So the MLS season starts this Saturday and I should be excited but just 2 games are on network TV – and not the good ones. Oh and if you have Apple TV already like me and was thinking cool I can watch. NOPE you have to buy the subscription. So instead of talking all about how MLS is doing things right by giving us El Traffico in The ROSE BOWL for the first time ever – a sold out game with over 85K in attendance hopefully – I will tell you tough you can’t watch it. Between US soccer putting most games on HBO Max and now MLS going to Apple TV Subscription only, along with Paramount+ for Champions League and Peacock for EPL, and ESPN+ for Bundesliga and Spain – this might just be the final straw for me. Oh and they don’t have a new playoff format yet. Mickey Mouse crap right there. Sorry MLS I don’t care enough to pay to $80 a year to watch your semi-decent games. Good luck!! Oh there are 2 games on actual TV – Sat has Nashville and NYCFC Sat at 4 pm on FOX and Sunday has Seattle hosting Colorado on Fox Sports 1 at 8 pm. I WON’T be Watching.
US Ladies Win She Believes Cup – -1 more set of Games in Apr before World Cup in July
Thanks to Mallory Swanson with a little help from Alex Morgan the US hoisted another She Believe’s Cup Trophy (their 6th straight) after beating Brazil 2-1 Wed night. Lots of stories below some great saves by Nauer in Goal and full Highlightsand lots of stories below. More next week when I have time to digest.
Big Games to Watch
The US U17 Boys play tonight on FS 1 in the Semi-Finals of the CONCACAF U17 Finals – they have already qualified for the :U17 World Cup in November. Congrats boys and good luck this weekend – finals vs Mexico on Sun 5 pm FS2. Sat Leeds United and our 3 American’s are in a HUGE relegation battle with Southampton at 10 am on USA – must win game. Leads up to the 12:30 pm Madrid Derby between Atletico and Real Madrid on ESPN+. Sun AM we get League Cup Championship between Man United and New Castle United on ESPN+ at 11:30 pm. Tues FA Cup action gives us the All-American showdown Fulham with defenders Captain Tim Ream and Jedi Robinson hosting Leeds United and American midfield Tyler Adams, Weston McKinney and Brendan Aaronson at 2:45 on ESPN+ (maybe ESPN will wake up and move this game to ESPN2 or ESPN News lets hope.
GAMES ON TV
(American’s names in Parenthesis)
Fri, Feb 24
5pm FS2 U17 Semis USA 2-Canada 0
8 pm FS2 U17 Semis Mexico 5-Panama 0
8 pm FS2 Juerez vs Leon
Sat, Feb 25
7:30 am USA Aston Villa vs Arsenal
9:30 am ESPN+ Hoffenheim vs Dortmund (Reyna)
10 am USA Leeds United (Adams, Mckinney, Aaronson) vs Southampton
10 am Peacock Leicester City vs Aston Villa
12:30 pm ESPN+ Real Madrid vs Atletico MADRID DERBY
12:30 pm NBC Bournemouth vs Man City
2:45 pm Peacock Crystal Palace vs Liverpool
4:30 pm Fox Nashville vs NYCFC MLS
8 pm Univision Tigres vs Guadalajara
9:30 pm Apple TV LA Galaxy vs LAFC (CANCELED)
10 pm Univision Atlas vs America
Sun, Feb 26
8:30 am USA Tottenham vs Brentford
11:30 am ESPN+ Man United vs New Castle League Cup
11:30 am ESPN+ Union Berlin (Pfuk) vs Bayern Munich
2:45 pm Para+ Milan vs Atalanta
5 pm FS2 U17 CC Final USA vs Mexico
8 pm Fox Sport 1 Seattle Sounders vs Colorado Rapids
10 pm FS2 Tijuana vs Pachuca
Tues Feb 28 FA Cup
2:15 pm ESPN+ Stoke City vs Brighton
2:45 pm ESPN+ Fulham (Ream, Jedi) vs Leeds United (Adams, McKinney, Aaronson)
3 pm ESPN+ Bristol City vs Man City
Weds Mar 1 FA Cup
2:15 pm ESPN_+ Southampton vs Grimsby Town
2:30 pm ESPN+ Burnley vs Fleetwood Town
2:45 pm ESPN+ Man United vs West Ham
2:45 pm USA Arsenal vs Everton
3 pm ESPN+ Sheffield United vs Tottenham
3 pm Peacock Liverpool vs Wolverhampton
Thurs Mar 2 Copa Del Rey
3 pm ESPN+ Real Madrid vs Barcelona
Fri Mar
2:30 pm ESPN+ Dortmund (Reyna) vs RB Leipzig
2:$5 pm CBS SN Napoli vs Lazio
Sat, Mar 4
7:30 am USA Man City vs New Castle United
9:30 am ESPN+ Union Berlin (Pfuk) vs Koln
10 am USA Chelsea (Pulisic) vs Leeds United (Adams, Mckinney, Aaronson)
10 am Peacock Wolverhampton vs Tottenham
12:30 pm NBC South Hampton vs Leicester City
12:30 pm ESPN+ Stutgart vs Bayern Munich
2:45 pm Para+ Fiorentina vs Milan
3 pm beIN Sport PSG vs Nantes
3 pm ESPN+ Atletico Madrid vs Sevilla
4:30 pm Fox LAFC vs Portland Timbers MLS
7:30 pm Apple+ Orlando City vs Cincy
9:30 pm Apple TV LA Galaxy vs LAFC
Sun,Mar 5
9 am USA Nottingham Forest vs Everton
10:15 am ESPN+ Barcelona vs Valencia (Musah)
11:30 am USA? Liverpool vs Man United
2:45 pm Para+ Roma vs Juventus
3 pm ESPND + Real Bettis vs Real Madrid
Mon,Mar 6
3 pm USA Brentford vs Fulham (Ream, Jedi)
Tues,Mar 7Champions League + CCL
3 pm Para+ Club Brugge vs Benifica
3 pm CBS Chelsea (Pulisc) vs Dortmund (Reyna)
6 pm FS1 Violette vs Austin FC CCL
8 pm FS1 Alianza vs Philly Union
10 pm FS2 Tigres vs Orlando City
Weds,Mar 8Champions League + CCL
3 pm Para+ Tottenham vs Milan
3 pm CBS Bayern Munich vs PSG (Messi)
10 pm FS2 Vancouver vs Real Espana CCL
Thurs, Mar 9Europa League + CCL
1230 pm CBS SN Europa League Wrap-Around
12:30 pm Para+ Sporting CP vs Arsenal (Turner)
12:30 pm Para+ Union Berlin (Pfuk) vs Saint-Gilloise
12:45 pm Para+ Larnaca vs West Ham United
3 pm Para+ Roma vs Real Socidad
3 pm Para+ Man United vs Real Betis
3 pm Para+ Juventus vs Freiburg
3 pm Para+ Shakhtar Donestsk vs Feyenoord
8 pm FS2 Motagua vs Pachuca CCL
10 pm FS2 Alajuelense vs LAFC
Sat, Mar 11
7:30 am USA Bournemouth vs Liverpool
9:30 am ESPN+ RB Leipzig vs Mgladbach (Scaly)
9:30 am ESPN+ Bayern Munich vs Ausburg
10 am USA Leeds United (Adams, Mckinney, Aaronson) vs Brighton
At the moment, the U.S. women’s national team is a cliché glass of water.
If you see a team that has now won six straight games and just beat three strong sides in Canada, Japan, and Brazil en route to yet another SheBelieves Cup title, you’re looking at a half-full glass. They have a key player in extraordinary form, injured regulars are approaching full fitness, and they gave up just one goal in what is effectively a preseason tournament while facing sides whose players are in many cases closer to 100%.
If you’re thinking that Canada was a shadow of itself due to off-field issues with its federation, or that Japan worried the USWNT throughout their match, or are picturing Brazil’s near-misses from Kerolin or Adriana, you’re Team Half-Empty. You saw the USWNT struggle with two very different pressing set-ups, and are expecting things to go awry in the first game where the U.S. doesn’t bury their first great look at goal.
Well friends, guess what? You’re both making great points. Let’s get into the positives and negatives of the USWNT’s showing at the SheBelieves Cup.
Swanson’s show
Mallory Swanson is unstoppable at the moment, scoring in all three SheBelieves Cup matches for the USWNT and in seven straight games overall. The list of attacking players anywhere sharing this sort of stratospheric form consists of maybe Sam Kerr, and that’s it.
Under Vlatko Andonovski, there was a Christen Press phase before the pandemic like this, and Catarina Macario and Sophia Smith have spent time as the seemingly inevitable source of goals and assists on this team. Swanson is indisputably having her time under the spotlight right now.
One remarkable thing about this run is that it’s not happening with a particularly stable attacking group around her. The following is a list of what other attacking players were on the field when Swanson scored on this run:
Morgan, Smith, Lavelle
Morgan, Rodman, Lavelle
Hatch, Rodman, Sanchez
Morgan, Williams, Sanchez
Morgan, Rodman, Sanchez
Morgan, Williams, Lavelle
With Smith absent for both camps this year due to a foot injury, and Rose Lavelle missing two SheBelieves Cup games for precautionary reasons, Vlatko Andonovski has toggled between plenty of groups on offense, and Swanson seems to work just as well alongside any of them. We also saw Swanson look very comfortable playing off of Macario in 2021 and the early part of 2022, leaving little worry if the USWNT ends up going back to more of a false No. 9 look come the World Cup.
What’s been very impressive from Swanson is that she’s using her off-ball movement to create the kinds of chances she thrives in: running a channel, receiving the ball just as she breaks in behind the defense. Teams know the USWNT is looking for it. Right-sided defensive players know that’s where she’s going to end up, and still — whether in counter-pressing moments, long balls from the back, passes from midfield, or combination play — they can’t stop her from getting there anyway.
In the months ahead, any team that’s serious about winning the World Cup or that finds itself in Group E is going to be intently studying how to either prevent Swanson from finding these openings, or to cut off her supply from the rest of the group.
It’s vital for the USWNT that they keep opponents guessing, because at the moment, this doesn’t seem like a team that is going to imperiously march through seven games to a trophy. Much like these last two games in particular, the USWNT is on course for some very tight knockout round games in which one player being decisive is the difference.
The good news? The roster is deep with that kind of player, and Swanson in particular is arguably the decisive player in women’s soccer right now. If the team can maintain that — and especially if they add to it — their chances of a third straight World Cup victory are stronger than people seem to think right now.
Pressing problems
That said, there is a reason your social media timeline of choice seems full of doubt. It boils down to some clear issues the USWNT has had facing a high press. To be fair, any organized high press attempted by fast players is by its nature difficult to play through. To their credit, the USWNT has used friendlies to actually work on this rather than simply playing it safe in hopes of an exhibition victory.
However, it’s fair to say this is very much a work in progress, and come the World Cup, we may see them have to adopt some safety-first tactics to get through the opening stages of games. Generally speaking, that’s how high-pressing teams operate: you press for 15-20 minutes trying to get a lead or at least throw your opponent into disarray, then spend some time defending out of a more defined block so you don’t have a team full of exhausted players.
The USWNT, after simply overwhelming a Canada side that had been through so much coming into game one, found themselves on the other side of the coin against both Japan and Brazil. These games weren’t equal — Japan’s press was more organized and dangerous, whereas a tired-looking U.S. gave Brazil an assist by offering up some uncharacteristically sloppy play — but the outcome was close enough to the same that it should be a concern.
(AP Photo/Mark Zaleski)
We’ve seen some other top teams unsettle the USWNT like this over the past few years. Sweden did it at the Olympics, and both Germany and Spain showed that they were paying attention to the trend late in 2022.
As was already covered here, to some extent any press that is executed at a reasonable level is going to make the team in possession look uncomfortable. There seems to be an expectation among fans that can’t be reconciled: many teams are improving worldwide and deserve more respect, but also, the USWNT should be able to beat anyone anywhere with ease, so that discomfort must be an indicator that the team is falling off a cliff.
The sky is not falling for the USWNT, who as a reminder just beat three higher-end teams despite fielding a squad that is (Lindsey Horan aside) in preseason. But it is time for the fanbase to come to grips with a reality that, as high-pressing tactics have become more and more a regular thing in the women’s game, USWNT games might look a little rough around the edges.
It also must be said that the USWNT showed its preseason status in these two games. Some fundamental elements — first touch, body shape when receiving the ball, how often they checked their shoulders, and how early they made their move to be an option for the next pass — were lacking. By contrast, Japan and Brazil both seemed to be closer to top gear. That shouldn’t be the case at the World Cup.
However, here’s where the worried USWNT fan might want to start looking when they consider issues with the team: in this tournament, both Japan and Brazil pressed the way you’d expect them to. Japan’s 3-4-2-1 is not an unknown quantity, and Pia Sundhage’s 4-4-2 with Brazil is something everyone should be very familiar with by now.
Why, then, did these pressing structures seem to come as such a surprise? It’s one thing to enter a game knowing that it’ll be a bit scruffy because both teams are pressing. It’s another to see the USWNT seemingly not prepared to find the angles needed to play around those differing shapes. Every press gives up openings to gain certain things, but the U.S. had to find those spaces rather than knowing where they would be from the jump.
Japan and Brazil both seemed to catch the USWNT off guard, and while the players and coaching staff both did solid work sorting things out on the fly, it’s a bit alarming that they were having to find their way mid-game, and that’s not a completely new issue. Last year’s three-game losing streak saw a similar dynamic play out.
The pressure right now on the coaching staff should be on making sure more games resemble the Canada match rather than a worrisome scramble to get through the first 20 minutes without conceding. Higher-end teams are no longer going to hold off on taking the big tactical risk pressing is against the USWNT, and as we saw last year, there are teams out there good enough to turn a worrying phase for the USWNT into actual goals.
Pressing solutions
The flip side to the USWNT’s issues when facing a press is that they remain an absolute nightmare of a counter-pressing team. That’s down to both the work of the coaching staff — Andonovski’s teams, going back to FC Kansas City and the former Seattle Reign, have largely been counter-pressing experts — and the individual players.
Swanson’s goal came from counter-pressure that ended with Lynn Williams forcing a turnover and getting the ball to Lavelle in space. The USWNT counter-pressed Brazil into a giveaway on Alex Morgan’s goal that wasn’t (a shame, since Andi Sullivan’s first-time through ball was the best pass either team played on Wednesday), and seized on another chaotic situation when Morgan scored a goal that actually counted a few moments later.
Williams is comfortably the best counter-pressing forward on the planet, and last month we were talking about how strong her claim is for a World Cup roster spot despite losing 2022 to injury. This is ultimately why the talk about her not being the most clinical finisher has always missed the point: the USWNT will score more goals with her in games, because they’ll get more chances, because no team and no individual is better at counter-pressing.
It’s not just Williams, though. Anyone who has watched Trinity Rodman in NWSL has seen her — even in mid-block systems, which the Washington Spirit have largely played during her first two seasons — force turnovers by combining a clear understanding of when to jump on an opposing player with her obvious athletic gifts. Rodman’s ability on that front already seems top-tier, and we’ve only really seen the tip of the iceberg. In Mark Parsons’ system this year — expect more high pressure and more counter-pressing — she’s going to improve rapidly.
Swanson and Smith may not force as many turnovers, but they’re both vital cogs in this machine due to how quickly they choose and make the correct run after the turnover comes. Going back to Swanson always managing to get stereotypical Swanson chances even though every opponent wants to prevent them, this is often where they come from. She (and Smith) see the turnover coming, and make the most dangerous run early. The USWNT player picking up the loose ball doesn’t have to cycle through options or take an extra touch to wait for the opening. The ball pops loose, and the pass in behind to a world-class attacker is already on.
Probably not a game that will be known for its attacking brilliance, but w/ USA only getting off 5 shots to Japan’s 15, the chances that USA had *on average* were far better than the opponent.
The Japan game was a perfect example. Japan’s expected goals were higher, as even a casual viewer would have guessed. However, since they also out-shot the USWNT by nine, their xG per shot was quite low. The USWNT didn’t create a lot, but the chances they carved out were good ones, and with their forwards, the higher xG chances tend to become actual goals.
All of this is to say that counter-pressing, and the avenue towards higher-leverage openings, is how the USWNT has been winning games that seem more even on a surface level. They put teams into terrible positions just when they believe they’ve dealt with the threat and start to open up their shape, and they have a range of forwards and midfielders (it must be mentioned that Lavelle is more or less an ideal No. 10 to receive the ball in a counter-pressing situation) built to thrive in exactly these moments.
More than any other thing, this is the path towards a USWNT World Cup win this summer.
USWNT mock roster 1.0: Who will go to the 2023 World Cup?
Claire WatkinsFebruary 22, 2023
Alex Morgan and Mallory Swanson are both currently locks for the 2023 World Cup roster. (Brad Smith/ISI Photos/Getty Images)
With only a few games left before the U.S. women’s national team takes off for the 2023 World Cup in New Zealand, the final roster is slowly taking shape.The USWNT has been dealing with the absence of a number of key contributors due to injury, making it difficult to foresee exactly which players might be pushed to the roster bubble in the next few months. But the team’s approach to the SheBelieves Cup this past week has offered some insight into head coach Vlatko Andonovski’s thinking.If the U.S. were getting on the plane to New Zealand today, who would Andonovski select to the 23-player roster, tasked with defending the team’s 2019 World Cup win? Here is the first edition of our mock World Cup roster.
First players out: Aubrey Kingsbury, Jane Campbell, Bella Bixby
This position is fairly straightforward: Naeher and Murphy are the USWNT’s No. 1 and No. 2 goalkeepers, and Franch’s recent form should earn her the spot at No 3. NWSL action could sway that decision if Kingsbury, Campbell or Bixby start the season out strong, but Franch would have to slip in form to make room for any changes.
Kelley O’Hara (Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)
Defenders
Locks: Naomi Girma, Becky Sauerbrunn, Alana Cook, Sofia Huerta, Emily Sonnett, Crystal Dunn, Emily Fox
First players out: Tierna Davidson, Kelley O’Hara, Casey Krueger
The first players out in this scenario could absolutely make their way to the World Cup, but the lack of recent game tape from Davidson, O’Hara and Krueger makes it difficult to select them if the tournament started today.The player most vulnerable to being overtaken by someone coming back from injury is Emily Sonnett. The 29-year-old has played both center back and outside back for the U.S. in recent international windows, with Andonovski not committing her to either position. Davidson has similar versatility and might be considered a more stable presence on the backline.O’Hara and Krueger are experienced defenders who will have an opportunity to push for the spot currently held by Sofia Heurta at right back. If O’Hara is fit, she’ll be on the plane, but she simply needs to show she can handle the workload. Krueger is probably one step further out, but she could get a look at April camp.
Catarina Macario (Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)
Midfielders
Locks: Lindsey Horan, Andi Sullivan, Rose Lavelle, Catarina Macario, Kristie Mewis, Ashley Sanchez, Taylor Kornieck
First players out: Sam Coffey, Jaelin Howell, Morgan Gautrat
The U.S. midfield is a complicated project, with Andonovski packing the roster with players who fill similar roles for their club teams as Lindsey Horan, who has appeared undroppable from the starting lineup in recent games. Andi Sullivan will likely be relied upon heavily in the defensive midfield, aided by a combination of Horan, Kristie Mewis and Taylor Kornieck.Andonovski has said recently that he considers Catarina Macario to be an attacking midfielder, but the 23-year-old can also play at the point of the team’s new 4-2-3-1 formation. She’s the one player who has a seat on the plane to New Zealand regardless of fitness, though she’s very close to making her national team return after tearing her ACL last June.The three players just outside the roster bubble are all defensive midfielders, as Andonovski doesn’t appear to have a true backup No. 6 in his plans. Sam Coffey and Jaelin Howell are both up and coming at the position, perhaps tabbed for tournaments in the future. Morgan Gautrat is an experienced holding midfielder at both the club and international level, but she hasn’t gotten much time with the U.S. while coming back from injury in 2022.
Whether Macario is listed as a midfielder or a center forward will influence how many players are taken at each position, but her presence will influence the frontline selections no matter how she is designated. Ashley Hatch has served as the backup to Alex Morgan in Macario’s absence but will likely be the odd player out when Morgan and Macario are healthy at the same time.Midge Purce and Christen Press both suffer from the USWNT’s incredible depth at the winger position. Purce hasn’t gotten significant time at the SheBelieves Cup, with Trinity Rodman and Lynn Williams getting starts at right wing. Rodman is an exciting connecting winger with a high ceiling, and Williams is arguably the player most integral to making Andonovski’s defensive press work.Press is simply in a race against time, as she works her way back from an ACL injury that cut her 2022 season short with Angel City. The two left wingers in front of her are Rapinoe and Swanson, though the starting job will almost certainly go to Swanson if she’s fit. If Press can hit the ground running in March, she deserves consideration to return to the team in April. But if she has any setbacks in her recovery, she might run out of opportunities to make it back to the international stage in 2023.
Claire Watkins is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @ScoutRipley.
USWNT wins SheBelieves Cup with win over Brazil, but performances leave questions for World Cup
Feb 22, 2023 Caitlin MurrayESPNFC
The U.S. women’s national team claimed its sixth SheBelieves Cup trophy with a 2-1 win over Brazil on Wednesday.Goals from Alex Morgan and Mallory Swanson, who was named tournament MVP, put the Americans in control for much of the second half, but Brazil pulled one back in the 90th minute from forward Ludmila.The USWNT went undefeated in the SheBelieves Cup after beating Canada and Japan in earlier games. But now, the next tournament on the calendar is the Women’s World Cup, which kicks off for the Americans on July 22 in New Zealand.
Rapid reaction
1. USWNT wins SheBelieves Cup, but now the World Cup awaits
The U.S. women’s national team didn’t even need to win against Brazil to secure its sixth SheBelieves Cup trophy — a loss by one goal still would’ve been enough for the Americans to finish atop the standings, and the USWNT cleared that low bar and then some with a win over Brazil on Wednesday.Winning the SheBelieves Cup is nice, and the American players have earned a nice little bonus payment for it, but ultimately this tournament largely exists to prepare the USWNT for the World Cup. To that end, it might warrant a bit of worry that the Americans never quite put together a full 90-minute performance during the SheBelieves Cup, including against Brazil.As Crystal Dunn said before heading into the locker room for halftime: “It’s not our best half. We gave away some cheap balls, but it’s about resetting now.” The match result and the tournament are marked down as wins for the USWNT, but — as Dunn suggested — the performances were not as confidence-inspiring, and the USWNT’s slow start was palpable on Wednesday.That might be fine — winning ugly counts all the same as winning in style, and lifting a trophy at the end of the 2023 Women’s World Cup is all that matters. The USWNT would surely take its wins at the SheBelieves Cup over the worrying losses last fall to England, Spain and Germany. But the performances in this tournament do leave seeds of doubt, and the fact remains that the World Cup is a different beast than the SheBelieves Cup.
2. Brazil’s counterattack gives the USWNT a key test
Brazil certainly had its chances to score on the USWNT — almost all of them came from quick counterattacks, and usually with Kerolin slicing her way through the midfield.That led to some nervy moments when American center-backs Becky Sauerbrunn and Naomi Girma were caught alone trying to keep yellow shirts at bay as fellow defenders Dunn and Emily Fox were far flung upfield.This isn’t a new concern for the USWNT, and before the Americans won the World Cup 2019, it looked like the USWNT’s tendency to get caught overcommitting in the attack was its chief (and arguably only) vulnerability. No one made the Americans pay in France at that World Cup, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a risk that the Americans took. And that Brazil left the U.S. defense scrambling in transition the way they did gave the U.S. yet another good stress test after Canada and Japan presented different challenges in the first two games of the SheBelieves Cup.To be clear, Dunn and Fox, the two American full-backs, are doing exactly what U.S. coach Vlatko Andonovski wants from them. The Americans get forward and they have a very attack-focused approach, even against top-ranked teams, but if Brazil and in particular Adriana had just finished their chances, this could be a different postgame conversation.
3. What’s the Plan B for the USWNT?
Andonovski has spoken openly about his desire to use this tournament to refine and ratchet up the intensity of the USWNT’s press and counter-press. Alex Morgan‘s goal in the third minute of first-half stoppage time gave a glimpse of why the USWNT’s press is so important: Off a Brazil turnover, the U.S. transitioned quickly, Mallory Swanson had a shot blocked, and Morgan picked up the rebound with a well-taken finish that took advantage of Brazilian goalkeeper Lorena being caught off her line. Swanson’s goal in the second half also came from a turnover.
But in the moments the press hasn’t worked against teams like Brazil or, in the previous match again, Japan — when opponents have been able to settle into their shape and be patient — the Americans have run out of ideas quickly. When those spaces haven’t been pried open by catching a team in transition, the USWNT often resorts to playing direct over the top in a brute force attempt, which sometimes can create something out of nothing but more often is a good way to lose the ball.
