Tag: U.S. women’s soccer team

As the men’s World Cup summer fades away, the time has come to kick off the countdown to next year’s women’s World Cup in Brazil.

The U.S. women’s team’s series with Spain — a clash between the reigning Olympic champions and reigning World Cup champions — will serve as the starting gun. So it’s fitting that U.S. manager Emma Hayes has summoned a squad packed with stars for the two-game set, Oct. 10 in Washington and Oct. 13 at Subaru Park.

All three of the “Triple Espresso” attackers are aboard — Trinity Rodman, Mallory Swanson, and Sophia Wilson — as are midfield standouts Rose Lavelle, Lily Yohannes, and Sam Coffey.

The defense also has its headliner in Naomi Girma, who makes the squad despite injuries hampering the start to her season at English club Chelsea. But Hayes admitted Tuesday that the centerback’s latest knock, suffered in practice just a few hours before the announcement, could rule her out.

“I’m not entirely sure if Naomi will be on the roster, but I’m sure we will will report something if that is the case,” Hayes said in a news conference.

While those players will sell the most tickets, the one who might generate the most fan buzz is forward Ashley Sanchez. She has been steamrolling the NWSL this year with the North Carolina Courage and has 20 goals and four assists in 26 games.

But she hasn’t been with the national team since January 2025 and hasn’t played for her country since October 2024.

The 27-year-old has tied the league’s single-season scoring record with four games to go. She could break it Friday night by scoring on the goalkeeper who might be the U.S.’s new starter, the Seattle Reign’s Claudia Dickey.

“I think Ashley’s had an extraordinary season, not just in terms of the number of goals she’s scored, but I think consistency in her performance,” Hayes said. “At her stage of her career, I’m sure she doesn’t want to waste the opportunities that are in front of her. The experience she has — this is a player that was always tipped for great things as a youth national team player, and so I’m happy to see her fulfilling her potential.”

Hayes doesn’t have everyone available she’d like to have. Three major players are dealing with long-term injuries: veteran centerback Emily Sonnett, young creative midfielder Olivia Moultrie, and do-it-all attacking star Catarina Macario.

While Hayes hopes they’ll be back next year, the door has opened for some young prospects. Winger Pietra Tordin has turned heads with seven goals and nine assists for the Portland Thorns, while striker Trinity Byars has 10 goals and two assists for the San Diego Wave.

As for available players who didn’t make the cut for this squad, the biggest absence is Gotham FC playmaker Jaedyn Shaw. It’s easy to forget she’s only 21, as she has 37 senior national team caps. Shaw has been in superb form in the NWSL lately: four goals and one assist in her last five games, with nine goals and five assists on the season.

Angel City striker Ally Sentnor is another notable absence. She has seven goals and four assists for the club this year, and seven goals in 23 career U.S. games.

“I want to prioritize the development of players, and I don’t want less experienced players always sitting on the bench and playing few minutes,” Hayes said, adding that the duo are “still central to our plans.”

Hayes said she spoke with both of them and “they understand the importance of their development” and “this has been part of their prescribed journey.”

Both games are close to sold out, with only scattered seats open on Ticketmaster. As of Tuesday afternoon, the starting price for the Tuesday game in Chester is $76 and leaps to $168 for the Saturday matchup at Washington’s Audi Field.

The big crowds will come to cheer on the U.S., but they’ll also be keen to see Spain’s stars. La Roja’s squad includes two-time world player of the year Alexia Putellas, a further all-world playmaker in Mariona Caldentey, and one of the planet’s top young players in Salma Paralluelo,

It notably does not include former Gotham FC striker Esther González, who likely would have gotten a frosty reception over here. She left Gotham in late July via a mutual contract termination for what she said were personal reasons but within a month joined Saudi Arabian club Al Qadisah.

That drew backlash on this side of the Atlantic, and not just from Gotham fans who felt scorned. Several eyebrows were raised around the league, and even some observers in Europe were surprised.

Three-time reigning world player of the year Aitana Bonmatí also isn’t on this squad, as she’s recovering from a broken leg suffered last season.

But the rest of the squad is more than than deep enough to give the U.S. one of the biggest tests it can get from any team in the world.

“I’ve said it many times: We want the hard path,” Hayes said. “We want these games, this preparation. We welcome it; we invite it. It brings the best out of us.”

