USWNT Big Board: Amid coaching switch, who’s Olympics-ready?

The SheBelieves Cup is within the books, and the following time the U.S. girls’s nationwide staff steps on the sphere, head coach Emma Hayes will lastly be on the sidelines after a six-month anticipate her arrival.

Hayes could have solely 4 video games answerable for the staff earlier than the Olympics. That’s 4 video games to combine with the staff, implement her type and, in the end, resolve which gamers she thinks can lead the staff to a gold medal. Her absence from the U.S. sidelines as she finishes her duties at Chelsea make for probably the most in depth interval of formal transition in U.S. girls’s program historical past.

It additionally exacerbates the uncertainty across the U.S. participant pool.

Which gamers are going to make the USWNT’s Olympic roster? For now, Hayes is considering that from afar in collaboration with interim coach Twila Kilgore, who has been pulling the strings in coaching camps since late August. But as Kilgore wraps up her last recreation because the interim coach, it is a good time for ESPN to take a crack at forecasting this summer season’s roster with our 2024 USWNT Big Board.

Like any nice athlete cliché, this Big Board lives within the current, unconsumed by what was or is likely to be sooner or later. In different phrases: What have you ever finished recently? That’s the identify of the roster recreation, and it is why we have already seen a variety of modifications from our first post-World Cup Big Board we did in October.

Looking solely at present kind is less complicated mentioned than finished since some high gamers are getting back from accidents, however it’s all to say that these are what the USWNT’s positional depth charts appear like proper now. Expect modifications to happen within the coming months as gamers’ kind ebbs and flows, and Hayes’ plans develop into clear.

How the USWNT Big Board works

Ultimately, Hayes is tasked with choosing 18 gamers for the Olympics (plus 4 alternates). If Hayes needed to choose as we speak, what would the staff appear like?

For this train, we have disregarded gamers who’ve endured long-term accidents (like Midge Purce, who tore her ACL a couple of weeks in the past), however have saved round these gamers imagine (it is at all times vital to emphasize that phrase) to be coping with extra minor accidents. We’ve been via this earlier than, in spite of everything: midfielder Rose Lavelle missed three months of motion final spring however was prepared for the 2023 World Cup.

Here are the Big Board classes:

• Tier 1: Locks. A transparent first-choice participant who’s contending for a beginning function.

• Tier 2: In the squad. Not a starter, however a substitute and participant on the bench obtainable to enter video games.

• Tier 3: On the bubble. These are gamers who could possibly be among the many last choices or who is likely to be alternates. Players who’ve had a passing look or gamers who have been as soon as integral however now not appear in favor match into this class.

• Tier 4: Longshots. These are the gamers whose probabilities of making the Olympics now look low. This consists of gamers performing effectively for his or her golf equipment who have not gotten a glance. This class additionally consists of injured gamers who, as we speak, aren’t wholesome sufficient to make it (although it does not imply their standing cannot change as soon as they get better).

Goalkeepers

• Lock: Alyssa Naeher

• In the squad: Casey Murphy

• On the bubble: Jane Campbell, Aubrey Kingsbury

• Longshot: Adrianna Franch, Katie Lund

Goalkeeper is definitely the least mysterious place on a U.S. roster in flux. Alyssa Naeher is in distinctive kind and clearly the staff’s No. 1 in objective. Casey Murphy has solidly been Naeher’s backup for 2 years now and shall be on the Olympic roster barring harm or catastrophic kind within the coming months.

The query, then: what to do in regards to the third goalkeeper spot? Aubrey Kingsbury was the No. 3 on the 2023 World Cup, however Jane Campbell seems to have moved in entrance of her primarily based on her choices to the USWNT’s Gold Cup roster and SheBelieves Cup roster. The actuality of the No. 3 goalkeeper function is that you simply want a participant who can push the opposite two in coaching and do the soiled work wanted for the staff in very particular coaching situations. Whether that is a bonus to the youthful Campbell or the World Cup-experienced Kingsbury stays unclear.

Fullbacks

• Locks: Crystal Dunn, Emily Fox

• In the squad: Jenna Nighswonger

• On the bubble: Casey Krueger

• Longshots: Eva Gaetino, Kelley O’Hara, Sofia Huerta, M.A. Vignola, Gisele Thompson

Full-back depth has been a perpetual challenge for the U.S. girls’s nationwide staff.