The return of Rose Lavelle from a muscle strain injury could help. She found seams to move the ball into with varying success against Brazil, but often crumbled under pressure as Brazilian players converged on her. If she can be on her A-game in Australia/New Zealand this summer and the American midfield can click well enough to move the ball more quickly, that can help open things up for the USWNT. If not, the USWNT could find it will need more at the World Cup as teams shut down those spaces, particularly in the final third.
No one on the USWNT can take a beating during a match like Alex Morgan can, and the USWNT relied on her to absorb much of the pressure from a physical Brazil side. Even before her well-taken goal from outside the box, she had a would-be goal waved off that might’ve stood if a VAR review were possible. She does a lot of work that isn’t lauded, but deservingly got a goal to her name.
Best: Mallory Swanson, USWNT
What more is there to say at this point? No one on the USWNT is finishing like she is these days and there’s a reason she was named the best player of the SheBelieves Cup. She has eight goals in her past six games now.
Best: Kerolin, Brazil
She gave the USWNT back line fits with her incisive dribbling and passing, and she was at the heart of all of Brazil’s promising attacks.
Worst: Debinha, Brazil
The bar is high for the Kansas City Current forward who has been one of the best players in the NWSL and for Brazil, but she couldn’t get into the game and was subbed off at halftime after touching the ball only 16 times.
Worst: Trinity Rodman, USWNT
A bubble player trying to secure a spot at the World Cup, Rodman wasn’t consistent enough to wrestle away the spot that opened up with fellow winger Sophia Smith missing this tournament’s roster for injury. Although Rodman’s defensive work rate was good, and she is still an up-and-coming player with a bright future ahead of her, on this night she often wasn’t able to link up with her teammates and ended promising attacks by losing possession.
Worst: Adriana, Brazil
She had the chances, but she just couldn’t finish them. Ultimately, that may have been the difference in this match. Swanson and Morgan are reliable finishers, and Brazil just didn’t have that when it needed it. That, of course, does not all fall on Adriana, but she did have the best chances on the night.
Highlights and notable moments
Alex Morgan scored the USWNT’s opener at the end of first-half stoppage time.The USWNT won the ball in the midfield and sprung into transition, with Mallory Swanson taking a shot that was blocked. Morgan collected the rebound just outside the box, swiveled around and struck for a splendid finish.Mallory Swanson doubled the USWNT’s lead in the 63rd minute.Again, the USWNT pressed and won the ball in the midfield and then transitioned toward Brazil’s goal. Rose Lavelle laid it off to Swanson, who placed it well.In the 90th minute, Brazil pulled a goal back.Bruninha lofted a long ball to the far post and Ludmila headed it past USWNT goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher.
After the match: What the players and manager said
U.S. coach Vlatko Andonovski on winning the SheBelieves Cup: “I don’t think we’re going to talk a lot about the title. We’re actually going to talk a lot about the play and the details and we’re going to use these games in preparation for the World Cup. That’s what’s good about this, not necessarily the title. We enjoy winning the title, but it’s the outcome of this game is what is more important for us. The whole time throughout the tournament while we’re in camp, we’re talking about how it’s not just about this tournament, it’s about preparation for the World Cup.”
Mallory Swanson on Brazil playing very physically and pressing: “Yeah, I just remember before the game, Vlatko said ‘Expect that it’s going to happen, expect that they’re going to come out hard.’ We did that and we weren’t on our heels. There were definitely times that they had transition and they were running at our goal, but I think that helped me going into the game expecting that and expecting it’ll be a dogfight, you could say.”
Swanson on winning the SheBelieves Cup and the experience for players: “The first game [against Canada], we started off really fast. Against Japan, we didn’t start off as fast but we still found a way, and today we just kind of controlled the game. Brazil is a great team and they have really crafty players. Overall, it’s just a really good experience for everyone, especially some of the younger girls who don’t have as much experience — they played a lot of minutes. Especially Foxy [Emily Fox], she played outstanding this tournament. Lindsey [Horan] played outstanding — she played almost three 90-minute games back-to-back-to-back. So, there are definitely some people who stepped up big-time and it’s going to take that.”
Swanson on knowing opponents raise their level to play the USWNT: “If you shift your mindset, that’s exciting. We’re going to get everyone’s best game, and if we go out and put our best performance out there — sometimes we’re not going to be able to, sometimes it’s going to like against Japan a grind — but it’s exciting that we’re going to get everyone’s best game and we can ultimately play our game and continue to work on us and the details and continue to grow.”
Key stats (provided by ESPN Stats & Information research)
Alex Morgan scored her first goal from outside the box for the U.S. since June 19, 2014, vs. France.
Morgan has scored or assisted in each of her four appearances for the U.S. in 2023.
Mallory Swanson’s six-game scoring streak is the longest by a USWNT player since Christen Press scored in six straight from November 2019 to February 2020.
Swanson has scored half (7/14) of the goals by the USWNT in 2023. Rose Lavelle and Alex Morgan are the only other players with multiple goals (two each).
Ludmila scored the first goal that the U.S. has conceded in five games in 2023 — the U.S. had won its first four games by a combined 12-0 before Wednesday’s match.
Up next
United States: The USWNT has one more international window left until the Women’s World Cup. The games in that window in April have not yet been announced by U.S. Soccer, but reports suggest it’ll be a pair of games against Ireland on April 8 in Austin, Texas, and April 11 in St. Louis, Missouri. The USWNT’s World Cup starts on July 22, when the Americans face Vietnam in their tournament opener in New Zealand.
Brazil: The Brazil WNT will face England in the Women’s Finalissima, which pits the Copa América Femenina winner (Brazil) against the winners of the Women’s Euro (England). That match will take place at Wembley on April 6. Then Brazil’s World Cup begins on July 24.
The Americans Abroad Five: Leeds is in big trouble
Saturday was the kind of game that Leeds should have been up for.
Facing relegation rival Everton at Goodison Park, Leeds needed to show some kind of sign it can turn around the ever-worsening tailspin this season is becoming.Instead, Leeds was lifeless. Everton wasn’t brilliant either, but it didn’t need to be. One gritty performance and one lighting-bolt of a goal from Seamus Coleman sealed a 1-0 win for the Toffees.Leeds is now 19th after a damaging weekend that also saw fellow strugglers Southampton and Bournemouth win. The club’s decision to sack Jesse Marsch a couple weeks ago wasn’t necessarily wrong, but doing so without having a potential replacement has been disastrous.After being turned down in embarrassing and repeated fashion, the club is still being led by the caretaker trio of Michael Skubala, Chris Armas and Paco Gallardo. The Everton performance has, apparently, made Leeds hierarchy reconsider the wisdom of letting that trio continue much longer.Leeds has become appointment viewing for American fans, but that may not last if things continue down this road.Let’s explore that and a few other pressing topics in this week’s Five.
Relegation could break up Leeds America
Within a year, Leeds went from having no Americans involved in the first-team setup to five. That number could quickly plummet though if the club is relegated.Marsch is already gone and it’s unclear how long Armas will stay, even though he just arrived. That leaves the three members of the playing squad, Tyler Adams, Brenden Aaronson and Weston McKennie.Adams has had such a strong debut season in the Premier League that he could leave Leeds at season’s end regardless of whether the club is relegated. McKennie has a reported €33 million purchase option on his Juventus loan, which would likely be too rich for a team heading down to the Championship.That leaves Aaronson, who has faded after a strong start to the campaign. A year or two in the notoriously physical Championship may not be a bad thing for a player who at times has been pushed around in the Premier League. But it would be a pride-swallowing moment for a player who cost €22m just last summer.
Clark making positive steps
Caden Clark took the long road to making his first matchday squad for RB Leipzig, which he did on Saturday against Wolfsburg.Clark originally signed for Leipzig in June 2021, but went on loan back to the New York Red Bulls on two separate occasions. The winger failed to really shine back in MLS though, as injuries and indifferent form limited him to just 16 games last year.That left the U.S. youth international facing some real uncertainty when he headed back to Leipzig at the end of the 2022 MLS season. There were some initial positive signs upon his arrival, but words are one thing and making a gameday squad is something different.It’s easy to forget that Clark is still just 19. He’s got a way to go, but there are now some real signs he’s heading in the right direction again.
Pepi keeps rolling
Just like he did last season, Ricardo Pepi plays for a bad team. But very much unlike last season, Pepi keeps finding a way to score goals with Groningen.Pepi notched his eighth league goal of the season on Saturday as Groningen could only draw 1-1 against its fellow relegation rival FC Emmen. Groningen only has 22 Eredivisie goals this season, of which Pepi has scored more than a third.The 20-year-old is doing what he needed to do in the Netherlands. Will it be enough for Augsburg to give him another shot when his loan expires at the end of the season? Perhaps, but it’s also hard not to wonder what the striker could do on a team that actually created a few chances.
Hoppe is on the board
May 15, 2021. That was the last time Matthew Hoppe scored a goal for a club team before this weekend. For someone who plays as a forward, that is not great!But Hoppe came on as a first-half sub for Hibernian on Saturday against Kilmarnock and found the net early in the second half, helping his team to a 2-0 win. After nearly two years and two scoreless clubs (Mallorca and Middlesbrough), this one was long overdue.It’s still looking like Hoppe’s big breakout at Schalke in 2020-21 was a bit of a fluke, but he’s still only 21 and some consistent playing time in Scotland could do a world of good for his confidence.
Hello Jaheim Headley
There is a seemingly endless reserve of under-the-radar talent in Europe that happens to have USMNT eligibility and this week we are officially adding another name to our list: Jaheim Headley.Headley, 21, had a breakout performance for Huddersfield in just his second start for the club, scoring a goal and adding an assist in a 2-1 win over Birmingham City.
The London-born left back developed in Huddersfield’s academy before going on a series of loans to lower-tier English teams. Now back with his parent club, Headley appears to poised to earn a real run of games. That could eventually earn him international attention, as he’s eligible for England and Jamaica in addition to the U.S.
Friedel: If Turner can’t start at Arsenal, he’s got to go
Brad Friedel has told U.S. national team goalkeeper Matt Turner that if he can’t win the starting role at Arsenal, he has to leave the club.
Turner made the move to north London last summer from the New England Revolution, slotting in as Arsenal’s backup behind Aaron Ramsdale.
The 28-year-old has impressed when given the chance with Arsenal, but has made just six appearances and is still awaiting his Premier League debut.
Turner’s stock rose even higher after a strong World Cup with the USMNT, as he looks capable of starting for a number of clubs in Europe’s top five leagues.
Friedel, who coached Turner with the Revolution in 2018 and 2019, has encouraged the goalkeeper to seek out pastures new if he can’t overtake Ramsdale by next season.
“When I wasn’t playing consistently when I was at Liverpool I had to get out,” the former USMNT goalkeeper told sportingpost.com. “Even though I loved the club and it was the team I supported, I had to leave for my career. You have such a short career as a professional footballer and you need to play as many games as possible inside that time.
“Look at Matt’s competition for the national team spot. He was the number one then and he’s gone all this time without playing, but Zack Steffen, who wasn’t getting a game at Manchester City, is now playing well for Middlesbrough. They are possible promotion candidates and all of a sudden with Zack playing at a high level in the Championship and potentially in the Premier League and he’s playing every week whilst Matt is on the bench, then you’re looking at another change in who is the number one keeper for the U.S. national team.
“I think that Matt, no matter what, even though Arsenal are an incredible club, has to find consistent football somewhere. This season, fine, but if he’s not going to be the number one he has got to go. The only issue is that he’s on a long contract and if you’re Arsenal, why would you let him go? You’ve got an incredible goalkeeper, an incredible guy, a great worker, you have one of the best number twos on the planet.”
While Turner remains a backup, the next three keepers on the USMNT depth chart are all starters with their current clubs: Steffen (Middlesbrough) and Ethan Horvath (Luton Town) on loan in the Championship and Sean Johnson at his new club Toronto FC.
The 10 biggest questions as the 2023 MLS season kicks off
Major League Soccer is back for its 28th season, as the LA Galaxy and LAFC kick things off with a special edition of El Tráfico at the Rose Bowl on Saturday.
There are plenty of major talking points to explore this season as MLS continues finding its place in the hierarchy of world leagues. Is it a selling league? A destination league? Or can it be both?
There are also new faces in the league, old faces in new places, a new team and, maybe most importantly for the long-term health of the league, a blockbuster and experimental media rights agreement with a technology giant.
Let’s explore the 10 biggest questions to ponder ahead of the new season.
Who is next to depart?
MLS has begun to embrace its status as a selling league. Five of the league’s top 10 outbound transfers have taken place in 2022 and 2023, and there should be more to come.
The next chance for European clubs to purchase players will come in the summer, and there are several MLS players who could be departing at midseason.
Among the top candidates to fetch major transfer fees are FC Cincinnati striker Brenner, New York Red Bulls left back John Tolkin, LAFC midfielder José Cifuentes and Atlanta United’s World Cup winner Thiago Almada.
It’s not ideal for teams to lose key players midseason, but that’s the reality MLS faces due to its schedule and its growing reputation as a league where players can develop and be sold on for profit.
It’s not just about the players leaving though! MLS has become an appealing destination for players from across the globe as clubs start to slowly but surely open their wallets to bring in top-tier talent.
Some of the more notable players arriving in 2023 include Atlanta United forward Giorgos Giakoumakis, Red Bulls forward Dante Vanzeir, D.C. United midfielder Mateusz Klich, Orlando City forward Martín Ojeda, Portland Timbers midfielder Evander, LAFC forward Stipe Biuk and Charlotte FC forward Enzo Copetti.
Six of those seven commanded multi-million transfer fees and all are expected to immediately step in and play a major role for their clubs in 2023.
One of the most historic American soccer cities finally has an MLS team, as St. Louis City joins the league as its 29th team this season.
There should be plenty of excitement in St. Louis around the new team, which will play at brand-new Citypark in downtown. Will it be any good though? Who knows!
The roster is hardly filled with household names, as the club will rely on a core of MLS veterans and European players who are unproven in the league.
Perhaps the most recognizable name is Roman Bürki, the ex-Borussia Dortmund goalkeeper who will have to recapture his best form from Germany if the expansion club wants to surprise in year one.
The deal is the first of its kind for a sports league: every match will be available without blackouts or geo-restrictions through a single streaming service, providing a one-stop destination for fans.
Though some matches will be on TV, it’s also a risk: MLS is betting on getting enough subscribers and attention to counteract the fact it has made its product more difficult to consume.
Can Atlanta turn it around?
Atlanta United was a MLS flagship franchise in its first few seasons, winning trophies, developing talent and selling out a huge football stadium downtown.
Giakoumakis will be crucial for the Five Stripes this season, as should the return of Miles Robinson. But the focal point will likely be newly minted World Cup champion Almada. If the 21-year-old plays up to his potential, Atlanta should be back in the postseason. The problem for the Five Stripes, though, is that the better Almada plays, the less likely it is he stays for the entire season.
Steve Cherundolo’s debut season as LAFC head coach could not have gone any better.
The California club took home MLS Cup and the Supporters’ Shield to reestablish its place as one of the league’s elite teams. An encore in 2023 will be a daunting challenge.
For starters, LAFC will have to navigate an early-season schedule that will see them balance MLS play with CONCACAF Champions League matches. That struggle has seen a number of teams — like, for example, last year’s Seattle Sounders — fail to keep the pace in MLS amid a run in the CCL.
Cherundolo’s club will also have to replace the retired Gareth Bale and Chicho Arango, who left to join Pachuca. Bale struggled to stay on the field during his half-season in MLS, while Arango will be a bigger challenge to replace after he scored 30 goals in just two seasons with the club.
Is the Messi dream still alive?
Lionel Messi to Inter Miami is the rumor that simply won’t die.
Late last year it looked like the move was very much on but after Messi led Argentina to World Cup glory, several reports said he had agreed to sign a new contract with PSG.
But a couple months later, and that deal still has not been signed. A recent report from L’Equipesuggested that Messi once again is leaning toward a PSG exit.
Inter has been pushing to sign Messi for years. Should they land the iconic figure, it would be the biggest MLS signing since the club’s owner David Beckham landed with the LA Galaxy back in 2007.
This season will see MLS pause for more than a month, as all of its teams join all of Liga MX’s teams for an expanded version of the Leagues Cup.
MLS will take a break between July 15 and August 20. It will be interesting to see how teams approach the competition and how it will impact the season.
There are spots in the CONCACAF Champions League available to to the top three finishers in the Leagues Cup, but will teams take an opportunity to rest players midseason and test out new faces? Or will the chance to get one over on Liga MX and earn a CCL spot mean MLS teams go all out to win?
The answer may very based on a team’s place in the table, as well as its injury and depth situations at the time the Leagues Cup kicks off.
In a story about MLS talking points, we would be remiss if we did not mention expansion, the story in this league that just keeps on giving.
With St. Louis joining as team 29, commissioner Don Garber has said the league plans to expand to 30 teams and then take a pause. We may find out this year which city will earn the league’s 30th franchise.
The race appears to be down to Sacramento, Phoenix, Las Vegas and San Diego. In a recent interview with Sports Business Journal, Garber said of San Diego: “I love the market, it is a gateway city to Mexico, and with our increased programming and increasingly closer relationship with Liga MX, San Diego is a priority market.”
The league’s new playoff format will see 18 of its 29 teams (62%) reach the postseason, a change from last season’s 14 of 28 (50%).
The increase in teams runs the risk of further devaluing the regular season, especially as the top seed in each conference no longer receives a bye as they did last season. There is also the new wrinkle of a best-of-three series in the first round, which could dramatically increase the number of games in the postseason.
That is, of course, the point of all of this. More playoff games means more content for Apple to offer Season Pass subscribers, and more games for teams to host and bring in matchday revenue.
As the regular season winds down, only the very worst teams will be eliminated from postseason contention. That will give those teams plenty to play for, but what about the teams who already clinched? That will be a development to monitor as the season enters its final months.
US Women – She Believe’s Cup vs Brazil –Wed 7 pm HBO Max
Swanson scores her 6th in 4 games as Japan gave the US all it could handle on Sunday (highlights). Japan is a very organized side and we shouldn’t have too much concern that they had as much possession as they had overall. I thought GK Casey Murphy might have been player of the match with her clutch saves down the stretch preserving the clean sheet. The defense looked stagared at times especially Alana Cook as once again she gave away the ball which lead to the best shot of the game for Japan – (she simply can not be a player in central defense if the US wants to win the World Cup this summer. Its Girma and Becky in the middle PERIOD! I thought the midfield got overrun a little this game as Horan was horrific and Sanchez wasn’t much better. I thought Mewis had some good moments and should get a look instead of Horan this next game. I might even give Dunn a run at the #8 to see how she does after her complaints in GQ. If Lavelle is still hurt – sit Horan and give Dunn a run at the #8 slot dropping in some with Sullivan in a double pivot. Give Mewis a chance up top to create more maybe with Rodman along side? I would love to have the “issues” coach A has in the midfield. Tons of talent here –needs to get them to work together right however. Again you have to follow the USWNT on twitter Moms, Moms 2
Shane’s Starters vs Brazil Wed 7 pm HBO Max
Rapino, Morgan, Swanson
Mewis, Rodman
Dunn, Sullivan
Fox, Sauerbrunn, Girma, Sonnet
Franch
Champions League Tues/Wed 3 pm CBS
This week gives us Liverpool hosting Cup holders Real Madrid on Tuesday at 3 pm on CBS and Wednesday’s Man City vs RB Leipzig game on CBS Wed. Again great to see these top games on network TV while the others are on Paramount + with a full 1/2 lead in show on CBS and post game coverage on Para+. The 2-2 Barcelona vs Man United game was all you could want on Thursday setting up the return to Ole Trafford on Thursday at 3 pm on Paramount plus must watch TV – again CBSSN will have the wrap-around coverage starting at 12:30-5 pm. (lots of stories below)
MLS Starts season Sat – on Apple TV Subscription
So the MLS season starts this Saturday and I should be excited but just 2 games are on network TV – and not the good ones. Oh and if you have Apple TV already like me and was thinking cool I can watch. NOPE you have to buy the subscription. So instead of talking all about how MLS is doing things right by giving us El Traffico in The ROSE BOWL for the first time ever – a sold out game with over 85K in attendance hopefully – I will tell you tough you can’t watch it. Between US soccer putting most games on HBO Max and now MLS going to Apple TV Subscription only, along with Paramount+ for Champions League and Peacock for EPL, and ESPN+ for Bundesliga and Spain – this might just be the final straw for me. Oh and they don’t have a new playoff format yet. Mickey Mouse crap right there. Sorry MLS I don’t care enough to pay to $80 a year to watch your semi-decent games. Good luck!! Oh there are 2 games on actual TV – Sat has Nashville and NYCFC Sat at 4 pm on FOX and Sunday has Seattle hosting Colorado on Fox Sports 1. I WON’T be Watching.
GAMES ON TV
(American’s names in Parenthesis)
Tues, Feb 21Champions League
3 pm Para+ Liverpool vs Real Madrid
3 pm Para+ Frankfurt vs Napoli
5 pm FS2 U17 Mexico vs El Salvador
8 pm FS2 U17 Guautamala vs USA
Weds, Feb 22Champions League
3 pm Para+ RB Leipzig vs Man City
3 pm Para+ Inter Milan vs Porto
4 pm FS2 U17 Puerta Rico vs Canada
7 pm HBO Max USWMNT vs Brazil
8 pm FS2 U17 Panama vs Honduras
Thurs, Feb 23Europa League
12:30 pm Para+ Sevilla vs PSV
12:30 Para+ Nantes vs Juve
3 pm Para+ Man U vs Barcelona
3 pm Para+ Union Berlin (Pfuk) vs Ajax vs
3 pm Para+ Salzburg vs Roma
Fri, Feb 24
2:30 pm ESPN+ Mainz vs B Mgladbach (Scaly)
3 pm USA Fulham (Ream, Jedi) vs Wolverhampton
3 pm beIN Sport Lille (Weah) vs Brest
5pm FS2 U17 Semis
8 pm FS2 U17 Semis
8 pm FS2 Juerez vs Leon
Sat, Feb 25
7:30 am USA Aston Villa vs Arsenal
9:30 am ESPN+ Hoffenheim vs Dortmund (Reyna)
10 am USA Leeds United (Adams, Mckinney, Aaronson) vs Southampton
10 am Peacock Leicester City vs Aston Villa
12:30 pm ESPN+ Real Madrid vs Atletico MADRID DERBY
12:30 pm NBC Bournmouth vs Man City
2:45 pm ? Crystal Palace vs Liverpool
4:30 pm Fox Nashville vs NYCFC MLS
8 pm Univision Tigres vs Guadalajara
9:30 pm Apple TV LA Galaxy vs LAFC
10 pm Univision Atlas vs America
Sun, Feb 26
8:30 am USA Tottenham vs Brentford
11:30 am ESPN+ Man United vs New Castle League Cup
11:30 am ESPN+ Union Berlin (Pfuk) vs Bayern Munich
2:45 pm Para+ Milan vs Atalanta
5 pm FS2 U17 CONCACAF FINALS
8 pm Fox Sport 1 Seattle Sounders vs Colorado Rapids
Before the SheBelieves Cup, Megan Rapinoe said she hoped the U.S. women’s national team got metaphorically “punched in the face” by the competition from top-level challengers as the teams prepare for the 2023 World Cup. The tournament opener against Canada didn’t quite live up to the usual standards – understandably so, considering everything happening off the field with Canada’s dispute against its federation. But on Sunday, Japan limited the U.S. to only five shots, two of them on frame, and a single corner kick.USWNT forward Mallory Swanson, again, provided the game-winner against Japan. Teammate Alex Morgan set up the play in midfield, settling a pass with her chest before turning and sending a ball upfield. Swanson might have had the edge in speed over the sole Japanese defender trying to stop her, Shiori Miyake, but she also took two perfect touches with the ball still in the air at full speed to eventually shift to the dribble before using her right foot to shoot toward the far corner.Despite some late scares against Japan, the U.S. is heading to Texas with two wins. What lies ahead promises to be a fun, tasty match-up against Brazil for the SheBelieves Cup finale in Frisco. Before looking ahead, it’s worth digging into what head coach Vlatko Andonovski and the players said in Nashville following the most instructive look at the USWNT ahead of the World Cup yet.
Let’s keep talking about Mal
Swanson, in almost every game this calendar year, has been the main story when it comes to offensive output for the USWNT. Sunday’s goal was another display of the various tools at her disposal for striking at a moment’s notice.“Three times before that, I was offside. Vlatko told me to not be offside,” she said in the mixed zone, with a smile, waiting for a laugh. “So I was like, ‘Okay, I’m not gonna be offside on this one.’”Andonovski was all smiles when he talked about Swanson after the game.“She certainly makes my life a little easier,” he said. “It’s not just the speed. Obviously, the speed that she has helps, but she controlled the ball and took two touches on a juggle in the air (at) full speed. That’s technicality. I mean, that’s a very skillful player.”
