Around this time last year, the coach of the US women’s national team, Vlatko Andonovski, was announcing the roster for the 2020 SheBelieves Cup, a testing ground to find the team he would bring to Tokyo for the Olympics.
Twelve months later, Andonovski is preparing again for a SheBelieves Cup. And after a pandemic-induced postponement, it is still preparing for the difficult task of reducing its pool of players to 18 ahead of the Olympics scheduled to begin in July.
Fifteen of the players who lifted the SheBelieves Cup in Texas on March 11, 2020, which ended up being the USA’s last game.As of November 27, they are on this year’s squad, but a number of developments from Staff have since made the next decisions on Andonovski’s list even more interesting. A core group of players moved abroad. New young players entered the pool. Older and Veteran Players reentered the pool.
“I think when it comes to choosing the team, it will be who is fit and also who is healthy,” US forward Lynn Williams said. “It’s definitely stressful at times, but I’m happy I’m not the coach, because I think it will be a tough decision when it comes time to select the team.”
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Some absences aside, most of the US players will be ready when the US begins its quest for its fourth SheBelieves crown on Thursday against Canada in Orlando.
Amid uncertainty over whether the Olympics will continue as planned, the US still views this month’s tournament in the US as a preparation point for summer. The free-for-all format mirrors that of the Olympic group stage, with each team playing three games in seven days: Brazil (February 21) and Argentina (February 24) are the Americans’ next opponents after the first match.
Andonovski has kept his cards close on exact plans to experiment and rotate lineups in those three games, but said the United States would use the tournament to test and evaluate the team’s vast talent pool.
“There will be a mixed approach. With some players, we are going to test how they will react in three consecutive games in a short period of time, because it looks like the group stage of the Olympics, ”Andonovski said. “With some players, we will use it as an evaluation platform so we can make decisions in the future.”
Manchester City midfielder Sam Mewis and Manchester United striker Tobin Heath are the top two injury-related absences for the United States this month. Heath is still recovering from an ankle injury he sustained with United, while Mewis is also working with an ankle bump from the January 22 friendly win over Colombia.
Mewis has started eight of the national team’s last 11 games, scoring seven goals in that stretch. She has become one of the best midfielders in the world for both the club and the country. Forward Megan Rapinoe recently called Mewis the best player on the national team.
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Andonovski hopes Heath and Mewis will recover in time for Olympic preparation in the coming months.
The rest of the England-based national team contingent – Man City’s Rose Lavelle and Abby Dahlkemper, and Man United’s Christen Press – are available in Orlando, as is Lyon star Catarina Macario, who made her United States debut. Excitingly united in friendlies last month. .
All four foreign players have joined the US directly from competition in Europe, and will return to their club seasons once the tournament concludes later this month. The United States hasn’t had as many European-based players returning for SheBelieves since 2017, when Carli Lloyd (Manchester City), Alex Morgan (Lyon) and Crystal Dunn (Chelsea) returned and the United States finished fourth.
Macario is the highest profile of the coolest names in the group of players, but she is joined by several young and less experienced faces on the list. Goalkeepers Jane Campbell and Casey Murphy, defender Midge Purce, midfielder Jaelin Powell and forward Sophia Smith all received nods to Orlando. They have 10 combo caps. Kristie Mewis also continued her international resurgence with another call-up.
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Even among the new faces in the camp, the list still has its share of veterans fighting for their own spots in Tokyo. Rapinoe and Lloyd are two of the oldest players in the group, but both played well in friendlies in January, and defender Becky Sauerbrunn won the captaincy earlier this year.
After a year in and out of the national team (she missed Olympic qualification and SheBelieves in 2020 while pregnant, returned for a friendly in November against the Netherlands and then came out with COVID-19 in January) Alex Morgan is also back.
“If he’s in his prime,” Andonovski said, “it can be deadly.”
The SheBelieves roster typically features European teams, but this year it will feature all teams from the Western Hemisphere. Orlando Pride star Marta will return to the Brazilian team after missing the team’s fall camp with COVID-19, and Canada will be without seven key players, including international soccer captain and all-time leading scorer Christine Sinclair.
Argentina replaced Olympic host Japan, who withdrew in January due to COVID-19 concerns. The South American team will play its first matches since November 2019.
Since the tournament began in 2016, the United States has yet to take home a SheBelieves crown and a summer trophy in the same calendar year. He had clear goals to do that in 2020 and, with another shot at Olympic gold still on the horizon, those goals are no different in 2021.
“We are excited for these great opponents that we face. They’re going to give us different challenges, and every game, every training is ultimately a preparation for the Olympics, ”Dunn said. “Everyone is excited to be here. We are excited to hit the pitch together and obviously hopefully win this tournament. “
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.