Multiple coaching regimes have turned to changing forwards or wingers into full-backs, with various success. Crystal Dunn represents the intense as a gifted, do-it-all participant who won’t be finest utilized in that function, however was and is likely one of the staff’s finest choices for the function. That stays true, as does the truth that Emily Fox has clearly locked down one of many beginning roles.

Jenna Nighswonger is probably the most attention-grabbing participant of the bunch. A 12 months in the past, Nighswonger was a rookie within the National Women’s Soccer League who was thrown right into a defensive function for NJ/NY Gotham FC on opening day after former USWNT defender Ali Krieger was injured 10 minutes into the match. Nighswonger latched onto a fullback function for her membership and in October we rated her as a “longshot.” The subsequent month, she was named NWSL Rookie of the Year and helped Gotham win an NWSL Championship.

Her first call-up adopted, and he or she instantly took maintain of a outstanding function each as a conventional full-back and a 3rd center-back when the USWNT has tried a three-back. Hayes has tried a three-back system with Chelsea earlier than and likes to have a type of gamers be a extra athletic full-back. Nighswonger has positioned herself to make the Olympic roster.

Casey Krueger is Nighswonger’s major competitors and likewise a flexible defender who can play centrally or broad, which is a should on a small Olympic roster. Krueger is a veteran who might very realistically make this roster, however proper now Nighswonger is incomes extra alternatives.

Centerbacks

• Locks: Naomi Girma, Tierna Davidson

• In the squad: Abby Dahlkemper

• On the bubble: Becky Sauerbrunn, Alana Cook

• Longshot: Sarah Gorden, Sam Staab

Naomi Girma is the quiet star of this USWNT and nearly the one vivid spot from a wretched 2023 World Cup. She is a generational participant who immediately turned the perfect defender within the NWSL as a rookie, and he or she would be the rock of the USWNT’s protection for the following decade barring accidents.

Tierna Davidson has emerged as Girma’s most popular accomplice within the Kilgore period, which provides the USWNT a left-footed left center-back (usually paired with the left-footed Nighswonger). Davidson is a 2019 World Cup champion whose torn ACL in 2022 and tight timeline for return in the end price her a spot on the 2023 World Cup. Now, she seems to be like a starter in protection.

Center-back has additionally been a place with oddly little depth for the USWNT recently, which was made clear finally 12 months’s World Cup when the just-returned Julie Ertz stepped into the function upon Becky Sauerbrunn’s harm. Sauerbrunn, who turns 39 in June, seems to be on the skin trying in now — as does Alana Cook, who did not play a minute finally 12 months’s World Cup and simply returned from a minor harm.

Abby Dahlkemper is in place to be the USWNT’s third center-back on the Olympic roster. Dahlkemper was Sauerbrunn’s dependable accomplice on the 2019 World Cup, however she had not performed for the USWNT in almost two years earlier than her return in December following varied accidents that led to main again surgical procedure in late 2022. Since then, she has proved dependable and regular, together with a powerful impromptu efficiency off the bench Saturday when Girma acquired harm early.

Midfielders

• Locks: Rose Lavelle, Lindsey Horan

• In the squad: Sam Coffey, Korbin Albert

• On the bubble: Emily Sonnett, Olivia Moultrie, Savannah DeMelo, Ashley Sanchez

• Longshot: Lily Yohannes, Kristie Mewis, Andi Sullivan, Jaelin Howell, Vanessa DiBernardo

Lindsey Horan is the USWNT’s captain who’s able to any of the three conventional midfield roles. The questions surrounding her are about whether or not she ought to play deeper or increased up the sphere, not whether or not she’ll be within the squad.

Similarly, Rose Lavelle is arguably the USWNT’s finest technical participant — though Jaedyn Shaw may need a phrase — and Lavelle is outstanding within the No. 10 playmaker function. Even at 75% well being, she’d be a should on the Olympics roster.

Competition past these two is the place issues get attention-grabbing. For a couple of months, Emily Sonnett regarded like the reply to the USWNT’s longstanding void on the No. 6 defensive midfielder function. Her presence there in opposition to Sweden within the spherical of 16 of the 2023 World Cup, and in subsequent friendlies, restored stability to the staff.