More critically, Swanson thought the limited looks against goalkeeper Ayaka Yamashita and Japan’s backline were a good reminder for the entire team — not just the new kids — that creating chances in a World Cup will be just as tough, if not tougher. “I had one shot on goal today, and actually (Rapinoe) told me, ‘You’re only going to have so many chances in big games and you just need to put them away,’” Swanson said. “I think that is definitely a lesson that everyone needs to learn.”Before the summer tournament, the USWNT also learned it has a few more things to fine-tune, especially against a competitor like Japan.“There were a couple of times where, on throw-ins, I wasn’t in the right position,” Swanson said, “and it led us to have to defend more against a very good team that can keep the ball.”
The midfield (again) and the tactical battle against Japan
The U.S. continues to add to its toolbox with the implementation of its 4-2-3-1 formation, which at times struggled to handle Japan’s aggressive 3-4-3. “It was a tough game for the midfielders because they had to solve problems consistently,” Andonovski said. “And every time we saw the problem, there was a different challenge, different problem, and I think that Japan’s national team was superb. They’re such a good team and they’re so organized and so fluid in the way they interchange position and find the areas.”Andonovski credited forwards Ashely Sanchez and Morgan for handling a switch in formation at halftime to adjust to Japan, although he conceded that, as they added substitutes, “things started falling apart a little.”“When we started there was a slight adjustment in the build-up,” he said. “We lowered one of the fullbacks a little bit, but the main adjustment came in the second half. When we were in the mid-block in the first half we defended in 4-2-4, 4-4-2 with Sanchez and Alex (Morgan) on top. And in the second half, we defended in 4-2-3-1 with Sanchez behind.” Overall, Andonovski said the switch gave the staff a good picture of what to expect and how to adjust against opponents with similarly aggressive formations. He also recognized midfielder Kristie Mewis as one of the team’s problem solvers with how she adjusted and helped the team stay in possession (perhaps a clue to how the head coach is leaning when it comes to trimming his final World Cup roster).
“Clean, good touch on the ball,” Andonovski said of Mewis. “She connected very well with the players around and did bring a little calmness (to) the team.”
Mewis was part of a group of players that Andonovski said was an intentional construction to address Japan pressing the U.S. in specific areas. That group also included Lindsey Horan, Alana Cook, and Naomi Girma. The results were mixed.
“I don’t think that we did a good job on controlling and protecting the ball once we got a little bit higher up (the field),” Andonovski said. “But I was actually very happy with the composure of the center backs and composure of the midfielders, especially when they were under pressure.”
Clutch from Casey Murphy
Goalkeeper Casey Murphy had a much busier afternoon Sunday in Nashville than she did during the USWNT’s trip to New Zealand last month. (In the second match against the Ferns in January, Murphy was in goal for a 5-0 win and faced zero shots.) Against Japan, Murphy made two saves on two shots on target. It felt significant for preserving the win against Japan, keeping the U.S. on top of the SheBelieves table as well as a key marker for Murphy’s ongoing development ahead of the World Cup.“It’s those last 20 minutes that you’ve really got to hone in, especially when you’re holding onto a 1-0 lead. That ultra focus, making sure you’re just communicating, organizing, doing everything you can to help the team get the win,” Murphy said. The game provided meaningful minutes for Murphy to build her relationships with center back pairings she might encounter in World Cup matches. “It’s the most important thing for me,” she said. “Each game, each practice, is an opportunity to do that, so that’s always a focus of mine.” With as much rotation and movement that the U.S. played with on Sunday, none of it rattled Murphy despite her relatively recent run of appearance. “At the end of the day, we have a game plan,” she said. “The players do a really good job adapting to what’s given to us and what’s presented to us, and I’m so confident when I look up the field and see the other 10 players because they’re so good.”Murphy’s performance is also a reminder of the goalkeeping pool the U.S. has this summer. “On our team, we’re very happy we have three incredible goalkeepers who are competing for minutes on a daily basis, and we feel comfortable with all three of them,” Andonovski said. “And the fact that we can throw Alyssa (Naeher) in game one and she shows her world-class abilities, and then we have Casey in game two and then she shows that she’s capable of making big saves and being there for the team, it just shows what this team is all about.”
Rotation was the theme in Nashville. It’s important to remember that while player evaluation is still playing a role, so is a simple fact that it’s February.“We rotated a lot of players, and part of the reason was because we wanted to see certain players in the game like Kristie (Mewis) and Lynn (Williams),” Andonovski said. “But part of the reason was because of minute management. Our players are still in preseason mode, they’re not ready for three 90-minute games, and that’s why players like Alex (Morgan) or Mal (Swanson) are not finishing the games.”With a new-ish formation and players in varying states of readiness, the game against Japan was pretty clearly about continuing to answer roster questions as much as it was to prepare for the World Cup and simulate a group stage.Andonvoski seemed pleased overall with the result. The U.S. did look individually shaky in spots on the field, but even with players making mistakes, they never looked especially worried even when Japan pressured them hard in their half.
“There were moments in the game that we got exposed, and we were forced inside — not necessarily forced — but we made some changes, and adjusted the system a little bit,” Andonovski said. “The players had to adjust on the fly, and I think that was a very good learning opportunity, a very good moment for us. We were able to solve some problems. I’m sure there’s still more that we need to solve, and we’re going to look at videos and figure out how to do that as well.”
USWNT proves finishing quality, but midfield problems linger after beating Japan in SheBelieves Cup
Feb 19, 2023 ESPNFC Jeff Carlisle U.S. soccer correspondent
The U.S. women’s national team defeated Japan 1-0 to claim its second victory in as many tries at the SheBelieves Cup.Mallory Swanson — who else? — claimed the game’s only goal on a breakaway late in the first half after being released by Alex Morgan. And while the U.S. was made to sweat at times in the face of Japan‘s technical ability, the defense held firm to secure the win.Brazil plays Canada later Sunday, and that result will determine what kind of result the USWNT needs to win the tournament for the fourth time in a row in their last game of the tournament Wednesday. However, winning the SheBelieves Cup is secondary to preparation for the World Cup, which begins in five months.
Rapid reaction
1. USWNT wins a different kind of game
The USWNT’s tournament-opening 2-0 win over Canada saw the U.S. start fast and furious, creating numerous turnovers off its press on its way to a two-goal lead by halftime. Sunday’s match against Japan was completely different and the Americans were pushed way out of their comfort zone at times.While the U.S. had the edge in possession during the first half (55%-45%), the match seemed to be played on the Nadeshiko‘s terms. Japan forced numerous turnovers, and made the U.S. look disjointed in attack.
Then, in one swift move, the U.S. took the lead. Sofia Huerta hit a long ball to Alex Morgan in the center circle, and she immediately played forward to Swanson. At first it looked like Japan defender Shiori Miyake had the angle to get to the ball first. But Swanson’s speed proved decisive and she soon got herself in the clear and delivered a cool finish past Japan goalkeeper Ayaka Yamashita. Swanson’s five-game scoring streak is the longest by a USWNT player since Christen Press scored in six straight from November 2019 to February 2020, per ESPN Stats & Information.The U.S. looked a little sharper to start the second half, but Japan finished the match with flurry, and the USWNT had goalkeeper Casey Murphy to thank for preserving the win. Fuka Nagano went close in the 79th minute with a drive that went just over the bar. Yui Hasegawa then forced a sharp save from Murphy two minutes later. June Endo had another opportunity in second half stoppage time, but Murphy was on hand again to make the save.Overall, this will be precisely the kind of challenge that U.S. manager Vlatko Andonovski wanted for his players in one of their final matches before the Women’s World Cup in July. But he’ll have some questions to ponder as he goes deeper in his pre-World Cup preparations, especially with regard to his midfield.
2. Finishing makes the difference for USWNT as Japan can’t do it
Japan has long played an aesthetically pleasing style, adept at keeping the ball while staying organized in the back. It is on the back of these traits that the Nadeshiko have been among the best teams in the world, including their triumph at the 2011 World Cup.But finding a high-scoring forward has historically been a challenge. The since-retired Homare Sawa was primarily a midfielder, and remains Japan’s all-time leading scorer with 83 goals in 205 appearances.The SheBelieves Cup has highlighted once again Japan’s lack of cutting edge from its forward line. Against Brazil the Nadeshiko had the edge in expected goals 1.40-1.19. In Sunday’s match against the U.S., Japan again had the edge in xG, or expected goals, (0.94-0.70) as well as more shots (15-5), but it couldn’t convert, despite some stellar chances late.Compare that with what the U.S. is experiencing at the moment, where Swanson simply cannot stop scoring. Afterward, Swanson spoke to reporters about refocusing her approach last year to make sure she could finish the easy chances she should. And even if Swanson’s form drops off at some point, the U.S. has the kind of depth that teams would give just about anything to have.This result showed once again that while midfielder play is important, games are often won and lost in the respective penalty areas.
3. The USWNT should be worried about the midfield
After hailing the performance of his midfield against Canada, Andonovski went with a different look against Japan. Kristie Mewis was deployed as the No. 6 in her first start in nearly a year, with Ashley Sanchez as the No. 10 and Lindsey Horan positioned further forward than she was against Canada.While Mewis did her bit in terms of helping out the back line, the trio seemed less than the sum of its parts.
Horan in particular looked out of sorts, losing the ball nine times in her own half during her time on the field. Sanchez had no influence on the game and was deservedly taken off after 65 minutes. While generating chances is a team-wide responsibility, the fact that the U.S. attempted five shots Sunday — its fewest in a game since Aug. 6, 2016, vs. France in the Rio Olympics — it’s clear the midfield didn’t function as it should.
So what does Andonovski do now?
He mentioned after the Canada game that his midfield alignment oftentimes changes from game-to-game depending on the opponent. But the U.S. seems more solid when Horan drops down to form a double pivot.
What the U.S. manager does against Brazil will provide another data point as to his preferred approach as the World Cup beckons.
Best and worst performers
Best: Mallory Swanson, USWNT
What else is there to say at this point? Swanson is in the kind of form that forwards dream about, and doesn’t seem like giving up her spot in the starting XI anytime soon.
Best: Casey Murphy, USWNT
There have been plenty of questions about the goalkeeper spot behind presumed starter Alyssa Naeher. But Murphy delivered some sharp saves late to preserve the win for the USWNT.
Best: Fuka Nagano, Japan
The Japanese midfielder was at the heart of the Nadeshiko‘s best moves, was tidy on the ball and did plenty to put the U.S. midfield off its game.
Worst: Shiori Miyake, Japan
Yes, Swanson’s speed is a nightmare to deal with, but Miyake needed to do better in her duel that led to the game’s only goal.
Worst: Lindsey Horan, USWNT
Horan just didn’t look herself, as she lost the ball in uncharacteristically bad spots. Can she rebound against Brazil?
Worst: Ashley Sanchez, USWNT
Needed to get on the ball more than the 28 touches she had in 65 minutes.
Highlights and notable moments
It was a relatively lackluster first half for the USWNT as their press, which coach Vlatko Andonovski said beforehand he wanted to reach a higher level in this game, wasn’t pinning Japan back as hoped.But then the USWNT did some old-fashioned direct soccer, getting the ball upfield quickly for Mallory Swanson, who finished it well one-on-one with the goalkeeper.Japan had one of their better chances on goal in the 81st minute, but USWNT goalkeeper Casey Murphy made the block.
After the match: What the players and manager said
USWNT forward Mallory Swanson on takeaways from this game: “So, I feel like this game wasn’t the best performance, but it’s going to be like that sometimes. Japan’s a very good team, very technical, they move off the ball very well, so it’s good that we were able to play them and see that we need to be more disciplined in our defending, be patient. Also, we need to figure out, when we’re on the field, what can we do to break them down? I think we could’ve probably played a couple more balls in behind into seam three to stretch them, but I think overall it was a good test for us. Sometimes, games are just going to be like this, you’re going to have to grind them out.”Swanson on why she’s in such good form: “Honestly, this offseason I kind of reevaluated my game, and one thing was that I wasn’t finishing easy chances all of last calendar now. I just wanted to come into this year and finish easy chances and put them away.”
USWNT defender Naomi Girma on why Mallory Swanson keeps scoring when needed: “I think she’s just anticipating us winning the ball, making the run, and we’re giving her good balls in behind and when she’s out in front of a back line, we always know she’s going to finish that.”
USWNT manager Vlatko Andonovski on the result: “We knew that we were gonna see different challenges and there were moments in the game that we got exposed and we were forced — not necessarily forced, but we made some changes and or adjust our system a little bit. The players had to adjust on the fly. And I think that was a very good, learning opportunity, a very good moment for us because we were able to solve some problems. I’m sure there’s still more that we need to solve. And we’re going to look at the videos and figure out how to do that as well.”
Andonovski on the midfield and Kristie Mewis starting there in a new role: “It was a tough, tough game for the midfielders because they had to solve problems consistently, and every time we solve a problem, there was a different challenge, a different problem, and I think that Japan’s national team, they were superb. They’re such a good team, and they’re so organized and so fluid, fluent in the way they interchange positions and find the areas. So for, for Kristie to come in this game and constantly solve problems really good for us to see how she’s gonna adjust in those moments, but also in possession. I thought she was really good, clean, good touch on the ball, she connected very well with the players around and did bring a little calm on the team, which I thought was very important at different times of the game.”
Key stats (provided by ESPN Stats & Information research)
Mallory Swanson (née Pugh) scored her team-leading sixth goal of the 2023 calendar year. It’s also Swanson’s fifth straight match with a goal, and her first time scoring in five straight games for the USWNT in her career.
Swanson’s five-game scoring streak is the longest by a USWNT player since Christen Press scored in six straight from November 2019 to February 2020.
The USWNT attempted five shots in this game, the team’s fewest in a game since Aug. 6, 2016, vs. France in the Rio Olympics (also a 1-0 win). By comparison, Japan had 15 shots.
The expected goals, or xG, for this game, which is a measure of the quality of scoring games each team created: USA 0.70 xG, JPN 0.94 xG.
Kristie Mewis made her first start for the USWNT since last year’s SheBelieves Cup on Feb. 23, 2022, against Iceland. She started as a No. 6 defensive midfielder with Lindsey Horan and Ashley Sanchez in the central midfield, the trio’s first time ever starting a match together.
Up next
United States: The USWNT continues the SheBelieves Cup when the Americans face Brazil on Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET.
Japan: The Japan WNT continues the SheBelieves Cup on Wednesday when it faces Canada at 4 p.m. ET.
USWNT COACH: CRYSTAL DUNN WOULD FACE ‘STIFF COMPETITION’ IN MIDFIELD
CRYSTAL DUNN. (ION ALCOBA/QUALITY SPORT IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES)
Crystal Dunn could compete for any position she chooses on the USWNT, according to Vlatko Andonovski.On Friday, an interview with GQ was published in which Dunn discussed the emotional toll it takes on her to step into the USWNT and play as a defender.“I think it’s hard because I’m the only one who has to do it,” she said. “I step into camp, and I feel like I lose a part of myself. I no longer get to be Crystal who scores goals, assists, is this attacking player.“I step into an environment where I have to be world-class in a position that I don’t think is my best position. But I’ve owned it. I’ve made it my own, and I’ve tried to create it in my most authentic way. But I don’t love it.”But Andonovski doesn’t view Dunn that way, calling her “world class” at left back on Saturday during media availability.“As a left back she is world-class and probably one of the best left backs in the world. As a midfielder she has a pretty stiff competition in that position. So everybody has a choice. And then we make the decisions,” he said, adding that Dunn has the freedom to also go out and play on the wing.“Any player can compete at any position and I would be open to anything,” he said. “But if I was a player on the national team right now, Mallory Swanson is probably the last player that I would want to compete against.“So, we don’t exclude anything at this moment. And we see Crystal even throughout the games, she has the liberty to go forward as a left-wing. We have seen her in the middle getting the ball and doing her thing, which she’s also special at in the midfield. But if we feel like at any point in time she’s going to be better suited in those positions and give us the best chance to be successful, then we can see her there.”Andonovski added that he had not yet read the article, and wasn’t fully familiar with what exactly Dunn said. Still, the conversation has come up about her switching positions, he said. But Dunn is still making her way back from maternity leave, and he says that putting her in at defender is the best way to get her back out on the field.“I actually think her playing in the position that she’s playing for us right now is the easiest thing that we can do or easiest for her to get back out,” he said. “Because once she comes in this environment it’s almost like a switch now, without even us trying to say anything, or before she even comes in, she’s already preparing: ‘Okay, this is where I feel most comfortable. This is where I want to be. And this is what I’m good at.’”But, as she continues to make her way back to a full 90 minutes, Andonovski says Dunn is always allowed to compete for a spot in the midfield.“Dunny, obviously she’s a world-class player. But she has a choice too,” he said. “Like she can compete as a midfielder, she has to compete with Rose Lavelle, and Lindsey Horan and Catarina Macario when she comes in as well, right. So if she doesn’t feel comfortable playing left back or she doesn’t want to be left back, nobody is forced to play in any position.”Still, it isn’t the first time Andonovski has heard about Dunn’s dissatisfaction at defender, and lately she hasn’t expressed further frustrations.“Nobody’s forced to play on the national team. Nobody’s forced to play in any position,” he said. “Every time I’ve talked to Crystal, she just shares how much she enjoys being on the team, and loves helping the team being successful.“Obviously as a coach, I’m happy to hear that and I’m happy to help her in the position, or the tasks that she has to do.”Speaking to The Athletic, Dunn said that she knows what her role is on the USWNT.“I step into this environment, I know exactly what my role is. I know my strengths. And it’s not at all to say like, ‘Hey, I am not happy.’ But I think it’s more so to say like, ‘This is how I feel internally at times,’ and it’s okay to express that,” she said. “It doesn’t mean that I’m, you know, trying to cause havoc or a stir or anything like that. I think at the end of the day, it’s really just being authentic.”
Editor’s note: This piece was published in November 2022. The debate over Crystal Dunn’s best position with the U.S. women’s national team has resurfaced after she shared the difficulty of switching between midfield and defense in a profile for GQ Sports.
There’s no doubt about it: The U.S. women’s national team has missed Crystal Dunn. Off the field for most of 2022, the 30-year-old has been working her way back into soccer fitness after giving birth to her son, Marcel, in May. As Dunn gets closer to a full return, one big question has lingered: Where on the USWNT roster would she play?
Dunn began her USWNT career as a forward after winning the NWSL Golden Boot and MVP awards in 2015, but her versatility has been utilized heavily over the years. On the two U.S. rosters she’s made in 2022, she’s been listed as a defender, having carved out a role at outside back during the USWNT’s run to the 2019 World Cup title. For her club, however, she consistently plays in the midfield and has been very open about her preference to thrive in a position where she feels most comfortable.
All current signs point to Vlatko Andonovski’s intention to have Dunn return to outside back, but for the sake of the argument, let’s do a brainstorming exercise. What would it look like to play Crystal Dunn in the midfield? And could the USWNT use her there?
Let’s explore.
IT’S NOT A NEW ROLE
The idea of Dunn playing in the midfield doesn’t come out of nowhere; she’s assumed that role successfully for her club teams for years. After playing for the Washington Spirit and Chelsea as a forward early in her career, Dunn joined the North Carolina Courage’s box midfield in 2018. Paired in the attacking midfield with Debinha, and supported by defensive midfielders Sam Mewis and Denise O’Sullivan, Dunn helped North Carolina rise from a contender to a league-crushing super club.
The Courage won the NWSL Shield and Championship in 2018 and 2019, with Dunn’s playmaking ability and defensive tenacity at the heart of that success. In 2019, she won every domestic trophy possible as an attacking midfielder while also playing as a starting outside back for the USWNT in the World Cup. The toll it took on her was noticeable at the time.
“I struggled mentally. I had to take some time off from this club,” Dunn told the media in 2019. “Because I was battling, trying to be the world’s best [No.] 10, the world’s best forward on this team, and then go into national team camp.”
In 2021, Dunn joined Portland’s midfield, working in a dual-No. 8 system with Lindsey Horan. She and Horan would drift off of each other’s movements, anchored by the stellar play of Angela Salem behind them. Dunn appeared comfortable moving into wide and central areas while coordinating with Horan for pressing triggers on defense.
That Thorns team won the NWSL Shield, but the Mark Parsons-led midfield project was cut short by Dunn’s pregnancy, Horan’s subsequent loan to Olympique Lyon and Parsons’ departure for the Netherlands head coaching job. Dunn returned to Rhian Wilkinson’s Thorns in the last couple of months of the 2022 NWSL season. Coming in late to games, Dunn replaced other connecting midfielders as the No. 8 and helped seal results, including this year’s NWSL Championship.
RHIAN WILKINSON AND THE THORNS USED CRYSTAL DUNN AS A SUPER SUB ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE NWSL TITLE GAME. (CRAIG MITCHELLDYER/USA TODAY SPORTS)
A DEFENSIVE-MINDED MIDFIELDER
The world was reminded of what Dunn can bring in the attack when she smashed the semifinal game-winner that sent Portland to the 2022 NWSL title game. There’s also the argument that the USWNT doesn’t lack attacking talent, and it’s difficult to carve out Dunn’s place as a forward-hybrid when a number of other qualified players can’t break into the player pool in the same position.Dunn’s experience as a wide defender, however, shouldn’t be used against her possible inclusion in the midfield; in fact, that versatility should be considered an asset. In her short time back with Portland in 2022, Dunn’s energy as a 1v1 defender from an advanced position made closing out games very difficult for her opponents.Dunn’s recovery speed could also be a big help in the middle of the pitch. The USWNT has struggled to shore up space in front of the center-backs against top competition, employing a lone defensive midfielder despite the prolonged absence of Julie Ertz. The USWNT’s No. 6 has been caught on an island at times, leaving other players unsupported in the middle of the pitch.In recent international games, every USWNT midfielder has had to decide whether to step up defensively or fall back into an off-the-ball position. Dunn’s decisiveness as a connecting midfielder could make a huge difference as the U.S. tries to control the middle of the pitch and support the No. 6. And the fact that she can spring attacks should be considered a bonus.
MAKING ROOM
There are two key factors to moving Dunn into the USWNT’s midfield: room in the middle three and a successor at left-back.The USWNT’s commitment to a 4-3-3 formation doesn’t leave a ton of room for experimentation, with clear roles for the No. 6 (usually Andi Sullivan or Sam Coffey), a box-to-box No. 8 (Lindsey Horan) and a No. 10 who can also drift into wide spaces (Rose Lavelle). Against opponents that bunker down on defense, the U.S. will sometimes play with a more attacking-minded approach, bringing on Ashley Sanchez to connect with Lavelle.Against more possession-minded opponents, though, there’s room to give Dunn a look. She can help settle areas where the U.S. is often prone to turnovers with her dribbling, and as shown in Portland this year, teams have a hard time compensating for her as a super sub. Using Dunn as a 1-2 punch with Horan — not unlike the rotation of Horan and Sam Mewis in 2019 — could give the U.S. midfield some stability without fully overhauling the formation. As for what Dunn leaves behind her at outside back, the emergence of Emily Fox and development of Hailie Mace offer some relief to a position that was once considered a depth concern for the USWNT. Fox has struggled with injury and illness in 2022, but if she can stay healthy, the left-back rotation is more stable.There’s also the simple fact that no other current player in the USWNT pool plays such a starkly different role for country as they do for club. Sofia Huerta is the most recent example of a converted outside back, but she now plays the role consistently for OL Reign. Mace played as a wingback for the Kansas City Current this season, and Emily Sonnett is a center-back who can play wide when needed.“New coach coming in for the national team, wherever he sees me, I have to say, ‘If you want me playing in this position, I’m going to be the best in that position,’” Dunn said in 2019.Every national team manager has to give something up to get the best out of their team, but in a perfect world, the USWNT would have Crystal Dunn at her most comfortable rather than split into two positions, expending the mental energy to adapt.
Claire Watkins is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @ScoutRipley.
MLS may use 18-team playoffs; U.S. Soccer exploring new training center/HQ
Fewer than four weeks remain until the start of the Major League Soccer season, but the league has still not finalized its playoff format for 2023. As reported by The Athletic early last month, all signs point to the league introducing a best-of-three series for the first round and transitioning to a single-elimination format for the conference semifinals and beyond.Sources said that the motivations behind the likely change are to increase the overall number of matches to provide more inventory for MLS Season Pass on Apple TV and to create more game-related revenue for owners. The league, sources said, also wants the format change because it would ensure that every playoff participant hosts at least one postseason match.MLS used a single-elimination format from 2019-2022, in which the top seven teams from each conference qualified for the playoffs. That setup provided plenty of drama, but involved just 13 total postseason matches and didn’t guarantee that every participant would host a game.Sources provided The Athletic with an additional update this week, saying that, as part of the proposed shift to a best-of-three first-round, MLS is also considering expanding the field to include nine teams from each conference. If adopted, the eighth and ninth seeds would contest a play-in match, with the winner advancing to face the first seed from their respective conference in the best-of-three conference quarterfinals. This format would include a minimum of 25 playoff matches.Beyond increasing inventory for Apple and generating additional revenue for owners, the thrust of the idea, the sources said, is to keep more teams in contention for playoff places later in the regular season. Allowing 18 total teams into the field would also mean that 62 percent of the league’s 29 teams would qualify for the postseason, which would certainly mean more teams in the running. But it could also dilute the overall quality of the playoff tournament and further decrease the stakes around regular season matches in the early and middle portions of the year, a long-standing problem for MLS.The sources said that the MLS product strategy committee, a powerful group of owners and executives that drives most of the competitive and roster-related decisions made by the league, is set to meet in the Palm Springs, Calif. area next week, wherethe group is expected to discuss and finalize the potential playoff changes.The MLS regular season kicks off on Feb. 25.