USWNT roster vs. Spain

Goalkeepers (3): Claudia Dickey (Seattle Reign), Jordan Silkowitz (Bay FC), Phallon Tullis-Joyce (Manchester United, England)

Defenders (8): Tierna Davidson (Gotham FC), Emily Fox (Arsenal, England), Naomi Girma (Chelsea, England), Avery Patterson (Houston Dash), Lilly Reale (Boston Legacy), Tara Rudd (Washington Spirit), Gisele Thompson (Angel City FC), Kennedy Wesley (San Diego Wave)

Midfielders (7): Sam Coffey (Manchester City, England), Lindsey Heaps (Denver Summit), Claire Hutton (Bay FC), Rose Lavelle (Gotham FC), Evelyn Shores (Angel City FC), Mallory Swanson (Chicago Stars), Lily Yohannes (OL Lyonnes, France)

Forwards (8): Trinity Byars (San Diego Wave), Michelle Cooper (Kansas City Current), Trinity Rodman (Washington Spirit), Emma Sears (Racing Louisville), Ashley Sanchez (North Carolina Courage), Pietra Tordin (Portland Thorns), Alyssa Thompson (Chelsea), Sophia Wilson (Portland Thorns)

USWNT schedule

Saturday, Oct. 10: vs. Spain at Audi Field, Washington, 2:30 p.m. (TBS, Telemundo 62, Universo, HBO Max, Peacock)

Tuesday, Oct. 13: vs. Spain at Subaru Park, Chester, 7 p.m. (TNT, Universo, HBO Max, Peacock)

Ever since Catarina Macario joined the NWSL’s San Diego Wave in March, fans across the league have anticipated seeing her play as a pro on these shores for the first time.

It hasn’t happened yet because of a heel injury that has sidelined her for the entirety of this calendar year. And now the wait is going to last even longer, because the Wave announced Monday that she has been placed on the season-ending injury list.

She also revealed in a statement on Instagram that “a few months ago,” she “underwent a minor procedure to properly address an ongoing issue” in her right knee.

“I worked incredibly hard with the hope of making it back this season, but ultimately doing this the right way meant keeping the bigger picture in mind,” Macario said.

Along with her NWSL year being over, Macario is out of the United States’ much-anticipated series against Spain next month, a matchup of the reigning Olympic and World Cup champions, in Washington on Oct. 10 and at Subaru Park on Oct. 13.

The 26-year-old, who grew up in San Diego after moving from Brazil with her family at age 12, is one of the U.S. program’s best talents. When healthy, she is as much of a difference-maker as fellow superstars Rose Lavelle, Trinity Rodman, and Sophia Wilson — with the bonus of being able to play as a forward or attacking midfielder.

Macario has only been able to show it in flashes for her country. She missed the 2023 World Cup with a torn ACL, and the 2024 Olympics with a knee issue.

When she finally got on the field last year, she led the U.S. with eight goals in 10 appearances. It seemed like she was finally on track to blossom into the star that so many observers hoped she’d become.

Before coming to the Wave, Macario rose from the renowned San Diego Surf youth club to college at Stanford, where she was such a star that she turned pro after her junior year with French superpower Lyon.

She spent two years there, then moved to England’s Chelsea, where she was coached by current U.S. manager Emma Hayes.

The Wave swung big to bring Macario home, signing her to a five-year deal worth $8 million, one of the biggest contracts in women’s soccer history.

“We made a significant long-term commitment to Cat because we believe in her ability to make a lasting impact on this club,” sporting director Camille Ashton said Monday.

Macario, in turn, was ready for the spotlight.

“To be completely honest, it [stinks] to find myself in this position again,” she said. “There’s no way around how difficult it is to go through another rehab and spend more time away from the game I love. I miss football, I miss competing, and after coming home to San Diego, I wanted nothing more than to be out there with my teammates, representing this club and this city.”

Now everyone must wait until next year, and hope that she’ll be ready for the World Cup — which Brazil will host, no doubt making it even more significant for Macario specifically.

“As difficult as that is to accept, I know what I’m working toward,” Macario said. “More than anything, I want to get back to feeling fully like myself again: playing freely, without feeling limited, and giving the best of me for a long time to come. For now, that means being patient, trusting the work we’re doing, and continuing to build toward what’s ahead.”

U.S. fans are also sweating on two other big-time players in the midst of long-term injury rehabs, bright young midfielder Olivia Moultrie (torn ACL in August) and veteran defender Emily Sonnett (torn patellar tendon in July). They will cut it close to make the World Cup at all.

But if Macario’s rehab goes to plan, she could be back on the field early next year.

The U.S. women’s soccer team will return to town in October for a game that will be about as big as a friendly gets.

