Vlatko Andonovski has spent the last 10 months since the Olympics reimagining the U.S. women’s national team player pool, calling on new faces while giving the stalwarts a break and cultivating a larger group from which to call upon for the matches that truly matter. The result is what the manager revealed on Monday, a 23-player group that will head to Mexico to determine the fate of the USWNT’s next two years.
Doubling as qualification for the 2023 Women’s World Cup and 2024 Olympics, the new Concacaf W Championship, held in Mexico from July 4–18, carries all sorts of significance, and the U.S. can ill afford the kind of slip-up that it has managed to avoid throughout its existence.
Called upon to meet that challenge is a team boosted by the return of veterans Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe and Becky Sauerbrunn and energized by the likes of a trio of Washington Spirit stars in Trinity Rodman, Ashley Sanchez and Ashley Hatch.