U.S. Soccer considering building national training center
Late in 2022, U.S. Soccer sent an email to select individuals letting them know that the federation was considering a capital campaign looking to raise up to $300 million to help build a new training center, headquarters and diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) innovation lab.Sources familiar with the federation’s plans told The Athletic last week that Atlanta and Cary, N.C. are among the cities being considered for the training center and headquarters. The Atlanta-area site would be an entirely new development, while the site in Cary would leverage some of the existing infrastructure and facilities at WakeMed Soccer Park. In addition to being home of the NWSL team North Carolina Courage and USL League One side North Carolina FC, WakeMed Soccer Park has hosted numerous senior and youth national team matches and camps since it opened in 2002. It was also the setting for perhaps the most infamous photo shoot in team history.
According to the email, if completed, the national training center would include “14+ groomed fields” for the U.S. senior, youth and extended national teams as well as “cutting-edge training facilities, collaborative workspaces, high-tech sporting equipment (and) medical resources for injury prevention and recovery.” The site would also be a new headquarters for USSF staff, which is now housed in an office building in downtown Chicago after the federation left its longtime home in the city’s South Loop neighborhood last summer.
If constructed, the DEIB lab would serve, according to the federation’s email, “as an incubator and funder for the best and most effective diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging projects to impact lives and fuel change across the soccer landscape.”
The federation wrote that it would allocate $250 million of the potential $300 million it was considering trying to raise to the national training center; the remaining $50 million would go to the DEIB lab.
The federation laid out its rationale for wanting to construct a national training center in its email, writing that “uniting U.S. Soccer resources into one high-impact space will ensure consistent world-class environments for our athletes while streamlining operations, eliminating logistical and travel challenges and saving costs for our staff — creating greater opportunity to focus on collaboration, success and growing the game.”
Atlanta is a major international travel hub and would be a relatively straightforward destination for players, coaches and administrators traveling to a new training facility and headquarters regardless of where they’re based. Cary, which is located just outside Raleigh, would be a more difficult city to travel to, particularly from overseas. Both offer relatively mild climates mostly suitable for year-round training.
The idea of a national training center has been entertained for years by U.S. Soccer. The federation partnered with LA Galaxy and AEG in the early-2000s to create a training center at what is now Dignity Health Sports Park, but USSF doesn’t control that site. U.S. Soccer entered into a similar arrangement with Sporting Kansas City to open the $75 million Compass Minerals Performance Center in 2018. That facility is the home of the federation’s coaching education programs, but it hasn’t been used particularly often by either the men’s or women’s senior national teams.
A source with knowledge of the plans warned that while Cary and Atlanta are both being considered as sites, the federation still needs to shore up financing and clear other hurdles before finalizing plans for a national training center in any market. That source, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the project, also said it’s possible other sites could emerge as candidates for the training center.
U.S. Soccer aiming for friendlies against Argentina, Brazil in fall
U.S. Soccer has had discussions with the federations of Argentina and Brazil about hosting the South American powers for friendlies during international windows in the fall, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the team’s scheduling.
The U.S. men’s team has international windows in September, October and November to close out 2023. One source warned that any discussions with opponents are in early stages and, as always, have several check marks that must be ticked in order for the game to be finalized, including appearance fees, venue decisions and potential other friendlies those nations may be scheduling for the fall windows.
Both opponents would be top-level games for the U.S. as they ramp up preparation ahead of the 2024 Copa América and 2026 World Cup. Argentina is the defending World Cup champion and Brazil went into the 2022 World Cup as the favorite before eventually losing to Croatia in penalties in the quarterfinals. The U.S. men last played Argentina in the Copa América Centenario semifinals in 2016, a 4-0 loss. Its last match against Brazil was a 2-0 loss in a friendly in 2018 at MetLife Stadium.
Why Liverpool keep failing to beat Real Madrid: ‘They were almost mocking us’
“It helped that Liverpool were easier to decipher than the others, because they have a very clear identity and we could prepare.”As he basked in the glory of winning the Champions League last summer, Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti’s reflections were telling. Their path to victory had included knockout ties with Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and Manchester City, yet the Italian deemed Jurgen Klopp’s side the easiest to prepare for tactically.Revenge had been on Liverpool’s mind after the Champions League final defeat to Madrid in 2018 but instead Vinicius Junior’s second-half goal secured a 1-0 victory and the club’s 14th Champions League trophy.The pair have faced each other four times during three Champions League campaigns between 2017-2018 and 2021-2022. On each occasion, Liverpool have been second best.If they have any hope of winning silverware this season, they need to change the narrative when the two meet in the first leg of the last 16 of the Champions League tonight.The Athletic rewatched the four previous matches to identify what’s been going wrong.
Real Madrid 3-1 Liverpool Champions League final, May 26, 2018
The final is remembered for Gareth Bale’s wondergoal and Loris Karius’ blunders. The goalkeeper was later diagnosed to have suffered a concussion, probably from a Sergio Ramos elbow before the goal.However, the game’s first momentum shift came much earlier. After 25 minutes, Ramos and Mohamed Salah tangled. The Egyptian’s shoulder was injured and he had to be substituted.Until that point, the final had been played on Liverpool’s terms. Their intense counter-pressing was effective, forcing numerous Real Madrid turnovers — within the opening 15 seconds…
… then at the edge of the Madrid box…
… and stepping up from defence.
Zinedine Zidane’s side could barely get out of their own half. When possession turned over, Liverpool’s front three ran beyond Madrid’s back line, while full-backs Andrew Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold pushed forward.Casemiro had been dropping deep to cut off Roberto Firmino’s influence, and a chipped pass to left-back Marcelo was Madrid’s only reliable out-ball.
After Salah went off, his replacement Adam Lallana could not provide the same attacking focal point. Liverpool had nine shots before Salah departed but failed to register another for the rest of the half.They struggled to dominate territory or sustain attacks and possession. Lallana and Sadio Mane swapped flanks, and Liverpool dropped deeper into more of a 4-5-1.
Real took control. Luka Modric and Toni Kroos dictated tempo while Marcelo and Dani Carvajal, before he was replaced by Nacho Fernandez, bombed forward.Isco’s free role allowed him to create overloads on either flank, which led to Real’s offside goal in the first half.
Then, any half-time plans were thrown out the window when Benzema’s outstretched leg blocked Karius’ throw six minutes into the second half.
Liverpool equalised five minutes later, but there was very little they could do tactically about Bale’s goal, which came three minutes after he came off the bench.
Gareth Bale leaves grass and gravity behind to score in 2018 (Photo: Shaun Botterill via Getty Images)
Liverpool tried to pick their moments to press as they searched for a second equaliser, but Modric and Kroos, flanked by Casemiro, took over, tiring their midfield counterparts in the process. They finished with 65 per cent possession and nearly twice as many passes (685 to 366).“It felt as though they were just toying with us,” Alexander-Arnold later reflected. “We couldn’t get the ball. We weren’t creating chances. They were almost mocking us, the way they were keeping the ball.”Karius’ second error, when Bale’s routine long-range effort went through his hands, summed up a horrific night for Liverpool when circumstances rather than tactics defeated them.
Real Madrid 3-1 Liverpool Champions League quarter-final first leg, April 6, 2021
A starting centre-back partnership of Nathaniel Phillips and Ozan Kabak away to Real Madrid was asking for trouble, but that was Liverpool’s best option with Virgil van Dijk, Joel Matip and Joe Gomez injured.
Madrid identified and targeted the right channel between Alexander-Arnold and Phillips, exploiting it in the first half via a Kroos passing masterclass.For the first goal, Kroos was given an abnormal amount of time to lift his head up and play the ball. The midfielder used it to his advantage, producing an inch-perfect pass to find the chest of Vinicius Jr as he darted between Liverpool’s defenders.
The Brazilian then finished past Alisson.For Madrid’s second, Kroos was again given time to get his head up and pick out a long pass behind the Liverpool defence. This time, it was Ferland Mendy who had darted beyond the back line.
Alexander-Arnold attempted to cut the pass out but headed it to Marco Asensio, who scored.
Problems stemmed much further up the pitch than the right defensive channel and Klopp pointed that out after the match. In possession, his side were sloppy and the German was increasingly animated on the touchline.When possession turned over, they were too slow to press Kroos and Modric, who dropped deeper, with Casemiro more advanced, allowing them the space to pick their passes.
It is very rare that Klopp makes a tactical change before half-time but Naby Keita was replaced by Thiago on 42 minutes to offer more security in possession.Liverpool’s first shot of the game was a blocked Diogo Jota effort, which fell perfectly for Salah to finish their second shot in the 50th minute. They had barely got near Madrid’s goal in the opening 45 minutes.Klopp’s side controlled the game better in the second half, but Liverpool’s lack of proactiveness allowed Vinicius Jr’s second goal. From there, Madrid could manage the game.
Liverpool 0-0 Real Madrid Champions League quarter-final second leg, April 14, 2021
If the first leg was about defensive lapses, the second was about composure at the other end.
Mohamed Salah reacts as he realises he forgot to bring his shooting boots (Photo: Michael Regan via Getty Images)
Tactical plans will shift in two-legged European ties based on the first result and Madrid’s was apparent quickly. They knew Liverpool would start quickly, underpinned by James Milner’s strong challenge on Benzema, so they scrapped trying to play out from the back almost immediately as Liverpool pressed well.Kroos dropped deeper alongside Casemiro when they had possession to draw Liverpool out and expose the right channel, but Liverpool managed that much better than in the first leg.Out of possession, Madrid were a solid 4-1-4-1…
… or 4-5-1 with Asensio dropping into a wing-back role on occasion to help stand-in right-back Federico Valverde and prevent Liverpool from running in behind as the game wore on.
Liverpool were on the front foot and they created chances. Courtois had to spring to his left to palm away a Milner curler during the fast start. The big chance fell to Georginio Wijnaldum, but he blazed over.
“It was uncomfortable for Madrid. We were good, aggressive, had chances. We didn’t score and then the experience of Real Madrid played the tie down,” Klopp said afterwards.
Madrid seized some control in the last 30 minutes. Liverpool changed to a 4-2-3-1 shape following the introductions of Thiago and Jota, and the game became more open.Zidane’s side defended deep, similar to how they would set up a year later. They looked to hit the flanks, with Vinicius Jr getting in behind from a long pass for virtually the first time all game on 66 minutes and forcing Alisson into action.“We were up against it and we knew we had to suffer tonight, but in the end, we got what we wanted, which was to go through. We handled the game well, we rode the storm,” Zidane said.
Firmino had the best second-half chance, saved well by Courtois, but that attacking onslaught Liverpool needed never occurred. They had just two shots in the final 20 minutes.
Real Madrid 1-0 Liverpool Champions League final, May 28, 2022
“We knew what strategy to take: don’t give them space behind the defence to run into.”
As Ancelotti went into more detail on Madrid’s plan, there were hallmarks of the previous games under Zidane. Ancelotti’s Napoli sides had also proven a tough nut for Liverpool to crack in previous Champions League campaigns when they used similar methods.
Liverpool looked to get in behind the defence early on, but instead, Madrid allowed the midfield three of Jordan Henderson, Thiago and Fabinho to have the ball while dropping deep.
There was another problem for Liverpool too. Look no further than Salah’s chance in the 82nd minute, one of the few times Madrid left themselves exposed to a ball in behind.
The Egyptian did everything right…
… but was thwarted by a stunning Courtois save.
Mane, Luis Diaz and Salah all found pockets of space in and around the Madrid area. It was the risk Madrid took…
… but they had Courtois in goal — here, he tips Mane’s shot onto the post in the 20th minute.
Courtois refused to be caught out in the final last year, including this save from Mane (Photo: Matthias Hangst via Getty Images)
Where Liverpool had lost the final via a goalkeeping disaster-class four years earlier, Madrid won it because of a masterclass.Ancelotti’s side, in an attacking sense, were essentially playing dead throughout the game. Liverpool had 10 shots in the opening 40 minutes until Madrid had their first in the 43rd minute.To prevent Liverpool’s pressing, the Spanish side opted to play long balls more frequently than usual, relying on Vinicius Jr and Benzema to produce moments of quality. Ibrahima Konate read those passes and was excellent.In the second half, as Liverpool’s press became less intense and less frequent, Madrid passed through midfield. Modric and Kroos became more involved, dropping deeper like they had the previous year, with Carvajal more advanced.They were prepared to wait for one mistake from their opponents. They got it in the 60th minute when they played through Liverpool’s press.Robertson stepped out from left-back to press but gave Modric sufficient time to play a reverse pass to Carvajal.
It left Liverpool scrambling. The right-back quickly passed it to Casemiro while drawing Fabinho and Thiago towards him.
It opened up the left channel and Madrid, with Robertson out of position, were able to create an overload with Valverde and Carvajal.
Valverde fired the ball low across the box and Vinicius Jr had a simple tap-in at the back post after peeling off Alexander-Arnold.
Once in the lead, Madrid reverted to their counter-attacking game, leaving most of their team back to retain a compact structure, crowding the box and limiting big opportunities.
After 80 minutes, Madrid had only registered two shots to Liverpool’s 19. Liverpool had switched to a 4-2-4 shape with the introduction of Jota and Firmino. Both injected energy and the Brazilian found threatening pockets of space. It proved to be in vain.This was not the perfect performance from Liverpool, but they carried a threat and largely limited Madrid, registering 23 shots to three. However, they were denied by a goalkeeper resembling a brick wall.
This week’s game will present new problems for Liverpool, but they will not have to deal with Kroos, who was not included in the Madrid squad.The two clubs are in vastly different places from where they were at the end of last season but the memory of last year, and of Ancelotti’s words about the ease of working Liverpool out, have remained.Klopp was asked yesterday what he thought about Ancelotti’s comments. He replied: “Somebody told me — I don’t know if it’s true — that after the final, Carlo said with Liverpool it’s cool because they know exactly what they will face. I watched the game back now and even knowing exactly what we will do, we have to win this game. We didn’t, for the one reason that we didn’t score and conceded, but apart from that we should have won this game.”Liverpool will be hoping that confidence from back-to-back victories over Everton and Newcastle, as well as the power of Anfield on a European night, will help them win it this time.(Top image: designed by Samuel Richardson; photos by Julian Finney and Michael Regan via Getty Images)
Liverpool-Real Madrid: Our writers debate Carlo Ancelotti’s selection headache
Real Madrid’s Champions League last-16 clash with Liverpool will go some way to deciding the Spanish champions’ season after a difficult start to 2023.
Carlo Ancelotti’s team have won their last four games in all competitions and claimed the Club World Cup earlier this month, but they are eight points behind Barcelona in La Liga and have lost several players to injury as matches come thick and fast.
With Toni Kroos and Aurelien Tchouameni both ruled out with illness for the first leg of the Liverpool tie at Anfield, how should the 14-time European champions line up? The Athletic’s Real Madrid writers, Guillermo Rai and Mario Cortegana, discuss it all below.
Mario: Tchouameni and Kroos are both big losses for Madrid in terms of their defensive system as well as their passing. The most worrying thing is that Madrid will miss the security and precise distribution Kroos brings. He is fundamental to Madrid’s style of play, but on a less tangible level, he’s used to playing in huge games like this. He has played the sixth-most minutes for Madrid this season (2,226).
Guillermo: Madrid are going to have to adapt in the absence of three of their first-choice players, including Ferland Mendy.
Mario: It has also been difficult to replace those players in previous games. In the case of Camavinga, Ancelotti has tried to deploy him as a replacement for Mendy at left-back but neither the club nor the player have much interest in the Frenchman developing in that position.
Guillermo: That’s exactly what Camavinga’s entourage said when they described it as a “waste” for the midfielder to play at left-back. But his performances there have also been poor recently — particularly in the Club World Cup final. Camavinga struggled in defence against Al Hilal, who scored three goals and caused a lot of problems down his left-hand side. So, despite Camavinga’s potential and some good performances in La Liga, Madrid know they can’t experiment at this decisive moment of the season.
Eduardo Camavinga is likely to play in midfield for Real Madrid after Carlo Ancelotti experimented by playing him at left-back (Photo: Ricardo Larreina/Europa Press via Getty Images).
Mario: In any case, it’s clear that David Alaba will play as a replacement for Mendy on the left flank.
Guillermo: There were reports Antonio Rudiger could play at left-back. But I’d be surprised if Ancelotti did that at a key time like this given he is a coach who doesn’t usually try risky experiments.
Guillermo: Madrid don’t have many alternatives in midfield tomorrow either.
Mario: Who do you think he’ll play in midfield?
Guillermo: If Ancelotti is faithful to his style, Valverde has to play along with three other midfielders; Ceballos, Camavinga and Modric.
Mario: Ancelotti could perhaps play Camavinga with Modric and Valverde and combine Rodrygo with Karim Benzema and Vinicius Junior up top, leaving Ceballos on the bench as a wild card.
Guillermo: Ancelotti has a lot of confidence in Valverde, who is in his best form.
Federico Valverde is in fine form but one of Ancelotti’s headaches is whether to play him on the wing or in midfield (Photo: Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images).
Mario: But Ceballos would be the one to be sacrificed if Valverde played in midfield.
Guillermo: I know, but if Ancelotti wants an alternative he could move Valverde from the wing to midfield because of his ability to play the full 90 minutes. Then the Italian could take off a midfielder and bring on Rodrygo, who provides a significant threat from the bench.
Mario: And he has done it on more than one occasion. If I had to bet, I’d say Camavinga is going to play as a defensive pivot in midfield, with Modric and Ceballos either side of him and with Valverde on the wing. Valverde plays as a winger for Ancelotti in the important games and the possibility of having an all-purpose player like him gives you a lot of depth.
Guillermo: Obviously it also depends on Madrid’s opponents. Liverpool could play Cody Gakpo in attack and he could also drop back into midfield at times.
Mario: Valverde has also combined well recently with Carvajal, as we saw in the Club World Cup, where they were both involved in several goals. Valverde is the ideal wild card without having too much of an impact on the attack.
Guillermo: That’s important in defence, too. Ancelotti said in the press conference before the game against Osasuna (which Madrid won 2-0) that it was difficult for Madrid to switch from 4-3-3 to 4-4-2 because Vinicius Jr doesn’t defend. How can he try to make up for that? By having Valverde as a third forward when Madrid are attacking and having him as a midfielder when they are defending. That would work best for Ancelotti’s system in my opinion.
Mario: I think it’s going to be 4-3-3, both in attack and defence.
Guillermo: Why?
Mario: Because Valverde is very important in terms of pressing. Of course, he can play a big role in midfield when Madrid are tracking back, but Ancelotti will play with a 4-3-3 in both attack and defence.
Karim Benzema may not be at full fitness after recent injury struggles (Photo: Mateo Villalba/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images).
Guillermo: There are lots of phases in a game, so Valverde could be important as a right-winger in the first 20 minutes but then drop back into midfield if Madrid set up deeper for the rest of the match. That’s what they did last year with the same players in all the big games and they were comfortable. If that is the case, then 4-4-2 makes more sense, with Vinicius Jr and Karim Benzema given free roles up front.
Mario: Of course, but I don’t think Benzema will be at full strength. You don’t miss a game as important as the one against Osasuna if you’re not a serious risk or you’ve picked up a succession of injuries. I wouldn’t say he’s going to be at 100 per cent.
Guillermo: With Benzema, the club told us they were “not aware that he had any problems, nor that he had relapsed or had a new injury, but he knows himself better than anyone and he will decide”. I’m with you in that if it was just a rest for Benzema, he would have still travelled to Pamplona to give Madrid an option if his side had gone behind — they would have fallen 11 points behind Barcelona at the top of La Liga if they hadn’t won. Even so, I think Benzema will start and so will Vinicius Jr.
Mario: I remember the first serious warning in Europe Vinicius Jr gave of his potential was in the Champions League quarter-final first leg against Liverpool in 2021 (which Madrid won 3-1, with Vinicius Jr scoring twice). That brilliant pass from Kroos, Vinicius Jr’s spectacular control and his goal.
The Brazilian leads the way for Madrid this season with 16 goals and eight assists in all competitions — the joint-most goals along with Benzema and the most assists of any player in the team. He is Madrid’s greatest certainty but also a double-edged sword because Madrid can’t always rely on giving him the ball and letting him invent things. He can be kicked out of the game. But Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold may give him more opportunities given the right-back’s positioning is not the best.
Guillermo: Between last season and this one we’ve got used to seeing Vinicius Jr as the main man. It might not always be the best idea to go down the left given how much he is fouled, but on Tuesday It makes most sense to stick to that approach. Think back to the final in Paris nine months ago and the first thing that comes to mind is Vinicius Jr beating the right-back to score the winner.
Vinicius Jr gave Trent Alexander-Arnold a torrid time in last year’s Champions League final (Photo: Visionhaus/Getty Images).
Mario: We’re pretty clear about the starting XI then?
Guillermo: So clear that we’ve forgotten to say that Thibaut Courtois is going to play in goal after recently returning from injury. Ancelotti will play his favoured 4-3-3 formation. He’s not going to change that basic system. Apart from Courtois, I think Alaba, Rudiger, Militao and Carvajal will play in defence; Ceballos, Camavinga and Modric will be in the middle; and Ancelotti will play Vinicius Jr, Benzema and Valverde in attack. Camavinga could struggle as a defensive pivot in midfield, but I don’t see what other option there is.
Mario: Then another important point is the bench. As much as he would like a regular starting role, Rodrygo could change the game — he has scored some crucial Champions League goals, including in the semi-final comeback against Manchester City last season. There’s also Alvaro Rodriguez, the youth player who put on a show in the seven minutes he was given against Osasuna.
Mario: And Eden Hazard! It may come as a surprise to readers that we haven’t mentioned the former Chelsea forward until now, but the reality is he has barely featured for a while and that is not expected to change here.
Mario: The same as yours: Courtois; Carvajal, Militao, Rudiger, Alaba; Modric, Camavinga, Ceballos; Valverde, Benzema and Vinicius Jr in a 4-3-3 system.
Guillermo: Now we have to see if we get all of them right or none at all.
Mario: Let’s see if Ancelotti thinks the same. Readers can leave their thoughts, too, and we’ll check back when the line-ups are announced to see if we were right.
(Top photo: David Ramos – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
Our Indy 11 have announced plans and renderings on their new stadium downtown due to open in 2025. Of course this season kicks off March 11 at Tampa Bay with the first home game at the Mike on April 1 vs the Las Vegas Lights FC at 7 pm. Tickets start at just $15. In US news – sad to hear US Manager Jesse Marsch didn’t finalize a deal like expected with Southampton – can’t half blame not wanting to jump back into a relegation battle that looks untenable. There were some huge saves in Champions League this week see more in the Goalkeeper section below. Unbelievable story regarding players in Turkey and their devistation around the earthquakes. Also good luck to our Carmel FC players and everyone representing Indiana at the in the ODP games in Memphis, TN this weekend especially our GKs.
US Women – She Believe’s Cup –Sun 3:30 pm TNT
So we asked are Swanson and Rodman ready to take over up top and we got our answer with 2 goals (goal 1 Rodman to Morgan to Swanson) from the magnificent Sophia Swanson/Pugh and some great play by youngster Trinity Rodman on the wings. Emily Fox slotted in nicely as coach A continues try the double #6 (Dmid) with Fox and Horan sliding backing into the pivot. I thought Fox was electric winning ball after ball while Horan is still adjusting to a more defensive role while still getting a couple of shots off. I would think perhaps Kornieck slides in for Fox today just to see how she does. Emily Fox started her first game on the right side while Dunn slide back into a starting role on the right, while Alana Cook sliding inside with Captain Sauerbrunn. Of course as always Cook gave away a bad ball leading to Canada’s best chance at goal and a great save by the ever steady Alyssa Naeher. I presume Girma will step in with Sauerbrunn and I expect back up GK Murphy might step in between the pipes as she battles Franch for that #2 spot. The US plays in Nashville for game 2 Sunday vs Japan – the view Thur from the American Outlaws its not too late to get tickets seats as low at $35 in the beautiful new Nashville Geodis Park. Otherwise its TNT coverage starting at 3 pm with a 3:30 pm kickoff and postgame after and coverage moves back to HBO Max vs Brazil on Wed at 7 pm.