The reigning Olympic champions will face reigning World Cup champion Spain at Subaru Park on Oct. 13, three days after the teams open a two-game set in Washington.

It will be the U.S. women’s team’s 16th all-time visit to the region, dating back to 1991, and its 10th game at the Union’s home. Its last game at Lincoln Financial Field was soon after the team’s 2019 World Cup title, when it set an attendance record for a standalone friendly that the venue still holds.

Various rounds of ticket presales start Tuesday, and sales to the general public start Thursday.

If Spain brings all of its stars, the roster would include three-time reigning world player of the year Aitana Bonmatí, two-time winner Alexia Putellas, a further all-world playmaker in Mariona Caldentey, one of the planet’s top young players in Salma Paralluelo, and Gotham FC’s Esther González.

They’re all well-known to women’s soccer fans here, with Putellas’ star power the biggest of the lot. That was confirmed this month when the longtime Barcelona star picked England’s London City Lionesses over the Boston Legacy as her new club home, and made the announcement in New York alongside club owner Michele Kang — who also owns the Washington Spirit.

Putellas told The Athletic that she sees England’s Women’s Super League as “the most competitive league.” Whether or not she meant it as a shot at the NWSL, it certainly made noise on both sides of the Atlantic. The NWSL has long trumpeted holding that title, and with plenty of evidence. But the top teams in England’s circuit spend more on salaries, and don’t have the same roster limits.

Kang, who in January signed Trinity Rodman to a new contract in D.C. that was a world record at the time, promptly told The Athletic that “there are clearly some sensitivities, but I’m not here to promote one league over the other. I want everyone to move up.”

Penn State product Sam Coffey, who has played for the Portland Thorns and Manchester City, was equally diplomatic in a news conference Monday morning.

“I personally refuse to draw any comparison between [the] NWSL and WSL — I just think, quite honestly, it’s a waste of time,” she said. “Both leagues are unbelievably talented and so hard to play in, in very different ways. And I just feel fortunate that I’ve gotten now to play in both of them, and I know that that has helped my game so much.”

Fans will be happy to settle this on the field, and they had already waited a while for a U.S.-Spain matchup. The teams haven’t played each other since October of 2022 in Spain, 10 months before La Roja confirmed its arrival as a power with the World Cup title.

Just one of the teams’ four meetings so far has come on U.S. soil, a tight 1-0 U.S. win at the 2020 SheBelieves Cup. The most famous was at the 2019 World Cup, a 2-1 U.S. win in the round of 16 that sent the Americans toward their triumph — but also announced Spain’s potential.

There was hope that the teams would meet at the 2024 Olympics. But Brazil beat Spain in the semifinals, and the Americans took the final to win their first major title since 2019.

As next year’s World Cup starts to come onto the horizon, the U.S. finally has an opportunity to play a European team for the first time since facing Italy last December. The continent’s schedule is usually filled by continental competitions: World Cup qualifiers, European championship qualifiers, and the UEFA Nations League.

Spain is free because it won its World Cup qualifying group. Other powers — including England, Italy, the Netherlands, and Norway — are headed for playoffs in October and November.

“We’ve desperately wanted to get Spain on our schedule, but the difficulties of scheduling the top teams during the women’s international calendar are well-known,” U.S. manager Emma Hayes said in a statement. “So to be able to get these two games on the East Coast will be the perfect tests before we head into World Cup qualifying at the end of the year.”

Concacaf’s World Cup qualifying tournament is Thanksgiving week in Houston and suburban Dalllas. The Americans play El Salvador in the quarterfinals, and the four winners of that round will clinch berths in the first 48-team women’s World Cup. The losers will play off for two tickets to FIFA’s inter-confederation playoffs.

The top three non-U.S. finishers in the bracket also qualify for the 2028 Olympics. (The U.S. is already in as host.)

“Ultimately, our goal is qualifying first and foremost, and I cannot think of a better team to play against in order to prepare for that to happen,” Coffey said. “I wouldn’t say it’s a measuring stick, necessarily, of Europe versus America, but I do think it’s just going to be such amazing prep for us. We have so much respect for Spain and the team that they are, and it will be an amazing challenge.”

Most of the rest of her remarks were just as polite, but she did put a little spice in the pot.

“I don’t think we ever approach anything as just a friendly — I think we’re a little bit too competitive for that,” Coffey said. A few minutes later, she added: “Of course they’re an incredible team, but so are we. And I think when we’re at our best we can play and beat anyone.”

Philadelphia will get to see firsthand if she’s right.