting Allie in the Sweden Match heads up against the Sweden Forward, who blew by Allie and scored the goal which ultimately lead to the Sweden Win. Even with that disaster, the coaches still attempted to use her at a defensive position, and put her, heads up, against French ALL-WORLD Forward Eugenie Le Sommer in the SBC. Those of you who remember that match, know what an easy time of it, Le Sommer and the French Team had in winning. So, the only thing I see here that really worries me is Davidson as a Defender. BTW, Kreiger and Harris had a new daughter this year, so it may very well be that parenting has kept them home and that they did not opt to join in for training for the Olympics, what with C-Virus Issues still in the news.
If I were to attempt to give Coach Andonovski any advice going forward, it would be to play Tierna Davidson in both matches against Mexico, and evaluate her thoroughly before injecting her into the line-up in ANY match with the outcome still in doubt.
USWNT does not care about Grass Roots programs. They are currently trying to get US Soccer to pay them $66 million in a frivolous law suit that has only run up MILLIONS of legal fees that could have been better used for these programs. Additionally, if USWNT wins suit that $66 million will be taken from same programs……to go in bank accounts of a small group of players
The omission of Perce from the alternates is unfortunate. I thought she had the strongest performance among the backups for right back. Her speed, ball control, and decision-making are better than Sonnett’s. Macario, although she was fantastic at Stanford, for the USWNT needs to adapt to the speed of the international game and to her teammates before she can be relied on in pressure situations.
E-S, I think I would agree with you here if you had said Perce for Davidson. Sonnet is EXTREMELY tenacious
and doesn’t get pushed around by anyone. She can play any position on the right side. Give Perce another 10 friendly matches or so, and I think she may be ready for Prime time anywhere on the right side.
Perce’s omission reeks. Rapinoe has been terrible, there, I said it. And I am a huge fan, but she has been off the pace for a while now. Her stone cold nerves are awesome but her set piece deliveries have been off too, not dangerous, and her service from the run of play has been really bad. Hopefully she can rectify all of those things, but the fact she is now slow is something she can do nothing about
I agree. I saw Rapinoe play in the last game against Nigeria and did not play well at all. If I were the coach, I would have taken her out right after the first half. That is how bad it was.
Sorry to be the one to say it but where is the diversity on this team? You mean to tell me that players that were deemed injured and who are clearly not in form are going over some of more than capable black players like Catarino and Midge? And the fact that this team continues to play the black players out of position is baffling too!
I noticed the diversity thing, too, especially in comparison to the men’s team, which is largely composed of dual nationals or second-generation Americans – but I think in this case, it’s less a matter of any kind of overt discrimination at the national level and more a reflection of the role of the sport in the United States. Soccer is still “a white girl sport” in much of the country. I think in order to fix it, the USSF or whatever is going to need to work on making changes and creating opportunities for different demographics at the grassroots and community levels. And that’s a bigger discussion — but it’s also a discussion that needs to happen, again and again until we start getting it right.
Well, its seen as white girls sport because at the grass roots level its still heavily reliant on “pay to play”! I would tend to agree with everything you said but if these managers arent putting new players in difficult, challenging situations against some of the best teams during tournaments like She Believes, then they’ll never know who can and cant step up to be that next generation of great female soccer players for our country. The USWNT has always relied on the veterans well past their “sell” date and this team encompasses that trend too, then on top.of that Vlatko included players that havent played a club game in over 5 months when the criteria for making this roster was consistent club play and being able to see said players up close in training which he couldnt have if they were out injured! So the hypocrisy by the coach is just that, and obviously these trends need to go away! What really got me was the fact that 3/4 of the alternates are black, meaning 3 out of the 4, but on top of that there arent even 3 players of color within the final roster(only 2), so it just looks bad and like the 3 black players were chosen to be alternates so there wouldn’t be a fuss made about the lack of diversity
OMG this is not a black/white issue and I dont care about diversity on a team. The best players should be picked. Saying that, there were several selected I would not have picked. I think Rapinoe and Horan are not really up to this. I disagree with adding Heath when we dont know if she can even play. I would have picked Macario and I liked Midge too. If Heath is not 100% I would drop her for Williams. On the up side…. There will be massive holes next cycle. Many of the old players will be gone and those on the bubble this time will have their day.
Horan not up to it? you clearly have not been watching, no way. She’s been a revelation at the 6 for Ertz and can play any of the midfiled roles, and arguably the best US player in the run up to the Olympics.
Definitely a veteran team. It seems like veteran heavy teams often struggle on the men’s side in a tournament format…hope that isn’t the case for us, and no doubt these players are all past champions… but I do have to wonder about not having any young talent on the squad at all, especially in the Olympics. And is the roster always 18 only? Seems small for a major tournament.
Where is the youth?? The forward line is all over 30…I know these ladies have had great careers but it just seems ridiculously hard for youth prospects to break through on this team, and I don’t think it’s for lack of talent. I see a similar trend in the US Women’s Basketball team as well.
I see us having trouble scoring