Shane’s Starters vs Brazil Sun 3:30 HBO Max
Swanson, Hatch, Williams
Lavelle, Mewis
Horan, Kornieck
Fox, Sauerbrunn, Girma, Huerta
Murphy
Champions League Tues/Wed 3 pm CBS
Some fantastic games last week as Dortmund beat Chelsea at home wow what a scene in front of the Yellow Wall. Bayern stole a 1-0 win at PSG. This week gives us Liverpool hosting Cup holders Real Madrid on Tuesday at 3 pm on CBS and Wednesday’s Man City vs RB Leipzig game on CBS Wed. Again great to see these top games on network TV while the others are on Paramount +. The 2-2 Barcelona vs Man United game was all you could want on Thursday setting up the return to Ole Trafford on Thursday at 3 pm on Paramount plus must watch TV – again CBSSN will have the wrap-around coverage starting at 12:30-5 pm.
GAMES ON TV
(American’s names in Parenthesis)
Sat, Feb 18
7:30 am USA Aston Villa vs Arsenal
9:30 am ESPN+ MGladbach (Scally) vs Bayern Munich
10 am USA Nottingham Forest vs Man City
10 am Peacock Everton vs Leeds United (Adams, Mckinney, Aaronson)
JAMES WILLIAMSON/GETTY IMAGES The USWNT started the SheBelieves Cup off with a bang, defeating rivals Canada 2-0 behind two first-half goals from Mallory Swanson. Swanson scored her fourth and fifth goals of 2023 in just three games.The first goal started with a sequence by Trinity Rodman and assist by Alex Morgan, and the second came off a slow back-pass by Canada defender Vanessa Gilles. Canada looked mentally drained after spending the week in conflict with their federation. The reigning Olympic gold medalists only registered three shots on goal, forcing Alyssa Naeher into one good save in first-half stoppage time.“I think we were just exhausted,” Christine Sinclair said after the game. Ashley Sanchez got the start in the attacking midfield, replacing an unavailable Rose Lavelle. Emily Fox and Crystal Dunn started at outside back, with Fox switching to the right.Rodman got an extended look at the right wing, creating chances and switching the point of attack in the second half. Bottom line: Canada’s fatigue is understandable, but the U.S. also came into the SheBelieves Cup with an intensity that matches their ambition to win the whole thing.
2/ THE U.S. MAKES A KEY MIDFIELD TWEAK
BRAD SMITH/ISI PHOTOS As the U.S. looks increasingly assured in the attack, their biggest adjustment came in the midfield. With Andi Sullivan starting in the defensive midfield, Lindsey Horan has had a more defined role in the last few international windows. Horan is a key part of the USWNT’s defensive press, stepping toward the ball in dangerous spaces to force turnovers. The U.S.’s press resulted in both goals scored on Thursday, as balls won high up the pitch turned into quick chances at Canada’s goal. Part of refining the USWNT midfield has been making sure Horan is in a position to succeed, and in recent games she has sat further back on the field. Rather than pushing forward into the attack against Canada, Horan stayed connected to Sullivan both with and without the ball.She still got her own crack on goal, hitting the post in the first half. Horan’s stability also allowed Ashley Sanchez to push further forward. At times, Sanchez even overlapped with Alex Morgan, who drifted back as a connector from the center forward position.
Young stars took center stage for U.S. women’s national team in Thursday’s 2-0 win against Canada, as both Ashley Sanchez and Trinity Rodman were bumped up to the starting lineup.Both players had strong performances but also showed their youth with some missed opportunities.“Obviously very happy with Trinity’s performance,” USWNT coach Vlatko Andonovski said of the 20-year-old forward. “She’s a tremendous finisher. She’s shown that in different ways.”Still, Andonovski thinks Rodman must hone her killer instinct on the attack.“She needs to develop ruthlessness,” he said. “We could have easily scored another two or three goals, or created enough opportunities to score two or three goals. But again, happy with everything that we got. We’ll use those moments as learning opportunities so we can show Trin how she can be even better.”As for Sanchez, Andonovski praised the 23-year-old for her “tremendous creativity” and her similarities to fellow midfielder Rose Lavelle in the past few games.“She’s got special qualities on the ball,” he said. “It’s not easy to synchronize her movements right away because she hasn’t played much with Alex [Morgan] but when they do it, I think it worked very well. We are very happy where she’s at, positionally and happy where she’s at in the time of her stage of development.”Defensively, Andonovski said Sanchez has room to grow.“She puts much work in and effort but her timing and angle is just a little bit off. And it’s not quite synchronized with Alex’s movement when we want to shift from mid blocking to high press,” he said. “But she’s a true student of the game. I have no doubt that she’s going to get better.”Games against top-tier teams like Canada are going to speed her development, Andonovski said, as they help to expose her weaknesses.“Games like this are going to help her get better, because if we do again try certain things with her against a team that is not going to expose us, we’re probably not going to see everything that we want to see,” he continued. “Now, every little thing, if you’re not in the proper spot, if you’re one step to the left or one step to the right, you’re gonna get exposed and that’s where you learn.”
ANDI SULLIVAN HOLDS THE KEYS TO USWNT’S WORLD CUP MIDFIELD
ANDI SULLIVAN SHOWED PROGRESS IN HER MIDFIELD ROLE IN THE USWNT’S WIN OVER CANADA. (JAMES WILLIAMSON – AMA/GETTY IMAGES)
The U.S. women’s national team brought an intensity to their first SheBelieves Cup matchup against Canada that fans have seen multiple times during the Vlatko Andonovski era. On their way to a dominant 2-0 win over an admittedly fatigued Canada side, what actually made the difference was the team’s execution more than their energy.
After months of tweaks, and even with one key absence, the USWNT’s midfield is beginning to gel as the 2023 World Cup nears.
ANDI SULLIVAN IS GETTING MORE COMFORTABLE BY THE GAME
Andi Sullivan stepped into the U.S. midfield with generational shoes to fill, taking the space once held so effortlessly by Julie Ertz in the 2019 World Cup. She wasn’t aided in the transition by the team’s tactics, which for months asked her to fill the same amount of defensive space as Ertz used to. The two-time World Cup champion played the position as a physically imposing ball-winner, with a sprint speed that could cover up positional missteps.Forcing Sullivan into an Ertz role not only didn’t play to the 27-year-old’s strengths, but it also appeared to make her doubt herself when she needed to step forward to challenge for the ball. At the international level, even a split second of hesitation can be the difference between snuffing out danger and getting bypassed. All too frequently in 2022, Sullivan found herself on the wrong side of her own decision-making.But in the USWNT’s last four games, things have slowed down considerably for the midfield as Sullivan increasingly puts her own spin on the position. A tweak to the midfield’s positioning has helped her transition, with Lindsey Horan sitting slightly deeper to give Sullivan defensive support and a distribution outlet.Against Canada, the team’s off-ball approach was clear. Horan had the ability to aggressively step toward the ball with Sullivan behind her, and Sullivan likewise had time to react with Horan in front of her. There were isolated moments where both players stepped wrong, and Canada progressed the ball through the midfield. Overall, though, they played with a sense of growing stability that could make for the USWNT’s most important partnership on their way to New Zealand.THE TAYLOR KORNIECK EXPERIMENT
After Taylor Kornieck spent 45 minutes as the USWNT’s No. 6 against New Zealand, discussion raged about the U.S.’s plans for a backup defensive midfielder. Sullivan is clearly the team’s starter at the position, but the way the U.S. struggled through the Tokyo Olympics while overly relying on an injured Ertz showed the cracks at a position that suddenly has become a vulnerability.Further exacerbating the issue, Andonovski has stopped calling in players who play that role for their clubs. Jaelin Howell and Sam Coffey have both spent time with the U.S. in the last six months, but as the World Cup roster announcement gets closer, they appear more on the outside looking in. Howell and Coffey are gifted players who bring different skill sets to the table, but rather than committing to bringing them along with a chance to grow, Andonovski is converting players into hybrid roles.No one can actually agree on where Kornieck should be playing for the U.S. and with which players. Kornieck’s club coach, Casey Stoney, told reporters that she doesn’t see the 24-year-old as a lone No. 6, and that she plays better in a connecting role with the ability to get further up the pitch. Andonovski didn’t actually seem to disagree, saying that while he doesn’t see Kornieck and Sullivan playing together as dual defensive midfielders, he understands that both players need to have a more traditional No. 8 beside them to make things tick.
On Thursday, Kornieck didn’t actually come in to relieve Sullivan but instead replaced Horan, who plays in a position much closer to where Kornieck fits with her club team. After the match, Andonovski praised Kornieck’s versatility, saying that she could have subbed into any of the team’s three different midfield positions depending on Canada’s adjustments.In short, it’s possible that criticism of Andonovski playing Kornieck as a backup No. 6 would be more accurately directed at the head coach not intending to travel with a backup No. 6 at all. Kornieck has intangibles, like her prowess on set pieces, that make her a valuable late-game asset to the USWNT. That she is also learning how to assist the defensive midfield on the fly feels secondary, for better or worse.
ASHLEY SANCHEZ BRINGS A UNIQUE SKILL SET TO THE USWNT MIDFIELD. (JAMES WILLIAMSON – AMA/GETTY IMAGES)
SANCHEZ’S UPSIDE IS SKY HIGH
Rose Lavelle was unavailable against Canada due to a knock sustained in training, and Ashley Sanchez was given a chance to showcase her creativity in a starting role on Thursday. If there’s one thing Sanchez loves to do, it’s push forward against a defense, and she did so with enthusiasm.
Sanchez isn’t quite as refined as Lavelle on both sides of the ball, which isn’t surprising considering her experience at the international level, but when she has the ball at her feet, she springs the attack quickly. One of Sanchez’s greatest strengths is her willingness to try things that other players might not think of, which can also make it difficult to build chemistry in short minutes with the players around her.The player who adjusted best to Sanchez’s gusto against Canada was Alex Morgan, who often floated back into the midfield when Sanchez pushed forward against the defense. The U.S. never lost their 4-2-3-1 shape, but Morgan at times served as the connector at the top of the midfield rather than the striker closest to goal.Andonovski admitted after the match that Sanchez still has room to grow as part of the full-team defensive press and as a playmaker rather than an extra attacker, but it’s also her lack of predictability that makes her a special player.Sanchez’s desire to get forward also benefits from Horan’s discipline in sitting back. Horan never came close to sitting in a double pivot with Sullivan, but she did rule the left side of the midfield with a willingness to hold when necessary. Lavelle has developed a similar skill set, but in some ways having a No. 10 with an all-out attacking mindset could be exactly what the U.S. needs when chasing a goal against a disciplined opponent.Claire Watkins is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @ScoutRipley.
The U.S. women’s national team defeated Canada 2-0 on the opening night of the SheBelieves Cup at Exploria Stadium in Orlando on Thursday. Mallory Swanson scored both goals in the first half. Here’s what you need to know:
Alex Morgan was honored for her 200th cap for the USWNT before the match as well, and served as the team’s captain. She provided the assist on Swanson’s first goal for the USWNT.
Swanson has had a very strong start to 2023, already leading the national team with five goals scored through the three games played so far.
Swanson, once again, proved she’s capable of finishing in multiple ways — whether it was the volley off of Morgan’s set up, or pouncing on Vanessa Gilles’ attempted back pass to Kailen Sheridan. She’s able to read situations quickly, and her positioning has been on point so far in 2023.
Andi Sullivan got the start as the team’s No. 6, and she provided some real bite against Canada — a team the USWNT knows very well. For as much attention as the Taylor Kornieck experiment as a holding mid has gotten, Sullivan provided a reminder that right now, she should be the front runner for this role in the World Cup. Now, whether she gets more support as part of a double pivot still remains to be seen, but before Thursday’s match coach Vlatko Andonovski seemed uninterested in trying a Sullivan-Kornieck combo as part of the team’s World Cup prep. Of course, then he opted to send Kornieck in for Lindsey Horan in the closing moments of Thursday’s match, providing a few minutes of data to consider what they look like together in the midfield.
USWNT identity shines
The team has always been at its best when on the front foot, and the opening minutes of the match showed why this team remains its most dangerous version when the high press is engaged. The win against Canada wasn’t a perfect test run of the team’s strongest starting XI — Rose Lavelle’s absence due to injury meant a good test run of minutes for Ashley Sanchez in the midfield — but all that early pressure paid off.Add in Swanson’s second goal, coming off of pressure on Gilles, and the recipe that’s always worked for the USWNT is still cooking. On the flip side, Canada didn’t provide much in the way of preparation for how that high press could leave them exposed on the counter, though Janine Beckie had a very good look on goal right before the end of the first half which forced a leaping save out of Alyssa Naeher.
Brazil defeated Japan 1-0 to open up the SheBelieves Cup in the earlier match. Japan had plenty of chances but had extremely poor luck in front of goal between some near misses and hitting the woodwork. Largely this felt like two teams really pushing each other in a major test ahead of the World Cup.The major story out of Brazil’s win was Marta’s return from her ACL injury, with the hometown crowd of Orlando loudly welcoming her back to the pitch. Marta played provider on Brazil’s winning goal, making the endline run down the left wing before sending in the ball to Debinha for the finish.
When Weston McKennie finalized his move from Juventus to Leeds on an initial loan with a purchase option, it seemed like a chance for the player and his new club alike to evolve. So often, McKennie felt like he was playing under “a little bit too much” restriction in Max Allegri’s system. Among the most athletic midfielders in the world, he was an ideal player to fill roles left vacant as more specialized teammates made the lineup. So, then, one hoped that McKennie would be able to find more specialized marching orders under his new manager and compatriot Jesse Marsch.
McKennie made his Premier League debut from the bench as Marsch looked to claw back into a pivotal match with Nottingham Forest. Unfortunately, Leeds were unable to break through, falling 1-0 against a relegation-zone rival. The following day, Marsch was dismissed from the club after just under one year on the touchline, with Leeds only above the relegation places thanks to a more favourable goal difference.https://theathletic.com/report/podcast-clip/?clip_id=7106
Seemingly, a coaching dismissal would scupper much of the sales pitch which pried the midfielder from a swiftly shrinking giant of a team that is still competing in the Europa League. However, Marsch’s role in McKennie’s recruitment was far more along the lines of his job description than his nationality, briefing the United States international on his tactical vision but leaving many of the hard yards to sporting director Victor Orta and midfielder Tyler Adams.It’s worth remembering that while he left a former perennial Scudetto winner for a team in a relegation battle, McKennie has navigated hardships in his still-young career. After breaking through with Schalke under Domenico Tedesco, he continued to impress after David Wagner was appointed and earned an even greater role in the club. He navigated the pressure of playing under a loan-with-purchase arrangement at Juventus to make a temporary move from Schalke become permanent. He saw the coach who recruited him (Andrea Pirlo) dismissed as that option was sprung and re-integrated under Allegri.And, as he’s quick to remind anyone who asks, he’s an easy-going personality. We may be used to seeing clubs dreading a relegation battle shell out for hardened veterans of past scraps, proverbial hairy-arsed midfielders who can do a job for the short term. While McKennie is far more finessed than that, his swift smile and affable demeanour should help keep the locker-room mood a bit lighter during the task ahead.
Still, what can we glean from his first 208 minutes of Premier League action? There’s the instant, irresistible chemistry with Adams and, as Tyrell Malacia learned early in Sunday’s clash: McKennie’s got that dawg in him.
It’s the fifth minute of Leeds’ match against Manchester United, their second meeting in four days, and McKennie is up for it. After Leeds lose the ball in the attacking half, the U.S. international sprints back to counter-press Malacia. Okay, maybe it was less of a counter press and more of a counter (“maybe the ’90s never really ended”) crunching slide tackle.
Tyrell Malacia (L) and Weston McKennie (R) after the Leeds United midfielder’s challenge (Photo: OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images)
Over the course of his career, McKennie has almost always brought energy, coverage across virtually the entire field and ball-winning to the table. In just three Premier League appearances, he’s already using those three attributes to help his new team.
Marsch may be gone, but Leeds are holding on to the high-octane, press first and ask questions later system. Their line of confrontation is a bit lower, but this team is still aggressive. With McKennie playing next to Adams in a double pivot, Leeds can have real success putting their foot on the gas and pressing, even out of a mid-block.
Here’s a look at McKennie’s positioning alongside Adams in Leeds’ 2-2 draw with Manchester United last week.
Whenever Leeds hire a new permanent manager, McKennie’s on-field responsibilities will undoubtedly change. But many of the skills he’s shown so far in England will add value to any team’s playing any style.
First, there’s his range and athleticism. Then, there’s a more underrated quality: McKennie’s understanding of space. Though he prefers to push forward as a No 8 rather than stay back as a No 6, McKennie does a good job of shifting, stepping, and blocking off passing angles when he is deeper in a defensive block.
A positive example of the U.S. midfielder nailing the small defensive positioning details came in that aforementioned draw against Manchester United. With Adams drawn to the sideline to pressure Wout Weghorst, McKennie is alone in Leeds’ midfield.
Unfazed, he sees a dangerous play unfolding and steps towards the action.
This move to the near side accomplishes a couple of things.
With McKennie breaking towards Bruno Fernandes, Marcus Rashford doesn’t want to put his teammate into a tough spot, so he decides not to force a pass into the middle. That’s a win for Leeds United. But it’s not the only win on this sequence: because Rashford doesn’t want to risk a pass into Fernandes, he decides to dribble out of pressure, splitting two opponents and breaking into midfield. However, McKennie’s decision to move towards the near side puts him in position to step in front of Rashford’s mazy dribble, while still blocking Fernandes…
…eliminating the danger and forcing a loose ball.
The whole sequence is a subtle but exceedingly clever piece of defending that shows McKennie isn’t all about thunderous tackles and yellow cards, though he does like those things quite a bit.
Looking at the attacking side of his game, McKennie has shown some real ingenuity with the ball at his feet. During his first few appearances in England, he’s roamed all over the field in possession for Leeds, dropping into the backline in some moments and pushing forward into the final third in others. Here, McKennie moves deeper and plays a lovely outside-of-the-right-foot progressive pass to Adams in his debut against Nottingham Forest.
And here, after pushing into the attack against Manchester United, McKennie pulls out a clever backheel to send Jack Harrison behind the opposing backline…
…and into the box for a cutback attempt.
McKennie can contribute on the ball, but he’s by no means perfect. Before the aforementioned tackle on Malacia, you’ll see that McKennie is only racing back to defend because he misplays a pass to Crysencio Summerville on the counterattack. McKennie’s pass forces Summerville wide, where Malacia wins the ball, instead of leading him into the box.
Later in that game, McKennie’s failure to check his shoulder…
…gave Fred the chance to pick his pocket in midfield…
…which then allowed Alejandro Garnacho to race behind the back line and score his game-sealing goal.These mistakes on the ball show that McKennie has his limits in possession. Still, we should extend at least some grace here given the lack of minutes he’s actually played in central midfield since arriving at Juventus in 2020. He’ll likely improve across the board as he continues to settle into his new environment and get reps in a full-time No 8 role.While McKennie has only played a few games for Leeds and he’s made some mistakes, it’s easy to see why the club wanted to sign him in January. His rare combination of athleticism, strength and flair makes him a valuable and exciting central midfielder.
There will be much more to uncover about McKennie’s fit in the Premier League over the coming months. How he handles neutralizing a team with Champions League ambition will represent a far greater task than the nervier moments to come, particularly in hard-fought battles against other relegation candidates where matches are won on the finest of margins.Throughout his career, McKennie has been arguably the most amorphous player among the headliners among the United States’ much ballyhooed potential golden generation. While Christian Pulisic has moonlit at wing-back and as a No 10, most assess him to be a winger through and through. Adams has cemented his place as a No 6 after years out wide, while Yunus Musah, Timothy Weah and Brenden Aaronson seemingly fit more defined playing profiles.The task may be steep for Leeds, but they aren’t operating at a talent deficiency when compared to others among the bottom rung of the table. McKennie brings Champions League and World Cup experience to Elland Road with an even-keeled personality. Helping the team stay up with his lively style of play could make him a swift favourite for years to come.Conversely, a failure to finish outside of the bottom-three places would almost certainly not be held against him individually. Even amidst the touchline turmoil, it’s a favourable situation for McKennie’s entry into English football. Now, we’ll learn just how much he’s developed over the years as Leeds sorts out its coaching situation — and, if history is any indication, McKennie should be able to adapt no matter who replaces Marsch.(Top photo: Stu Forster/Getty Images)
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Turkey earthquake puts Canadian teammates’ brotherhood to the test
Atiba Hutchinson anxiously picked up his phone, hoping to see a message that, to his concern, wasn’t there. He put it down before picking it up again, almost instinctively.It was early in the morning for the 40-year-old Canadian and Besiktas midfielder in his Istanbul home. He was surrounded by his wife and three children. So, it wasn’t his immediate family he wanted to hear from, but a brother all the same.
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News spread quickly throughout Turkey on Feb. 6: a violent and potentially catastrophic 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit the southern and central part of the country as well as northern and western Syria. The death toll of which has surpassed 35,000 people.
Hutchinson was 1,000 kilometers away from the brunt of the devastation, but having spent nearly a decade playing in Turkey — where earthquakes are not uncommon — his apprehension swelled.“It makes you think twice about everything,” Hutchinson said Thursday. When he picked up his phone yet again, he sent a quick note to family back in Brampton, Ontario: “I’m fine, but I don’t know yet about Sam.”His Canada national teammate and friend, Sam Adekugbe, lived just over 200 kilometers from the epicenter of the earthquake where he plays for Hatayspor. The epicenter in Gaziantep, Turkey, received the worst of the damage from what “has become one of the deadliest natural disasters of the century,” according to the New York Times, Hutchinson knew cellular and internet service might be spotty after an earthquake. The normally calm, cool midfielder’s anxiety increased, again.
He finally exhaled hours later when he saw Adekugbe’s name pop up on his phone with a request to FaceTime. Adekugbe called Hutchinson before anyone else as he surveyed the destruction around him.“Unfathomable,” Adekugbe later told reporters, his face lacking the boisterous smile he usually wears.
Since John Herdman took over as Canada men’s national team head coach in 2018, no word has been more commonly used by the team in media appearances than “brotherhood.” It was used to define their collective approach as a team. They hoped it would rid them of the cliques that dragged their team down in past World Cup qualifying campaigns. And they hoped, by seeking to lift each other up rather than worry about who was taking whom’s spot in the lineup, team success would follow. It did in the form of qualifying for the 2022 World Cup. Yet, on a bleak and tragic February day, two members of that team faced an entirely different kind of brotherhood.
One by one, Adekugbe said good night to his teammates. A handful of them, including former Newcastle winger Christian Atsu, had congregated at Adekugbe’s home after their 1-0 win over Kasimpasa. Filled with the typical postgame adrenaline, players, some of whom live in the same complex as Adekugbe, gathered to eat and enjoy each other’s company.
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But finally, late into the night, Adekugbe was alone on his couch with a candle glowing on his coffee table.
When he first began shaking before 5 a.m. local time, he was convinced he was having a panic attack. He’d dealt with increased nerves that occasionally caused him to lapse into intense self-doubt in the past, though recently he began relying on meditation to steady his mind.There would be no opportunity for Adekugbe to meditate, however, as the shaking intensified. Behind him, he heard the crash of plates onto his kitchen floor. He looked around to see nearly all of his belongings including his table and his television collapse, and the candle hit the floor.Adekugbe had never experienced an earthquake before.“That’s when I realized what was going on,” he said.Adekugbe dashed up to extinguish any flame from the candle on the floor, and then continued running as the shaking continued. He ran out of his home, and on to the street in the lightning and freezing rain.The first thing Adekugbe saw was the road split in two.“Something you can’t really explain,” he said.The state of the devastation revealed itself as Adekugbe spent hours looking for teammates in darkened apartments.“It felt like a movie: collapsed buildings, fires, people yelling, people crying, people digging through the rubble, broken pieces of houses,” Adekugbe said, his voice still distant, sitting beside Hutchinson as he reflected. When he finally had a moment to himself, Adekugbe did not call his parents in Alberta, Canada first. Instead he dialed his teammate, his brother, Atiba Hutchinson.Adekugbe wanted to understand the scale of the destruction, but more importantly, he needed to hear from Hutchinson, a person that Adekugbe previously told The Athletic is “the guy (Canadian players) all look up to.”
Adekugbe turned his phone outwards to reveal a city ripped apart. As he did, Hutchinson’s normally placid appearance gave way. Adekugbe was safe, which was what mattered, but if he needed anything, Hutchinson was there for him.Once the internet service kicked in, a few of Adekugbe’s teammates agreed that with their houses “upside down,” it was best to gather at Hatayspor’s training ground. They piled into a car and made the 20-minute drive towards the center of Antakya. Adekugbe saw more roads split, bridges broken and high rise apartments and office buildings completely collapsed.
“Families looking for loved ones,” Adekugbe remembers seeing. “Something you’d never really expect.”
Once Adekugbe arrived at the training ground, he called his parents to let them know he was safe. But in the hours and days that followed, he learned not every member of Hatayspor was as fortunate: as of Monday, the team’s sporting director Taner Savut is still missing, as is Atsu, who was previously incorrectly identified as safe. Adekugbe said one member of Hatayspor’s equipment staff has been reported dead. The initial earthquake, and subsequent aftershocks, including a 7.5 magnitude event, is the deadliest in the country since 1939. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, only three earthquakes of 6.0 or larger magnitudes have occurred within 250 km of the Feb. 6 epicenter since 1970.