An even higher stability was struck extra lately, nonetheless, with the implementation of Sam Coffey and Korbin Albert as a double pivot. They began subsequent to one another in these roles in every of the USWNT’s knockout-round video games of the Gold Cup, the place the Americans impressively superior from three very various kinds of video games. Coffey is constructing off her spectacular NWSL kind for the Portland Thorns (and curious snubbing from the 2023 World Cup).

Albert, earlier than information broke round her controversial social media historical past, earned common reward from Kilgore for her potential to enter the USWNT surroundings and shortly be taught the expectations for a number of midfield roles. The Paris Saint-Germain midfielder has featured at the very least partially within the No. 6, No. 8 and No. 10 roles. Assuming Hayes and Kilgore really feel the locker room will not be disrupted — locker room chemistry is definitely no minor element — then Albert seems to be prone to make the Olympic roster.

Doing so would go away a number of gifted gamers caught as alternates, and that is not even mentioning that (for now) we’re not counting the multi-talented Shaw as a midfielder, despite the fact that she is finest used as a No. 10.

Wingers

• Locks: Jaedyn Shaw, Trinity Rodman

• In the squad: Mallory Swanson

• On the bubble: Lynn Williams, Alyssa Thompson

• Longshot: Morgan Weaver

For now we’re calling Shaw a winger, as a result of she has performed in that function earlier than for the USWNT and at instances for the San Diego Wave. That additionally might nonetheless show to be her short-term function if Hayes desires to get the perfect 11 on the sphere and Lavelle is wholesome. Both Shaw and Lavelle are finest within the No. 10 function however succesful if shoehorned into a large place. Either means, Shaw is clearly the perfect younger USWNT participant and a lock for the Olympics already at 19 years outdated.

Trinity Rodman stays a hard-working pressure on the wing. She is audacious on the ball (what number of instances will she efficiently pull off the spin-turn nutmeg?) and might incessantly be discovered on her personal endline overlaying for a full-back. Rodman is a star, which we already knew.

Mallory Swanson is, too, and her return to the sphere this spring is a reminder of what might have been for the USWNT on the 2023 World Cup. Swanson was sensational in 78 minutes in opposition to Japan and has regarded stable for the Chicago Red Stars of their opening three video games. She was arguably the perfect participant on the planet earlier than she acquired harm in April 2023, and he or she’s choosing again up in a spot that would put her again on that trajectory.

Swanson’s inclusion on the condensed Olympic roster would possible come on the expense of two World Cup gamers: the at the moment injured Lynn Williams, and 19-year-old Alyssa Thompson, who was successfully Swanson’s substitute final 12 months. Thompson has handled some minor accidents and has not been in camp since December.

The actual query between Rodman, Shaw and Swanson: who begins?

Strikers

• Locks: Alex Morgan, Sophia Smith

• In the squad: Catarina Macario

• On the bubble: Ashley Hatch

• Longshot: None

Less than two months after not making the preliminary Gold Cup roster, then becoming a member of the squad a day earlier than the event as a substitute for Mia Fishel (torn ACL), Alex Morgan as soon as once more seems to be just like the USWNT’s beginning No. 9.

Morgan has began nearly all of latest USWNT video games over Sophia Smith, who’s 11 years youthful. Even as Morgan faces one other spherical of questions on her worldwide future, she seems to be irreplaceable – at the very least on the roster, at minimal, even when a beginning function is to be decided.

Smith can be a lock for the Olympics and might play her most popular central place or present depth on the wings. The return of Catarina Macario after two years away from the staff resulting from a torn ACL is the actual roster shuffle.

Macario was being developed into the point of interest of the USWNT’s assault in early 2022 — when one other part of this generational transition noticed Morgan watching from afar. Former head coach Vlatko Andonovski regarded to make the most of Macario as a false 9 who might interchange with Lavelle — it labored brilliantly however in short spells, however Macario’s harm put the idea on pause.

Now, Macario is again, and he or she is definitely gifted sufficient to demand a spot on the sphere. She can be versatile as a generational participant, that means the USWNT can current a number of completely different attacking seems to be relying on the opponent.