The tentacles of the tragedy extended into the rest of the team, as Adekugbe learned people who work in the backroom staff had either lost family members or required critical treatment from a medical infrastructure struggling to cope with the widespread damage.
That’s when Adekugbe, again, thought of Hutchinson and wanted to be near him.When Adekugbe felt adrift in his career, beset by injuries, he sought Hutchinson’s counsel. When he first received an offer from Hatayspor in 2021, he leaned on Hutchinson for advice. Hutchinson reminded Adekugbe of his capabilities, affectionately referring to his younger teammate as “Alaba” as he always did, a comparison to one of the best left backs of his generation, David Alaba.
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“When Atiba speaks, he’s speaking wisdom,” Adekugbe told The Athletic ahead of the World Cup.And when Adekugbe rose to prominence during the 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign, it was Hutchinson who would smile quietly to himself, knowing that the rest of the Canadian soccer world was learning what he already knew.So when Hatayspor’s manager Volkan Demirel, a famed former goalkeeper with Istanbul-based side Fenerbahce, called his former club to ask for support, Adekugbe knew there was only one place he wanted to be. Fenerbahce arranged for a private jet to take the Hatayspor players who wanted out of southern Turkey to Istanbul. Hutchinson offered up his home to Adekugbe as long as he needed it.Eyes heavy without sleep, and after stuffing everything he could into a few suitcases, Adekugbe boarded a flight on Feb. 7 to Hutchinson’s home. They hugged a little tighter than they had in the past.
Adekugbe is unsure if he’ll return to the city he called home for nearly two years.
On Feb. 9, Ali Koc, the president of the Turkish Union of Clubs, said Hatayspor had withdrawn from the Turkish Super Lig this season. While soccer is secondary in a time of tragedy, the decision throws Adekugbe’s future further up in the air.
According to a source with knowledge of Adekugbe’s situation, Hatayspor players and representatives have been told by the Turkish Football Federation that they are free to sign with any team interested in signing them to a short-term loan until the summer. Crucially, any foreign players would not count as foreign players when signing on loan deals, which would potentially increase their options.The source said Adekugbe has been in discussions with Turkey’s Istanbul-based teams about a loan deal and that it is likely he will sign with one of those teams.ADVERTISEMENT
Adekugbe’s contract with Hatayspor runs until June 30, 2024.Hatayspor players have been informed that the likelihood of the club continuing into next season will be re-evaluated in the summer, according to a source, meaning Adekugbe’s long-term future in Turkey is still to be determined.
But for the time being, Adekugbe’s focus is not on soccer: while his family is still worried about him, he has no immediate plans to leave Turkey.
Instead, his focus is on paying forward the goodwill people like Hutchinson have shown him.
According to reports, the Turkish government is struggling to assist those hardest hit. With the help of more than 238,000 relief workers, Turkey’s national emergency management agency, AFAD, has distributed a large quantity of tents, according to the New York Times. But some still lack shelter due to the massive reach of the destruction.
“It really starts to hit home,” Adekugbe said, his voice trembling, “when you see the agony and desperation on their faces.”
Hutchinson noted how the cold has gripped that part of Turkey recently. So to help, Adekugbe is working with Hutchinson and partnering with the Canadian Red Cross to raise funds for those in need.
(Top photo by Joe Klamar/Bruno Fahy/Belga Mag/Burak Kara/Getty Images; Design: Sam Richardson)
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The Champions League is finally back and Bayern showed they are still alive – as they marched into Paris and dominated a Mbappe less PSG until he finally came on in the last 20 minutes down 1-0. PSG threatened late and should have scored with the Neymar/Messi/Mbappe trio up front – but for Bayern backup keeper Sommer’s (saves). Dortmund and the goal scoring machine American Gio Reyna will host Chelsea (without Pulisic) at 3 pm on CBS Wednesday with Benefica traveling to Belgium’s Brugge at 3 pm on Para+. Also Arsenal faces Man City in a huge mid-week battle on Peacock at 2:30 pm as the top 2 teams in the EPL battle for top spot. (why this game is not on USA or NBC I do not know!) At least CBS is giving us real soccer games on real channels this week.
Europa League on CBSSN & Paramount+ Thur
Thurs Europa League gives us Barcelona hosting Man United at 12:30 along with 5 other games including American Jordan Pfuk and Union Berlin traveling to Ajax. CBS Sportsnetwork on most carriers – will have pregame at 12 noon and whip-around game coverage until 5 pm (of course all the games are on Paramount Plus) see schedule below. It’s a 2 TV day all week for Champions and Europa League play. (See multiple stories below)
US Women – She Believe’s Cup – Thurs, Sun, Wed
The US ladies kickoff the She Believe’s Cup vs Canada this Thursday night at 7 pm on HBO Max, Universo and Peacock as the #1 team in the world will face 3 top 10 teams in Canada, Japan and Brazil over the next 2 weeks. These are huge games for the US ladies – remember we lost 3 in row vs our last real competition late last year when we lost at England, Spain and then at home to Germany. If the US is going to head into this summer’s World Cup as the favorite they need to prove it over the next 10 days. I would say these are the biggest games in US Coach Andonovski’s tenure as coach. Can he find a replacement for Julie Ertz at the #6 (DMid), is the revamped and young front line of Pugh/Swanson, Trinity Rodman or Sophia Smith, and Ashley Hatch good enough to supplant stalwarts Rapinoe, Press, Heath and Morgan? Is Morgan still the best option up top? Are Sofia Huerta and Emily Fox ready for starting roles at outside back? Can Alana Cook step in for aging Captain Becky Sauerbrunn along with Naomi Girma in the centerback slots? Should Franch or Murphy who had better NWSL seasons replace Naeher in goal? Lots of Questions need answers over the next 10 days! Its must watch TV – for true US Soccer Fans !! (tons of stories below)
Shane’s Starters vs Canada Thur Night
Swanson, Morgan, Purdge
Horan, Lavelle, Sanchez
Kornieck
Dunn, Sauerbrunn, Girma, Huerta
Naeher
U.S. women’s national team roster by position (Club; Caps/Goals) — 2023 SheBelieves Cup:
GOALKEEPERS (3): Adrianna Franch (Kansas City Current; 10), Casey Murphy (North Carolina Courage; 12), Alyssa Naeher (Chicago Red Stars; 87)
DEFENDERS (7): Alana Cook (OL Reign; 21/0), Emily Fox (North Carolina Courage; 24/0), Crystal Dunn (Portland Thorns FC; 128/24), Naomi Girma (San Diego Wave FC; 12/0), Sofia Huerta (OL Reign; 27/0), Becky Sauerbrunn (Portland Thorns FC; 212/0), Emily Sonnett (OL Reign; 70/1)
MIDFIELDERS (6): Lindsey Horan (Olympique Lyon, FRA; 123/26), Taylor Kornieck (San Diego Wave FC; 9/2), Rose Lavelle (OL Reign; 86/24), Kristie Mewis (NJ/NY Gotham FC; 47/7), Ashley Sanchez (Washington Spirit; 19/3), Andi Sullivan (Washington Spirit; 39/3)
FORWARDS (7): Ashley Hatch (Washington Spirit; 15/5), Alex Morgan (San Diego Wave FC; 201/120), Midge Purce (NJ/NY Gotham FC; 22/4), Megan Rapinoe (OL Reign; 197/63), Trinity Rodman (Washington Spirit; 12/2), Mallory Swanson (Chicago Red Stars; 84/28), Lynn Williams (NJ/NY Gotham FC; 49/15)
US Men
Huge news that Jesse Marsch is the leading contender for the Southhampton job just a week after being relieved of his duties at Leeds United. It sounds like he should be announced today in an attempt to do what he did for Leed’s last year in helping them stave off Relegation. Southhampton is last in the table so a save this year would be legendary for the American. Evidently they like his high pressing Red Bull’s system. Awesome news for American coaching! Look for Reyna to come off the bench today as Dortmund hosts Chelsea at 3 pm.
GAMES ON TV
(American’s names in Parenthesis)
Weds, Feb 15Champions League
2:30 pm Peacock Arsenal vs Man City
3 pm Para+ Club Brugge vs Benifica
3 pm Para+ Dortmund (Reyna) vs Chelsea
5 pm FS2 Mexico U17 vs Panama U17
8 pm FS2 USA U17 vs Canada U17
Thurs, Feb 16Europa League
12:30 pm Para+ Barcelona vs Man United
12:30 pm Para+ Ajax vs Union Berlin (Pfuk)
12:30 pm Para+ Salzburg vs Roma
3 pm Para+ Juve vs Nantes
3 pm Para+ Sevilla vs PSV
7 pm HBO Max USAWNT vs Canada
Fri, Feb 17
2:45 pm CBSSN Sassolo vs Napoli
8 pm FS2 Juerez vs Leon
Sat, Feb 18
7:30 am USA Aston Villa vs Arsenal
9:30 am ESPN+ MGladbach (Scally) vs Bayern Munich
10 am USA Nottingham Forest vs Man City
10 am Peacock Everton vs Leeds United (Adams, Mckinney, Aaronson)
5 questions the USWNT and coach Vlatko Andonovski must answer at the SheBelieves Cup
9:00 AM ET ESPN
The 2023 Women’s World Cup is fast approaching, and time is running out for the U.S. women’s national team to get ready for the summer tournament in Australia and New Zealand. This week the USWNT will compete in the SheBelieves Cup, which is the last good chance to identify problems (and solutions) before the World Cup.
The SheBelieves Cup features a trio of top-quality opponents in Brazil, Japan and Canada in what is the USWNT’s second-to-last international window before the World Cup. (The last pre-World Cup window takes place in April, but by then it’s probably too late to change much, and the USWNT’s final opponents before a World Cup are usually lower-ranked teams so the Americans can build confidence.)
So, answers need to come over the next week, or they probably won’t come at all before the World Cup in July. And it’s clear the Americans do need answers: The final stretch of 2022 included losses to England, Germany and Spain, with the USWNT hitting a three-game losing streak for the first time in 30 years.
So, with that in mind, ESPN’s Jeff Kassouf, Jeff Carlisle, Caitlin Murray and Sophie Lawson look at some questions the USWNT must get answered during the SheBelieves Cup, which starts on Thursday against Canada.
Is the USWNT defense (subplot: with which defenders?) ready for the world’s top teams?
It is an understatement to say that October and November did not go as planned for the USWNT after their three-game losing streak. Now, February brings another trio of top-11 world teams, each with individual attacking talent that will challenge the U.S. defensively in ways New Zealand — who combined for one shot on goal in two January friendlies — could not. Are the Americans ready?
Answering that question requires some scrutiny of Andonovski’s preferred personnel. Emily Fox has long been tabbed as a starter at full-back, but will she be on the left side with Sofia Huerta on the right, or is Crystal Dunn back to 90-minute fitness for this tournament and ready to retake her starting role? A Dunn-Fox combination offers interchangeability on each side.
Centrally, there are more questions: Becky Sauerbrunn is the team captain, on-field coach, and reliable, cerebral difference-maker. She will be 38 when the World Cup kicks off. It is still unclear which pair Andonovski prefers from Sauerbrunn, Alana Cook and Naomi Girma. Cook, by way of starting 15 of 18 games in 2022, has nearly double the caps as Girma, but the latter option gives the U.S. an ability to play out of pressure that neither of her peers do in the absence of injured Abby Dahlkemper.
At the SheBelieves Cup, the entire back line will be put through the wringer against Brazil, Canada and Japan, who offer an array of attacking talent from the highly technical to the extremely athletic. They will need to show improvement from matches against England, Spain and Germany last year. — Kassouf
Who will fill the USWNT’s all-important No. 6 defensive midfielder role?
Julie Ertz, the midfield linchpin behind the 2019 World Cup-winning side, hasn’t played a competitive match in 18 months (she gave birth to her first child last August), and the chance she will return to play in time to take part at the World Cup is rapidly reaching its vanishing point. Sam Mewis, an all-rounder who at times has played as a No. 6 in Ertz’s absence, has already been ruled out.
Now Andonovski is left still trying to find an ideal replacement. And no, playing the part of Dr. Frankenstein and fusing the best attributes of three players isn’t an option for the U.S. manager — otherwise he’d take Andi Sullivan‘s distribution, Lindsey Horan‘s mobility and Taylor Kornieck‘s defensive prowess and combine it into one player.
Though, upon reflection, moving to a double pivot might be a way to create Frankenstein’s monster for opponents. That’s what Andonovski did in the second match against New Zealand last month when Rose Lavelle dropped down beside Sullivan. Against the tougher opponents the U.S. will face at the SheBelieves Cup, it will be interesting to see which way Andonovski leans. — Carlisle
Backup goalkeepers are the ultimate insurance policies. You hardly think about them until the time comes when you need them.
Such was the case at the Tokyo Olympics, when longtime starter Alyssa Naeher left the semifinal against Canada with a knee injury. Adrianna Franch stepped in and, while she couldn’t be blamed for the 1-0 defeat, two years on she still lacks the international experience or the consistency of Naeher.
It’s not just that Naeher has 87 caps to Franch’s 10. Naeher has consistently shown she can step up in clutch moments, be it the penalty shootout against the Netherlands in Tokyo or the penalty save against England’s Steph Houghton in the semifinal of the 2019 World Cup.
The same concerns that linger over Franch as a backup apply to Casey Murphy, who has just 12 caps and looks like the USWNT’s current No. 2. While it’s impossible to make up 70-odd international appearances in one tournament, Andonovski would be well-served to spread out the playing time at the SheBelieves Cup. — Carlisle
Should Andonovski rein in plans to shift over to the next generation?
With notable exceptions of Megan Rapinoe and Becky Sauerbrunn — two players who seem to serve in almost adviser-like roles to Andonovski — the USWNT coach has been eager to move on from the old guard.
Striker Alex Morgan, 33, found herself on the outside looking in last year, despite being arguably the most consistent player the U.S. has had. In her place, Andonovski has seemed to prefer 23-year-old Catarina Macario as the USWNT’s starting striker. Macario vacated the role due to a long injury, but she’s expected to be back soon, and when she returns, it feels like that spot is Macario’s for the taking.
He has also cast aside 34-year-old Christen Press, who was on the 2019 World Cup-winning team. She was playing well for Angel City FC last season but still couldn’t get a look from Andonovski and now is returning from injury. Ahead of her on the USWNT depth chart at the wings are Sophia Smith, 22, and Mallory Swanson (née Pugh), 24 — two players who have been in the best form of their careers over the past year or so but have also tended to run hot and cold. Behind them and ahead of Press are Rapinoe, 37, and Lynn Williams, 29, who just returned from injury, too.
It seems Andonovski’s mind is set on the players he will bring to the World Cup and his starters. But remember the shock when previous USWNT coach Jill Ellis announced her final roster before the 2019 World Cup? Center-back Ali Krieger was called up after two years out of the USWNT picture, during which Ellis had seemingly moved on. When explaining her abrupt decision to bring in Krieger, Ellis said ultimately it came down to experience: she knew Krieger, a World Cup winner in 2015, could handle the “pressure-cooker” of a World Cup and the adversity of facing top teams.
Andonovski is a very different manager from Ellis and seems far less likely to spring a surprise — but if that’s going to change, it’ll change at the SheBelieves Cup. — Murray
Can Andonovski adjust tactics when the USWNT needs it?
To win a major tournament, most teams will need a stocked armory — one that boasts different types of players and plans to get the better of their varied opposition. Even for teams like the USWNT, who’ve won the World Cup four times, there needs to be an adaptability to get the better of their opposition.
Yet, too often we’ve seen the USWNT endeavour with a rigid 4-3-3, persisting with a shape that doesn’t suit the personnel available. It wasn’t until the second Germany game last year — 53 games into Andonovski’s tenure and three days after losing once already to Germany — that we saw more in the way of flexibility from the coach. Still, it was not a total departure from his favoured 4-3-3.
Coming up against Brazil, Canada and Japan, the U.S. will be given three very different types of tests. That will be key to ascertaining how flexible the coach is willing to be, with all three requiring different methods for success. Indeed, as we saw at the 2020 Olympics, long gone are the days of the USWNT simply steamrolling opponents with superior athleticism. Andonovski has yet to prove his tactical adaptability beyond a doubt. — Lawson
2023 SheBelieves Cup guide: USWNT’s World Cup tune-up, match times, how to watch
With the February FIFA window upon us, the U.S. women’s national team is in Florida preparing for the eighth edition of the SheBelieves Cup.
U.S. Soccer booked three quality teams for the international friendly tournament. Canada, Brazil and Japan should each offer a meaningful test for the USWNT as part of its World Cup preparations. All three opponents have participated in SheBelieves before, and all three will feature at this summer’s big event.
The pressure will be on the U.S. to pick up definitive wins over all three teams to settle lingering questions around its readiness for the World Cup. But this is also one of the few remaining chances for player evaluation and chemistry building. Balancing the short and long-term goals will be key for head coach Vlatko Andonovski.
This year’s SheBelieves Cup consists of three doubleheader game days at three different venues. First, teams head to Exploria Stadium in Orlando, home of the Pride. They move on to Nashville — where the USWNT makes its stadium debut at GEODIS Park — and then return, once again, to Frisco, Texas for the finale at Toyota Stadium.
Three meaningful games lie ahead, including some instructive looks at three U.S. opponents that all could advance to the knockout stages at the World Cup. In short: buckle in for what should be a very fun SheBelieves Cup. Here’s everything you need to know before the games kick off February 16.
Keeping Track
On The Athletic
Steph Yang and I will be earning frequent flier miles this month, heading to all three stadiums to bring you coverage from the entire SheBelieves Cup. Follow the USWNT here, and if you’d like to go above and beyond, you can also follow Steph’s work at her author page and my work here.
If you need to prepare and missed any of our recent stories, we’ve got a bunch for you to catch up on. The National Women’s Soccer League preseason might just be getting underway, but it’s been busy on the USWNT front since 2023 started.
Speaking of this summer, in The Journey to the Cup, The Athletic follows six players as they work towards a place in the 2023 Women’s World Cup. Follow along as we check in with them each month in the build-up to the tournament, tracking their progress as they prepare both mentally and physically for a chance to shine on the game’s biggest stage.
You can subscribe to Full Time with Meg Linehan via The Athletic site and in the app (which carries the ad-free version of the show), or via Apple, Spotify or wherever else you listen to podcasts.
On TV and streams
It’s the second round of the USWNT on Warner Bros. Discovery Sports in 2023 — and this time, we’re getting two games on TV. Compared to previous years, the three matches that don’t feature the USWNT will stream on HBO Max instead of U.S. Soccer’s YouTube channel.
2023 SheBelieves Cup Schedule
DATE
TIME (ET)
MATCH
STADIUM
CITY
HOW TO WATCH
Feb. 16
4 p.m.
Japan vs. Brazil
Exploria Stadium
Orlando
HBO Max
Feb. 16
7 p.m.
USA vs. Canada
Exploria Stadium
Orlando
HBO Max
Feb. 19
3:30 p.m.
USA vs. Japan
GEODIS Park
Nashville
TNT & HBO Max
Feb. 19
6:30 p.m.
Brazil vs. Canada
GEODIS Park
Nashville
HBO Max
Feb. 22
4 p.m.
Canada vs. Japan
Toyota Stadium
Frisco
HBO Max
Feb. 22
7 p.m.
USA vs. Brazil
Toyota Stadium
Frisco
TNT & HBO Max
There will be pregame coverage starting 30 minutes before USWNT matches. The broadcast team for U.S. games includes Luke Wileman on play-by-play, Julie Foudy as analyst and Melissa Ortiz pitch side.
USWNT matches will also be available in Spanish via Universo and Peacock.
Canadians can watch Canada’s matches via OneSoccer, but it seems you’ll be out of luck if you want to watch the entire tournament.
On social media
For our coverage, make sure you’re following @TheAthleticSCCR on Twitter, plus the main account at @TheAthletic. You can also follow @thrace and @itsmeglinehan, and I’ll be snapping photos the whole tournament — so you might see those on The Athletic handles or at my Instagram, or perhaps both!
Follow the four team/federation accounts: @USWNT, @CANWNT (the better handle to follow now, but @CanadaSoccerEn still has the general feed for Canada Soccer), @SelecaoFeminina for Brazil and @jfa_en is the spot for Japan.
There will be the usual gameday hashtags, but also expect content under the #SheBelievesCup, as well.
“An incredibly important tournament”
On USWNT
There’s no ignoring that the USWNT will be under pressure to produce three comprehensive performances during SheBelieves Cup, but Canada, Brazil and Japan will each provide their own interesting tests. As much as the national team got value out of traveling to Auckland and Wellington last month and experiencing a dry run of its World Cup group stage in New Zealand, the Ferns posed a very different opponent than what the USWNT will face in February.
After announcing the roster, Andonovski told reporters on his usual zoom that the team he has for SheBelieves Cup is not going to be the exact team that boards a plane in July.
“It will show us where the team is now, but I don’t think it will be a real parameter of where the team is going to be five-and-a-half months from now,” he said earlier this month. “I know we’re going to try different things and test different combinations of players. I’m sure that the same thing will happen with the teams that we’re going to face, so I don’t think it will show the exact level of where the teams are at.”
On Wednesday, Alex Morgan said it was “really important” for the USWNT to win the tournament — which would make it the third consecutive SheBelieves Cup trophy.
“Especially going into the World Cup, this is an incredibly important tournament because it’s the last time that we’re going to get a chance to do three games in a short period of time that sort of replicate in a way, either a group stage or a knockout stage, something where you have consecutive games,” Morgan said.
It’s another chance — as Morgan pointed out, the last one of 2023 before the big show — for less experienced players to learn how to manage travel and the fatigue of a tournament setting.
On Canada
That importance extends to the three other teams participating, too. Canada will be under more scrutiny following their Olympic success in Tokyo, and they would get a massive mental boost from grabbing a result against the U.S. — especially after dropping the final at last summer’s W Championship.
Head coach Bev Priestman is navigating the FIFA window, announcing a camp roster ahead of the actual matches and knowing that some European players will head back for the games. As she told reporters this month, the training camp and the tournament will essentially be two parts.
“It’s a balancing act of assessment, getting players ready (at camp) who can afford that time away from either not having fixtures or not having been in season,” Priestman said. “Absolutely, (the roster) will be topped up with some of the usual players that this group has been accustomed to.”
One of Priestman’s major considerations heading into this summer is navigating the demand on players brought on by constant major tournaments since the Olympics.
“We’ve seen more injuries, more burnout than we’ve ever seen before,” she said on the Player’s Own Voice podcast.
For Canada, the goal is having the “freshest” team, not just when they arrive this summer, but by the time the final rolls around too.
“In many ways that’s been the downside of Canada,” Priestman said. “We’ve been intense. We’re used to these sort of short, sharp, ‘let’s get it done,’ but when it comes to the tournament where you’ve got to be just as fresh on day 52 as you were on day one, I think that’s going to be the art.”
On Brazil
Major injuries have been a factor for many teams, including the USWNT, but Brazil might have one of the biggest projects reincorporating Marta ahead of the World Cup. She’s been dancing her way through Orlando Pride preseason, but it will be interesting to watch how Brazil manager Pia Sundhage works her back into the mix.
Overall, Sundhage’s larger project of adding defensive structure, and a little bit of a Swedish feel to Brazil, is still the main thing to keep tabs on, but the USA vs. Brazil match-up could turn into a heavyweight counter-for-counter match-up. Debinha, Kerolin, Geyse will be very, very interesting tests for a USWNT backline ahead of the World Cup.
As for Japan, there might be no better team that understands the USWNT’s fall. They also faced off against England and Spain and ended up with two losses (though theirs came in November, not October).
Japan’s going to have to worry about Spain again in a few months, thanks to their group stage assignment, but in the meantime this is still a version of the Nadeshiko that is light on combined caps. Two veterans are still at the heart of this team: Saki Kumagai (Bayern Munich) and Mana Iwabuchi (Spurs). Both of those names should definitely be familiar to USWNT fans.
Almost half of the Japanese midfield has NWSL experience. Fuka Nagano just departed the North Carolina Courage for Liverpool and has made an immediate impact for the WSL side. Hina Sugita and Jun Endo had impressive seasons for the Portland Thorns and Angel City, respectively. Japan gets plenty of credit for being clean on the ball and clinical, but this midfield is also capable of some creativity that could cause every other team at SheBelieves Cup some problems. The Nadeshiko have the lowest FIFA ranking of the four teams, but that doesn’t mean much of anything only a few months before the World Cup.
If the USWNT doesn’t play well at the SheBelieves Cup, it’s time to worry about the World Cup
Feb 13, 2023 Jeff Kassouf
Five months remain until the 2023 Women’s World Cup, and if it was not clear before, it should be now: It’s crunch time.February is a busy month internationally given that it’s the penultimate FIFA window prior to the World Cup. For the U.S. women’s national team, that means all that remains before head coach Vlatko Andonovski names his World Cup roster are games against Canada, Brazil and Japan this week in the SheBelieves Cup and a pair of friendlies in April.Thus, the 2023 SheBelieves Cup packs an extra level of importance. It is the USWNT’s final opportunity to simulate three games in a week, similar to the demand of the World Cup, and it also marks the best remaining tests for the Americans to prove they are legitimate contenders after three straight losses recently against England, Spain and Germany.”Even though it’s a friendly tournament, it’s really important for us to want to win this tournament and continue to prove to ourselves why we belong at the top and why we do have the mentality that we have,” U.S. forward Alex Morgan said last week.
In the past, Morgan’s statement would feel more like a rebuttal against narratives that the rest of the world was catching up, but much has changed even since she and the U.S. won a second straight World Cup in 2019. In several ways, the world already caught up. Combine the shifting global landscape with a generational turnover within the U.S. program — one that will see the team aim for a third straight World Cup title without most of the group that won the previous two titles — and there are legitimate doubts heading into the summer.
Recent results exacerbate those concerns. The USWNT got played off the park by England in a 2-1 loss at Wembley on Oct. 7. In particular, the European champions exposed weaknesses in the USA’s preferred starting midfield of Rose Lavelle, Lindsey Horan and Andi Sullivan, playing around them and stifling most of the Americans’ creative opportunities going forward.
Four days later came the louder alarm for the Americans, as a second-choice Spain squad pounced on defensive errors both on set pieces and from the run of play to defeat the U.S. 2-0 in Pamplona. Then came a 2-1 loss to Germany in November in Florida, marking the USWNT’s first three-game losing streak in three decades. A 2-1 comeback victory over Germany three days later prevented the first four-game skid in program history.
Now comes another trio of top-11 world opponents, each with a distinct style that will uniquely challenge the Americans.
Canada is the USWNT’s most common opponent and one whose physicality, indelible athleticism and preferred 4-3-3 formation mostly mirror the style of the Americans. A 1-0 victory over Canada at July’s World Cup and Olympics qualifying tournament, the CONCACAF W Championship, remains one of the more convincing U.S. performances from this relatively new and inexperienced squad. That was the first meeting between the teams since Canada defeated the U.S. in the Olympic semifinal en route to a gold medal in 2021, when the U.S. settled for bronze.Canada’s participation in the SheBelieves Cup became a doubt when the players announced they were going on strike over budget cuts and pay inequities. But the protest was canceled the next day after Canada’s federation threatened legal action if the players didn’t compete. While USWNT members expressed support for the Canadian players, facing a top-ranked gritty, disruptive team will be a test the Americans couldn’t afford to miss out on in preparation for the World Cup.Japan will bring a customary, organized and disciplined tactical approach with a good amount of technical ability to complement it. Andonovski said earlier this month that he expects to face “a slightly more aggressive five in the back” from Japan.Why is the Canadian women’s soccer team striking ahead of the SheBelieves Cup?
Hannah Storm explains why the Canada women’s team are striking due to budget cuts and equal pay issues.Brazil offers a blend of both styles and the most intriguing challenge for the USWNT. Led now by an in-her-prime Debinha, Brazil still possesses all the classic jogo bonito individual flair, now with a level of defensive responsibility and tactical refinement (perhaps still in the form of a classic 4-4-2 variation) under head coach Pia Sundhage. That’s former USWNT head coach Pia Sundhage, to be clear. She is a tactician and motivator who is also acutely aware of U.S. styles and tactics even to this day, as a FIFA coaching mentor to U.S. U-20 head coach Tracey Kevins.”I love that we’re playing three very different teams,” Morgan said. “These are teams that we haven’t seen all that often, especially Japan and Brazil. It is important to get teams who play different styles.”Canada is super structured and organized. Brazil, you know they’re going to be great in transition. Japan, they’re just so clean on the ball and they’re gonna break you down if you have one lapse in judgment defensively. They all kind of bring different things, so it’s important to do the fine-tuning now, to do the small things right in the games.”The USWNT opened 2023 with a pair of comfortable road victories over New Zealand at Eden Park and Sky Stadium, two venues that will host USWNT group games at this summer’s World Cup. The value of those games — and that trip — was more about simulating the World Cup experience in the cities the U.S. team will play its group-stage matches off the field. On the field, given the lower level of quality of New Zealand as an opponent, it was about executing patterns of play.The Football Ferns did not offer any real defensive test, especially without several top players because the games fell outside of FIFA windows. New Zealand put one shot on goal in the 4-0 loss and did not register a shot in the 5-0 loss three days later. Call it a soft launch to a difficult year ahead for the United States.Now, the SheBelieves Cup offers what are likely the final challenges of significant difficulty to evaluate what will or won’t work at the World Cup. Results will be important, sure, but not as important as how well the U.S. adapts to each opponent and responds to potential adversity. These games are about mirroring potential World Cup opponents and refining play to be ready for the real thing this summer.At minimum during this SheBelieves Cup, the Americans need to look the part of a team that can contend at the World Cup.
“All three [opponents] are different in terms of style of play, or even philosophy,” Andonovski said. “That’s why they are in this tournament, because we needed something different — there were different things that we needed to face before we got to the World Cup. We wanted to create all kinds of challenges that we can, so we have enough time to solve it before the World Cup.”torm explains why the Canada women’s team are striking due to budget cuts and equal pay issues.Brazil offers a blend of both styles and the most intriguing challenge for the USWNT. Led now by an in-her-prime Debinha, Brazil still possesses all the classic jogo bonito individual flair, now with a level of defensive responsibility and tactical refinement (perhaps still in the form of a classic 4-4-2 variation) under head coach Pia Sundhage. That’s former USWNT head coach Pia Sundhage, to be clear. She is a tactician and motivator who is also acutely aware of U.S. styles and tactics even to this day, as a FIFA coaching mentor to U.S. U-20 head coach Tracey Kevins.”I love that we’re playing three very different teams,” Morgan said. “These are teams that we haven’t seen all that often, especially Japan and Brazil. It is important to get teams who play different styles.”Canada is super structured and organized. Brazil, you know they’re going to be great in transition. Japan, they’re just so clean on the ball and they’re gonna break you down if you have one lapse in judgment defensively. They all kind of bring different things, so it’s important to do the fine-tuning now, to do the small things right in the games.”The USWNT opened 2023 with a pair of comfortable road victories over New Zealand at Eden Park and Sky Stadium, two venues that will host USWNT group games at this summer’s World Cup. The value of those games — and that trip — was more about simulating the World Cup experience in the cities the U.S. team will play its group-stage matches off the field. On the field, given the lower level of quality of New Zealand as an opponent, it was about executing patterns of play.The Football Ferns did not offer any real defensive test, especially without several top players because the games fell outside of FIFA windows. New Zealand put one shot on goal in the 4-0 loss and did not register a shot in the 5-0 loss three days later. Call it a soft launch to a difficult year ahead for the United States.Now, the SheBelieves Cup offers what are likely the final challenges of significant difficulty to evaluate what will or won’t work at the World Cup. Results will be important, sure, but not as important as how well the U.S. adapts to each opponent and responds to potential adversity. These games are about mirroring potential World Cup opponents and refining play to be ready for the real thing this summer.At minimum during this SheBelieves Cup, the Americans need to look the part of a team that can contend at the World Cup.”All three [opponents] are different in terms of style of play, or even philosophy,” Andonovski said. “That’s why they are in this tournament, because we needed something different — there were different things that we needed to face before we got to the World Cup. We wanted to create all kinds of challenges that we can, so we have enough time to solve it before the World Cup.”
FOUR USWNT PLAYERS WHO DESERVE MORE TIME AT SHEBELIEVES CUP
ADRIANNA FRANCH HAS NOT PLAYED IN A USWNT GAME SINCE 2021. (IRA L. BLACK – CORBIS/GETTY IMAGES)
The SheBelieves Cup has two different purposes for the U.S. women’s national team: Prepare the core group for a round-robin format against top competition and continue to hone the team’s depth.
With top women’s soccer nations Brazil, Japan and Canada taking part in this year’s tournament, the balance between building confidence and evaluating talent will be as delicate as ever. With a middling finish to 2022, the U.S. could use a few wins to go into the World Cup with the confidence that they can come out on top against the world’s best.
With a few key roster decisions looming at certain positions, there are at least four players head coach Vlatko Andonovski should consider giving more playing time this tournament.
ADRIANNA FRANCH, GOALKEEPER
To give them both tournament experience and to keep competition fresh, all three U.S. goalkeepers should see time during the SheBelieves Cup. Franch has been called into three consecutive camps off the strength of an excellent NWSL season with Kansas City, but she has yet to see the field for the USWNT for the first time since 2021.
Franch is an excellent shot-stopper at the club level and went to the Tokyo Olympics as the team’s No. 2 goalkeeper, closing out the tournament for the U.S. after Alyssa Naeher suffered a knee injury. North Carolina’s Casey Murphy has moved into a more consistent role with the team after the Olympics, and Andonovski has given very little game time to the goalkeepers pushing for the third spot. I believe Franch has the ability to compete for more than the third goalkeeping spot and should get a chance to prove what she can do against top competition in 2023.
TAYLOR KORNIECK, MIDFIELDER
Kornieck appears to have an inside lane to making the World Cup roster as defensive midfield depth and a set piece aerial specialist. The 24-year-old is getting up to speed quickly in a position she doesn’t regularly play. For her club team, the San Diego Wave, Kornieck usually plays in more of a connecting midfield role. If Andonovski is truly committed to having Kornieck prepared to step into an unfamiliar role in New Zealand, time against top competition will be crucial.
Kornieck seeing time as the No. 6 is also part of Andonovski’s plans to tweak the midfield structure since the U.S. lost three games in a row at the end of 2022 for the first time in almost 30 years. Kornieck as a defensive midfielder requires something closer to a double pivot 4-2-3-1 formation, where either Lindsey Horan or Rose Lavelle sits further back to provide defensive cover and help in distribution. Those roles are likely just as essential as whoever plays the No. 6 (Andi Sullivan is the preferred starter), and forging that midfield chemistry will be key during the SheBelieves Cup.
(ERIN CHANG/ISI PHOTOS/GETTY IMAGES)
SOFIA HUERTA, DEFENDER
The USWNT defense hasn’t felt completely settled going into 2023, with outside backs coming in and out of camp due to injury and availability. Huerta played a lion’s share of the team’s right-back minutes in 2022, but her role could become even more nuanced as other players return.
Huerta is a converted winger who is one of the best crossers in the women’s game, with an attacker’s approach to her position on defense. When the U.S. midfield tries to draw their opponents in centrally by holding the ball, Huerta is there to receive passes out wide and send the ball in quickly to set up goal-scoring opportunities.
Huerta’s progression as a 1v1 defender has been a longer process, and with Crystal Dunn back in the mix at left back, Andonovski might choose to craft his starting XI with more tactical awareness in mind. He has opted for a defensive system with Dunn at left back and Emily Fox at right back while the team awaits the return of Kelley O’Hara from injury. Huerta has the ability to hurt any team on the counter-attack and can shine when tactical priorities are clear.
ALANA COOK, DEFENDER
It’s impossible to know exactly where Cook sits on the current U.S. center-back depth chart. She played the most minutes of anyone on the USWNT in 2022, but she has rotated more with Becky Sauerbrunn and Naomi Girma since the U.S. defense struggled against top attacking teams late last year. Cook’s counterparts appear to be locks for the World Cup roster, with Sauerbrunn as the veteran presence and Girma the young natural at the position.
Cook herself frequently looks like a natural, but she isn’t immune to being a step too slow in reacting to dangerous moments, leading to goals conceded. She’s joined on the SheBelieves roster by Emily Sonnett, who has been used as a hybrid center back/outside back in the past. Tierna Davidson is likely one camp away from returning to game minutes.
The U.S. can’t bring Cook, Davidson and Sonnett to the World Cup, and these games are as much about working out defensive communication as they are about looking for individual moments of brilliance. Cook has earned Andonovski’s trust as a steady contributor and deserves a chance to solidify her place with the team this week with an all-around performance.
Claire Watkins is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @ScoutRipley.
CANADA VETERAN ALMOST RETIRES OVER FUNDING DISPUTE
CHRIS HYDE/GETTY IMAGESThe Canada women’s national team’s relationship with Canada Soccer is declining so rapidly over unequal treatment that we may see a stream of early retirements.Olympic gold medalist Sophie Schmidt told reporters on Tuesday that she almost retired on the spot after the federation broke the team’s SheBelieves boycott.“After a long chat with [Christine Sinclair] trying to debrief what has just transpired, she talked me off the ledge so to say, for lack of a better word,” Schmidt said.Schmidt will stay on through the 2023 World Cup, at which point she plans to retire from international soccer.While Canada’s players will participate in the SheBelieves Cup under protest, Sinclair said that a strike during the next international window is still on the table.”This could be our most important fight that we’ve ever had as national team players,” the longtime captain said. “And we are determined to win.”Janine Beckie summed it up: “It’s time, it’s 2023. We won the damn Olympic Games, and we’re about to go to the World Cup with a team who could win.”
The Champions League is back! 7 things you probably already forgot happened this season
The men’s Champions League returns this week after what feels like an extraordinarily long winter break, exacerbated by an entire World Cup taking place since the last time a ball was kicked in Europe’s top club competition.
With six rounds of matches completed in just nine weeks, all 96 group stage games were done and dusted by Nov. 2 last year as 32 teams were whittled down to 16 for the knockout phase.
The Champions League then took a back seat while the world watched Lionel Messi lead Argentina to World Cup glory in Qatar, before club football once again returned to the fore last month.
As the round of 16 gets underway, here’s a quick refresher of some notable events that unfolded in the Champions League prior to its 3½-month hiatus.
The 35-year-old scored a delightful first-time effort in a 1-1 draw against the Portuguese side in early October, less than a month after Israeli outfit Maccabi Haifa had the misfortune of becoming his 39th victims.
2. Rudiger put his head where it hurt (Oct. 11)
Things didn’t go quite so smoothly for poor old Antonio Rudiger, who finished the group stage trip to play Shakhtar Donetsk with his head in bandages despite scoring the vital goal that saw Real Madrid qualify for the knockouts.
Thankfully, the weeping cut on his forehead was mostly superficial, and Rudiger posted on Instagram soon after the game to assure fans that he was okay — despite flying home with a substantial swaddling on his forehead and eye.
3. Salah scored quickest Champions League treble (Oct. 12)
Six minutes. 12 seconds.
Salah with the fastest hat-trick in Champions League history. 🇪🇬👑
While his team are struggling domestically, Mohamed Salah has been in fine fettle for Liverpool in the Champions League so far and sits joint-top of the scoring charts with Kylian Mbappe on seven goals.
Tottenham have been muddling through a topsy turvy season, and the climax of their Champions League group campaign is the perfect encapsulation of their wildly oscillating fortunes in 2022-23.
Spurs found themselves in first, second and third place in the “as it stands” table as the group remained in flux all evening, right up until a dramatic 95th-minute winner from Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg sent the Premier League side through as group winners at Marseille’s expense.
Lewis was just 17 years and 346 days old when he found the net for City in a 3-1 win over Sevilla at the Etihad in early November, beating Benzema’s previous mark by just six days.
Thanks in large part to the 7-1 drubbing they received from Liverpool on their own turf, Rangers suffered the ignominy of finishing their Champions League campaign with the worst-ever group-stage record in the competition.
Rangers limped home with six defeats from six games, 22 goals conceded and a goal difference of -20, with their “best” result being the 2-0 loss they suffered at Anfield.
The Scottish side therefore became the new recipients of the wholly undesirable “worst team in the group stage” tag, seizing the moniker from Dinamo Zagreb, who registered zero points and a -19 goal difference in 2011-12 after coming unstuck in group that contained Real Madrid, Lyon and Ajax.
Of the many pre-match performances, the most visually impactful of them all was arguably the giant “fighting leprechaun” wielding a grenade behind the goal displayed by Celtic supporters in the terraces ahead of their match against Real Madrid.
However, we’ve also witnessed pyro madness at PSG, nostalgic banners at Anfield, loving tributes to the late Diego Maradona at Napoli and a simple yet stunningly effective club crest that took up an entire end of Tottenham’s stadium.
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U.S. women’s national team roster by position (Club; Caps/Goals) — 2023 SheBelieves Cup:
GOALKEEPERS (3): Adrianna Franch (Kansas City Current; 10), Casey Murphy (North Carolina Courage; 12), Alyssa Naeher (Chicago Red Stars; 87)
DEFENDERS (7): Alana Cook (OL Reign; 21/0), Emily Fox (North Carolina Courage; 24/0), Crystal Dunn (Portland Thorns FC; 128/24), Naomi Girma (San Diego Wave FC; 12/0), Sofia Huerta (OL Reign; 27/0), Becky Sauerbrunn (Portland Thorns FC; 212/0), Emily Sonnett (OL Reign; 70/1)
MIDFIELDERS (6): Lindsey Horan (Olympique Lyon, FRA; 123/26), Taylor Kornieck (San Diego Wave FC; 9/2), Rose Lavelle (OL Reign; 86/24), Kristie Mewis (NJ/NY Gotham FC; 47/7), Ashley Sanchez (Washington Spirit; 19/3), Andi Sullivan (Washington Spirit; 39/3)
FORWARDS (7): Ashley Hatch (Washington Spirit; 15/5), Alex Morgan (San Diego Wave FC; 201/120), Midge Purce (NJ/NY Gotham FC; 22/4), Megan Rapinoe (OL Reign; 197/63), Trinity Rodman (Washington Spirit; 12/2), Mallory Swanson (Chicago Red Stars; 84/28), Lynn Williams (NJ/NY Gotham FC; 49/15)
Leed’s United still Leads United States of America – despite firing our American Coach
So literally 3 days after writing my column last week –Leed’s went off an fired American Coach Jesse Marsch after the relegation battle lost to Nottingham Forest. Now I think they are idiots as they didn’t give him time for his just added transfers to gel with the team. But that’s IDIOT English Owned Football teams sometimes. I certainly no longer trust the BOARD and I am not sure now that I am going to go out of my way to travel to Elland Road to see them play when I visit in late March – but still Leed’s has 3 American’s who are going to play huge roles in whether they stay up or get relegated. I just hope the new manager doesn’t punish the American’s like almost every other manager in Europe does. The addition of American midfielder Weston Mckinney joining Leeds United giving an EPL team a possible all American Midfield with Brendon Aaronson, and Adams is still pretty cool. Oh and Marsch might just be in the running for the Southhampton gig.
Champions League Sweet 16 Starts Tues/Wed
The Champions League is finally back with knock-out round games starting on Tuesday at 3 pm on Paramount plus as PSG with key injuries to Messi and Neymar hosts out of form Bayern Munich. Simultaneously AC Milan will host Spurs (maybe without Conte-recoving from Covid). Wed gives us Dortmund and the goal scoring off the bench machine American Gio Reyna hosting Chelsea (without Pulisic) at 3 pm. Also Arsenal faces Man City in a huge mid-week battle on Peacock at 2:30 pm. (why this game is not on USA or NBC I do not know!)
Thurs Europa League gives us Barcelona hosting Man United at 12:30 along with 5 other games including American Jordan Pfuk and Union Berlin traveling to Ajax. It’s a 2 TV day all week for Champions and Europa League play. (See multiple stories below)
Carmel FC Mourns the Loss of a Coach
8 Feb by Jeremy Slivinski
We are heartbroken to share that Jeff Ralston, a CFC head coach U11 White, passed away unexpectedly on Sunday. Jeff was a positive, enthusiastic member of our team and had a significant, lasting impact on the boys he coached, as well as their families. He will be greatly missed and our hearts go out to his family. https://flannerbuchanan.com/obits/jeffrey-alan-ralston
Carmel FC 2010 Boys is extending tryouts this winter for the Spring Season.
Contact the Ole Ballcoach at shanebestsoccer@gmail.com if your son was born in 2010 or 2011 and interested in working out with us.
ANY CARMEL DAD’S CLUB PLAYERS &CARMEL FC PLAYERS :Winter Players League (WPL) – Badger Indoor Fieldhouse –REGISTRATION READY for Session Two (6 weeks): Feb 17th, 24th / Mar 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th As the fall season comes to a close over the next month, we wanted to let you know that we will be launching an indoor soccer league over two six week sessions within our new Badger Fieldhouse. Games will be played on either Friday night ( 6pm to 10pm) or Sunday afternoon (1pm-5pm) depending on age groups: U8s, U9&U10, U11&U12, U13-U15 and U16+ (Coed Teams allowed). Referees for each game, 50 minute games, 5v5, 7v7 and 9v9 matches. Learn More Register NOW, gather teammates and be ready to play! Learn More Visit: https://form.123formbuilder.com/6349623/winter-players-league-session-2-registration-form
GAMES ON TV
(American’s names in Parenthesis)
Sat, Feb 11
9:30 am ESPN+ Werder Bremen vs Dortmund (Reyna)
9:30 am ESPN+ Hoffenhiem vs Leverkusen
10 am USA Arsenal (Turner) vs Brentford
10 am Peacock Leicester City vs Tottenham
10 am Peacock Fulham (Ream, Jedi) vs Nottingham Forest
11 am beIN Sport Monaco vs PSG
12:30 pm NBC New Castle vs Bournmouth
12:30 pm ESPN+ Sevilla vs Mallorca
12:30 pm ESPN+ RB Leipzig vs Union Berlin (Pfuk)
2 pm FS2 Real Madrid vs Al Hilal World Club Cup
5 pm Fox Sport 2 Canada U17 vs T&T U17
6 pm Univision America vs NEcaxa
8 pm Fox Sport 2 USA U17 vs Barbados
8 pm Univision Tigres vs Pumas
10 pm Univision Pachuca vs Guadalajara
Sun, Feb 12
7:30 am USA Leeds United (Adams, Mckinney, Aaronson) vs Man U
9:30 am ESPN+ Hertha vs Mgladbach (Scally)
11;30 am USA Man City vs Aston Villa
10:!5 am ESPN+ Atletico Madrid vs Celta Vigo
12 noon CBSSN Juventus vs Fiorentina
2:45 pm Para+ Napoli vs Cremonese
3pm ESPN+ Villareal (Musah) vs Barcelona
Mon, Feb 13
3 pm USA Liverpool vs Everton
5 pm FS2 Barbados U17 vs Canada U17
8 pm FS2 T&T vs USA U17
Tues, Feb 14Champions League
3 pm Para+ AC Milan vs Tottenham
3 pm Para+ PSG vs Bayern Munich
3 pm ESPN2 Burnley vs Watford
Weds, Feb 15Champions League
2:30 pm Peacock Arsenal vs Man City
3 pm Para+ Club Brugge vs Benifica
3 pm Para+ Dortmund (Reyna) vs Chelsea
5 pm FS2 Mexico U17 vs Panama U17
8 pm FS2 USA U17 vs Canada U17
Thurs, Feb 16Europa League
12:30 pm Para+ Barcelona vs Man United
12:30 pm Para+ Ajax vs Union Berlin (Pfuk)
12:30 pm Para+ Salzburg vs Roma
3 pm Para+ Juve vs Nantes
3 pm Para+ Sevilla vs PSV
7 pm HBO Max USAWNT vs Canada
Fri, Feb 17
2:45 pm CBSSN Sassolo vs Napoli
8 pm FS2 Juerez vs Leon
Sat, Feb 18
7:30 am USA Aston Villa vs Arsenal
9:30 am ESPN+ MGladbach (Scally) vs Bayern Munich
10 am USA Nottingham Forest vs Man City
10 am Peacock Everton vs Leeds United (Adams, Mckinney, Aaronson)
SheBelieves Cup 2023: When is it, how to watch USWNT, host cities, name meaning, and more
11:59 AM ET
One of the final tests before the U.S. women’s national team heads off to the Women’s World Cup this summer is the SheBelieves Cup, which begins on Feb. 16.Yet, it is a set of glorified friendlies, but has grown to become one of the most prestigious annual tournaments in women’s soccer. That’s especially the case this year: with high-ranked opponents Canada, Japan and Brazil, the SheBelieves Cup could offer our best hint at how the Americans will fair in Australia and New Zealand at the World Cup.So, what exactly is this tournament, where did its unusual name come from and how can you watch the 2023 SheBelieves Cup games? We’ve got answers.
What is the SheBelieves Cup, what is the format and what’s its purpose?
The SheBelieves Cup is an annual four-team tournament hosted by the U.S. Soccer Federation for the USWNT during every February international window.The format is intentionally designed to mimic a group stage of a World Cup, where teams play three games in three different cities all within the span of roughly one week. Whoever has the most points by the end — three points for wins, one point for draws — is crowned the SheBelieves Cup champion, much the same way a team would win their group at the World Cup.
The tournament also has the added benefit of a similar feeling to the knockout stage in a World Cup, where teams have to fly to a new city and face a new opponent in only a few days’ time. As striker Alex Morgan told reporters from camp on Wednesday, this is the USWNT’s last chance to prepare for the hustle and bustle of the World Cup, which kicks off on July 20.”This is an incredibly important tournament,” Morgan said, “because it’s the last time we’re going to have a chance to play three games in a short period of time that replicates either a group stage or a knockout stage, where you have consecutive games and you’re having to manage travel and fatigue.”
When is the 2023 SheBelieves Cup, where is it hosted and how to watch?
Thurs Feb. 16, 2023 at 7 p.m. ET: USA vs. Canada
The No. 1-world ranked USWNT kicks off the tournament in Orlando, Florida at Exploria Stadium on Feb. 16 against No. 6-ranked Canada. The match will be available to stream on HBO Max in English, Universo and Peacock in Spanish. Before that, Japan face Brazil in a doubleheader at the stadium at 4 p.m. ET, which will air on HBO Max and Peacock.
Sunday Feb. 19, 2023 at 3:30 p.m. ET: USA vs. Japan
The teams travel to Nashville, Tennessee, where the USWNT will face No. 11-ranked Japan at Geodis Park. The match will be broadcast on TNT and HBO Max in English, Universo and Peacock in Spanish. Brazil faces Canada at 6:30 p.m. ET at the same venue, live on HBO Max and Peacock.
Wed Feb. 22, 2023 at 7 p.m. ET: USA vs. Brazil
The tournament closes for the USWNT against No. 9-ranked Brazil in Frisco, Texas at Toyota Stadium. It will be broadcast on TNT and HBO Max in English, Universo and Peacock in Spanish. Before that, Canada and Japan face off at 4 p.m. ET in Frisco, also on HBO Max and Peacock.
When and why did U.S. Soccer start hosting the SheBelieves Cup?
While the World Cup and the Olympics are the premiere senior competitions in women’s soccer, the USWNT’s schedule otherwise always includes smaller invitational tournaments. One of those annual tournaments is the Algarve Cup, which has been hosted in Portugal since 1994. The USWNT has competed in that tournament in most years, spending every late February and early March from 1998 to 2015 in Algarve, Portugal.But in 2016, U.S. Soccer decided a better use of that February/March window would be to launch its own tournament. There are some obvious benefits: the federation would have more control over the level of competition, it would stand to financially benefit from ticket sales, and it could sell the TV rights to the tournament as the interest in the U.S. women’s national grew to historic levels.The idea clearly seemed to work out well, inspiring similar tournaments hosted by other federations. France launched in 2020 their own four-team tournament for the February/March international window called the Tournoi de France (“the French Tournament”) and England did the same in 2022 with the Arnold Clark Cup. (U.S. Soccer even launched a second four-team invitational in 2017 called the Tournament of Nations, which was played in July of non-World Cup or non-Olympics years, but in 2021, the federation announced it would cancel it due to FIFA shortening that international window.)
What does “SheBelieves” mean and why is the tournament called that?
It’s a bit of an unusual name for a soccer tournament, and the name preceded the SheBelieves Cup tournament itself.In 2015, ahead of the USWNT’s World Cup campaign that year, U.S. Soccer launched an initiative to empower girls and young women with the hashtag #SheBelieves. It was part-marketing campaign to drum up excitement ahead of the tournament, which the USWNT later won, and part-inspirational PSA.A letter posted on U.S. Soccer’s website in May 2015 signed by the USWNT said, in part: “You support us and show us the way. Now it’s time to turn it around and let you know we have your back. … We want you to believe you can be the best.” The letter closed by asking fans share their dreams with the hashtag #SheBelieves, across social media.The campaign worked, and the hashtag became synonymous with the USWNT on social media for a while (these days fans simply stick to #USWNT). When U.S. Soccer announced they would launch the SheBelieves Cup in 2016, they said it was to continue the mission of the #SheBelieves initiative. As a press release at the time said: “The SheBelieves Cup is a showcase event for the campaign, which will continue to spread its positive message to young women and girls.”
Does Jesse Marsch’s Leeds dismissal pave the way for him to lead the U.S. men’s national team?
Feb 6, 2023 Jeff CarlisleU.S. soccer correspondent
Timing is everything in all manner of ways. That is especially true in the case of Jesse Marsch and the U.S. Soccer Federation.Marsch was fired as manager of Leeds United on Monday, following a run of just two wins in his past 18 Premier League matches. With the managerial post for the U.S. men’s national team vacant, it would seem that Marsch’s availability is coming at the right time.But while it’s perfect for Marsch, it isn’t necessarily perfect for U.S. Soccer.The USSF currently finds itself without two of its more senior sporting executives, with sporting director Earnie Stewart set to depart for a similar role at PSV Eindhoven in a little more than a week, and USMNT GM Brian McBride already gone. Sports consulting firm Sportsology has been brought in by USSF president Cindy Parlow Cone and CEO JT Batson to lead the search for both positions.While Cone said she hopes to have the sporting director position filled prior to the start of the Women’s World Cup in July, it might well be the “end of summer” before both positions are filled. That timing might not work in terms of capturing Marsch.To be clear, the USSF should cast as wide a net as possible in its search for the next USMNT manager. If it can attract a coaching whale like Jose Mourinho, then by all means it should explore that route, but at present, that is the stuff of dreams. More realistic candidates need to be identified, and that includes those born in this country.Marsch’s candidacy certainly has its pros and cons. At present, he is the most experienced U.S. candidate available, having coached with teams in Europe since 2018, the past four years of which were spent managing the likes of FC Salzburg, RB Leipzig and Leeds. That is a coaching résumé that is unmatched in U.S. soccer circles.While other managers such as Sporting Kansas City‘s Peter Vermes have been at the job longer, their tenures have been spent entirely in MLS. The same is true of LA Galaxy manager Greg Vanney and the Philadelphia Union‘s Jim Curtin.LAFC‘s Steve Cherundolo is another candidate, but he has just a solitary season managing a first-division first team — albeit a wildly successful one — under his belt. Former VfB Stuttgart manager Pellegrino Matarazzo is an interesting possibility given his American upbringing and Bundesliga experience.
But in terms of Marsch, the fact remains that his past two stints with Leipzig and Leeds ended with him not lasting even a year at either post, and while his spell in Salzburg was successful, recent results demand a closer look by those making the hiring decision. There are also questions about the methodology to which he’s wedded, one that relies heavily on creating chaos via the press. Can Marsch adapt his approach to the international game, one in which the amount of time spent on the training ground is significantly less than at club level, and the best teams are adept at overcoming such a setup?
Former U.S. midfielder Sacha Kljestan played under Marsch while with the New York Red Bulls from 2015 to 2017, and feels that Marsch is indeed committed to his beliefs.”I think Jesse is very — I think ‘determined’ is a good word — in his belief in his system,” he told ESPN. “He doesn’t change himself or what he believes in. I think that’s a very admirable quality in a coach.”But Kljestan added that this doesn’t mean Marsch can’t change on the fly.”His philosophy doesn’t change, but tactically he can change things,” he said.Kljestan recalled how New York mostly played 4-2-3-1 under Marsch, but the Red Bulls also played with three in the back at times during 2017, and with a 4-2-2-2 later in his career.St. Louis City defender Tim Parker, who also played under Marsch in New York, remembers a system that was more rigid.”There’s not a whole lot of flexibility, to be honest,” Parker told ESPN. “The whole system is kind of made so that everyone’s on the same page all the time, and is supposed to make, obviously, the machine work properly. It’s like if everyone’s thinking the same thing, and has the same mentality, and has the same kind of approach to the game, then everyone should be able to click and be on the same page.”Does that philosophy suit the U.S. corps of attacking players? Given the relative youth of the side, Kljestan believes it can.”He likes working with young guys because I think he believes he can get more out of them physically,” he said of Marsch. “So with the generation I see between the midfield of Weston McKennie, Yunus Musah and Tyler Adams, that should be there for the next four years. You got [Christian] Pulisic, [Giovanni] Reyna and [Timothy] Weah that should be there for four years, basically the whole team that I expect to be there in 2026 is between the ages of 22 and 26 right now, which is like the prime. So, yeah, I do think that group of players can fit well into his tactical ideas and philosophy.”Parker notes that if Marsch does end up with the USMNT and implementing his system, it will take intense commitment from the players.”In terms of his system and the way he wants that system to be run, I think it does require a complete buy-in mentality,” he said. “Especially when I played with him at the Red Bulls, that’s kind of how it was. It was almost like starting on a blank slate and forgetting what you knew and buying into what his methods were. But it brought us success when we were there, so when you’re able to reap the rewards of it, I think you’re able to see the success that you can have, so it makes that buying-in process much easier.”The other fallout from Marsch’s firing is what it means for Leeds’ contingent of American players, one of whom — McKennie — has been with the club only a week. That will ultimately depend on who is hired to be Marsch’s replacement.Adams has been widely hailed for his performances since arriving at Elland Road last summer, especially on the defensive side of the ball, but if the new manager opts for a more possession-based approach then Adams could find himself on the outs like he did at Leipzig. Brenden Aaronson’s lack of end product — one goal and two assists — could also put his position in the starting lineup under threat.Ironically, the versatility in McKennie’s game — his box-to-box running, his ability on set pieces and his late runs into the box — bodes well in terms of him getting more playing time. So does the fact that Leeds director of football Victor Orta has been a longtime admirer of his. Orta also negotiated the deal that brought Aaronson to West Yorkshire prior to Marsch’s arrival.With the transfer window closed, though, whoever the new manager is will have to make do with what he has. With the club’s Premier League survival at stake, that would seem to preclude making wholesale changes.As for Marsch, the coming months will determine the extent to which his respective goals will line up with those of the USSF.
Analyzing Jesse Marsch as a potential USMNT manager
Jesse Marsch is a popular pick to become the new USMNT manager, but should he be?
Jesse Marsch is out as Leeds manager which means he’s presumably looking for a new job. This so happens to be at a time when the USMNT needs a new coach. In the past Jesse Marsch has said he would like to have that job. Of course, US Soccer needs to hire the person who will hire the new manager, so at this time there are a few steps that need to be taken for him to get to the job.
Marsch has reached the highest point of any American manager with experience in the Champions League, winning a double in a European top flight, and managing two clubs in top five leagues. Additionally, he was an assistant with Bob Bradley during the 2010 World Cup so at least has experience at the highest international level.
He isn’t Zinedine Zidane, but he has the best resume of any American manager who could be a candidate for the USMNT job. Marsch’s preferred playing style may also be a good fit for the USMNT. Most notably, this style involves pressing in the ever present Red Bulls style that has seen RB Leipzig become Bundesliga contenders and brought several MLS Supporters’ Shields to the New York Red Bulls.
Success in New York and Austria
After a decent year with the Montreal Impact in their 2012 expansion year, Marsch resigned and took his talents… nowhere, he just didn’t want to manage the Impact ever again. He resurfaced replacing the abruptly fired Mike Petke with NY Red Bulls in 2015 and established himself as a top manager in MLS by winning the Supporters’ Shield that year. Through three and a half seasons in New York, Marsch implemented a fast paced, high pressing style that wasn’t too concerned with possession and focused more on creating chances in transition.
Notably, he was able to achieve this while developing youth players and sending veterans on their way without hesitation. Marsch didn’t always have the most technically gifted players, but his system was so effective at creating chaos leading to chances that it wasn’t a factor. While NYRB won the Supporters’ Shield in 2015 and then again in 2018, though after he had left to be an assistant at RB Leipzig that summer, the team never advanced past the Eastern Conference Finals under Marsch. In the playoffs, teams with more technically gifted players like Federico Higuain, Sebastian Giovinco, Michael Bradley, and Ignacio Piatti helped their clubs overcome the Red Bulls’ system.
He left NYRB after three and a half seasons to be an assistant at RB Leipzig in 2018 and the next season took over as manager of Red Bull Salzburg from 2019-2021. There he led the team to two consecutive doubles. In European competition, his club performed about as expected beating Genk twice and getting a surprise draw to Napoli away in the 2019-2020 Champions League while losing their remaining matches. After being transferred to the Europa League the team fell to Frankfurt. The following season, Salzburg won and drew against Lokomotiv Moscow, losing the rest of their matches before being transferred to the Europa League and being eliminated by Villarreal.
Failure in Germany and England
His time in Austria was impressive enough to get him a promotion to the Bundesliga for the 2021-2022 season where he took over RB Leipzig. Marsch went 7-4-6 and mutually parted ways with the club after a three game losing streak in late November-early December. Four of the losses came to teams Leipzig ultimately finished ahead of in the table. The team also went 1-1-3 in the Champions League under Marsch.
Marsch wasn’t out of work long and was hired by Leeds to replace Marcelo Bielsa in February of 2022. It was a big bucket to sit on and Marsch initially was up for the most immediate task: avoiding relegation. This wasn’t really an easy process and Leeds needed a bit of luck as the team stayed up by three points thanks to a goal in added time in the last game of the season.
The 2022-2023 season started off well with a week three victory against Chelsea. Leeds failed to win for the next eight weeks when they defeated Liverpool, followed by a win against Bournemouth. Things took a downturn again as the most recent seven games came without a win. That was enough for the Leeds brass to send Marsch packing.
Marsch’s fit with the USMNT
As a manager Marsch’s best attributes are implementing a cohesive style of soccer and motivating his players. His NSFW halftime speech in mixed German/English when he was with Salzburg against Liverpool is an example of this. He’s also been successful using what he has. NYRB never spent big while he was with the club and yet his teams were consistently among the best in the league. An aspect of his system is that it depends on athleticism, buy in, positional awareness, and the fitness needed to run and press for a full 90 minutes rather than relying on individual players with a high level of technical proficiency.
These aspects make him a good candidate for the USA job. While the American men have taken steps forward in terms of technical soccer ability, a consistently expressive style of play is not the norm for the squad. Self-belief, teamwork, and an immoderate amount of optimism are also qualities that Marsch brings as a manager.
That said, there are warning signs that Marsch might not be up to the task with his current tactical acumen. As mentioned above, NYRB had difficulty against technically talented players in elimination games, Salzburg was by far the most talented team in Austria and then performed as expected in Europe, while Leipzig struggled under Marsch and Leeds had some promising moments but largely floundered during his tenure. His time at Leipzig is fairly troublesome as he took a very talented team that finished 2nd in the Bundesliga the previous season to underperform and sit mid-table by the time he left the team.
It’s a fairly mixed bag, but the trend points to his system being flawed against higher levels of competition. A weakness Marsch seems to have as a manager is that he often doesn’t make the right adjustments and when Plan A doesn’t work Plan B seems to be Plan A But Harder. The USA showed during this most recent World Cup that tactical flexibility is important with the level of players on the roster and so far Marsch hasn’t shown an ability to make tactical adjustments very well.Perhaps, Marsch will figure out how to do this better or the USA players will be at a much higher level in 2026 to really get his pressing style to work. For now it seems like he needs to address his weaknesses before showing he can get the most out of players against better competition and the USA would be better off looking elsewhere for a new manager.
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Leed’s United become Leads United States of America!
The addition of American midfielder Weston Mckinney joining Leeds United giving an EPL team a possible all American Midfield with Brendon Aaronson, and Adams along with a forward in Jack Harrison who played in the US for college and MLS during his formative years and of course an American coach in Jesse Marsch, Asst coach in former USMNT & NY Red Bulls alum Chris Armas and finally American partial owners in the San Fran 49’ers Enterprises who are looking to take over completely. Leeds might just be replacing Fulham America as America’s Team in the EPL. So if you are like me and considering adapting Leeds United as your new EPL favorite team- here are some things to know. Leed’s Fight Song, History, video history.
US Women – She Believe’s Cup Next Week Feb 16-22
The US ladies don’t have much time to recover from their trip down under as She Believes Cup is just over a week away and battles against 3 top 10 teams in Canada, Japan and Brazil. Expect more returnees as Megan Rapinoe is expected back by She Believe’s Cup time with no word yet on Tobin Heath or Angel City’s Christen Press and of course Sophia Smith will be missing.
U.S. women’s national team roster by position (Club; Caps/Goals) — 2023 SheBelieves Cup:
GOALKEEPERS (3): Adrianna Franch (Kansas City Current; 10), Casey Murphy (North Carolina Courage; 12), Alyssa Naeher (Chicago Red Stars; 87)
DEFENDERS (7): Alana Cook (OL Reign; 21/0), Emily Fox (North Carolina Courage; 24/0), Crystal Dunn (Portland Thorns FC; 128/24), Naomi Girma (San Diego Wave FC; 12/0), Sofia Huerta (OL Reign; 27/0), Becky Sauerbrunn (Portland Thorns FC; 212/0), Emily Sonnett (OL Reign; 70/1)
MIDFIELDERS (6): Lindsey Horan (Olympique Lyon, FRA; 123/26), Taylor Kornieck (San Diego Wave FC; 9/2), Rose Lavelle (OL Reign; 86/24), Kristie Mewis (NJ/NY Gotham FC; 47/7), Ashley Sanchez (Washington Spirit; 19/3), Andi Sullivan (Washington Spirit; 39/3)
FORWARDS (7): Ashley Hatch (Washington Spirit; 15/5), Alex Morgan (San Diego Wave FC; 201/120), Midge Purce (NJ/NY Gotham FC; 22/4), Megan Rapinoe (OL Reign; 197/63), Trinity Rodman (Washington Spirit; 12/2), Mallory Swanson (Chicago Red Stars; 84/28), Lynn Williams (NJ/NY Gotham FC; 49/15)
US Men tie Colombia in a Fierce Friendly – next up Nations League in March
Huge news that the US will host the Copa America in the summer of 2024! Turning to last week’ game the US started a much more experienced team Sat night is a fiercely played “friendly” Sat night in an outnumbered LA Galaxy stadium. Five World Cup players started including Long and Zimmerman at CBs and Sean Johnson in goal. Still it was the youngsters who impressed as Aaronson, Hoppe, John Tolkin (left back) and late sub Brandon Vazquez were the most impressive on the night along with late d subs Sam Rogers and Jalen Neal in the middle. (Full hightlights 9 min – Spanish hightlights). Each US January camp at least 1 sometimes 2 or 3 players announce themselves. I think LB Tolkin, #9 Vazquez and Mexican-American winger Alejandro Zendejas and perhaps Cade Cowell will be the FIND’s in this camp and should join the #1 team when we play Nations League play in the late March window. (What a Save by Gaga). Brandon Vasquez Cincy FC Man Scored the lone US Goal. Cowell hits post twice vs Serbia
* missing 2010 boys Ethan Horna Huge Congrats to our Carmel FC Players on the ODP Teams !!
Carmel FC 2010 Boys is extending tryouts this winter for the Spring Season.
Contact the Ole Ballcoach at shanebestsoccer@gmail.com if your son was born in 2010 or 2011 and interested in working out with us.
ANY CARMEL DAD’S CLUB PLAYERS &CARMEL FC PLAYERS :Winter Players League (WPL) – Badger Indoor Fieldhouse –REGISTRATION READY for Session Two (6 weeks): Feb 17th, 24th / Mar 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th As the fall season comes to a close over the next month, we wanted to let you know that we will be launching an indoor soccer league over two six week sessions within our new Badger Fieldhouse. Games will be played on either Friday night ( 6pm to 10pm) or Sunday afternoon (1pm-5pm) depending on age groups: U8s, U9&U10, U11&U12, U13-U15 and U16+ (Coed Teams allowed). Referees for each game, 50 minute games, 5v5, 7v7 and 9v9 matches.
U.S. will host 2024 Copa America, a critical opportunity for USMNT and whoever the new coach is
Henry BushnellFri, January 27, 2023 at 10:51 AM ES YAHOO SOCCER
Chile won the most recent Copa America hosted by the United States in 2016. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)
The 2024 Copa America, arguably the most competitive international soccer tournament outside the World Cup, will be played in the United States — and the U.S. men’s national team will likely participate.CONMEBOL, the South American soccer governing body, and CONCACAF, its North and Central American equivalent, announced the plan Friday as part of a new “strategic collaboration agreement.”The men’s Copa America, which typically includes South America’s 10 national teams and two guests, will expand to 16 teams and welcome six from CONCACAF in 2024.Those six will qualify via the 2023-24 CONCACAF Nations League — meaning the U.S. is not guaranteed a place at the tournament. But the USMNT — along with Mexico and Canada — will be favored to earn a place.The tournament will likely give the three North American nations their highest-leverage games between now and the 2026 World Cup, which they will co-host — and for which they therefore won’t have to qualify.Whereas 2026 World Cup games will be shared among the three nations, 2024 Copa America games will be played exclusively in the U.S. — in many of the same cities and stadiums that will welcome the world two years later.he competition will return to the U.S. just eight summers after it last visited but on different terms. The 2016 Copa America Centenario was a one-off fiesta officially hosted by the United States. It netted the U.S. Soccer Federation some $80 million in profit.The 2024 edition, on the other hand, is a regularly scheduled Copa America that is moving north because no South American nation wanted to host it. It will be run by CONMEBOL and hosted, technically, by CONCACAF, not by U.S. Soccer — meaning the stateside windfall will be limited.Hosting duties are typically assigned on a rotating basis to one of CONMEBOL’s 10 members. It was Ecuador’s turn in 2024. But Ecuador declined a nomination, and CONMEBOL entered 2023 without an agreed-upon host.
The 2024 Copa America could be the last major tournament with Lionel Messi playing for Argentina. La Albiceleste won the tourney in 2021 in Brazil. (Photo by Gustavo Pagano/Getty Images
CONCACAF and its most powerful federations, meanwhile, were searching for meaningful games in 2024 and 2025. And “obviously,” as U.S. Soccer CEO JT Batson told a couple of reporters two weeks ago, “Copa America is a hell of a property.”Batson also mentioned that, while in Qatar for the 2022 World Cup, he heard consistently from other federations: “A lot of people want to come play soccer in our country. We have very impassioned fans, we’ve got great facilities, and of course, with the World Cup coming here, teams want to scout it out.”A North American hosting arrangement made too much sense. Discussions intensified after the 2022 World Cup, and an agreement was finalized this week.The agreement stretches beyond the Copa America and beyond men’s soccer to the women’s game and the men’s club game. CONCACAF will open its inaugural women’s championship, the W Gold Cup, to four South American teams in 2024. That tournament will also be played in the United States.CONMEBOL and CONCACAF also hope to launch a “final four”-style club competition in 2024 featuring the top two teams from each region.But the headliner is the Copa America, which could be Lionel Messi’s last major tournament with Argentina. It will, at the very least, bring the reigning world champs and a host of other stars to the U.S.It will also be a critical measuring stick for the USMNT, perhaps the first and most important under a new coach. It will be an opportunity to assess progress and personnel at the midway point between the 2022 and 2026 World Cups. It will also make U.S. Soccer’s vacant sporting director, general manager and head coach jobs more attractive to potential candidates.This was a key priority for U.S. Soccer coming out of Qatar, as part of its review of the USMNT program.”Obviously there’s a lot of focus on who men’s national team or women’s national team head coach is. But as a part of our review, we’re looking at this broadly,” Batson said Jan. 13 at the United Soccer Coaches Convention. “By virtue of hosting [in 2026], we don’t have World Cup qualification, so what does that mean for the environments our men’s national team are in, from a competitive games standpoint, over the next 3.5 years?”On Friday, they went a long way to securing one important answer.
USMNT weekend viewing guide: Familiar face, new place
Magic Wes could debut for Leads. By jcksnftsn Feb 3, 2023, 10:57am PST STars and Stripes
Saturday
Real Betis v Celta Vigo – 3p on ESPN+
Luca de la Torre got his second straight start last weekend against Athletic Club and picked up his first La Liga assist in the 1-0 victory. It was a pretty massive three points for Celta Vigo as they still sit just one point out of relegation. They’ll need to continue to scrap their way to some results and this weekend they face a sixth place Real Betis side that currently are within striking distance of Champions League qualification. It looks like de la Torre has worked his way into the starting lineup, which is a great sign for his continued growth and career trajectory.
Other notes:
Gio Reyna was an unused substitute last weekend in Borussia Dortmund’s 2-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen. Dortmund had a 2-0 lead 53 minutes into the game, so they didn’t need Reyna to come on and score a third straight match winner. BVB will face Freiburg at 9:30a on ESPN+.
Jordan Morris, Cristian Roldan, and the Seattle Sounders become the first MLS team to compete in the FIFA Club World Cup when they take on Al Ahly at 12p on FS2.
Jordan Pefok and Union Berlin face Mainz at 9:30a on ESPN+. Pefok has been used as a substitute in Union Berlin’s past two matches, and the club is on a three game winning streak, pulling them back to within a point of league-leading Bayern Munich.
John Brooks jumped right into the starting lineup for Hoffenheim, starting the club’s league match last weekend and their DFB-Pokal match midweek. Unfortunately, the club lost both matches while giving up seven goals, so there is still much work to be done. Justin Che also saw his first minutes for Hoffenheim in their Pokal loss to RB Leipzig and it would be good to see his opportunities increase. Hoffenheim face Bochum this weekend at 9:30a on ESPN+.
Chris Richards and Crystal Palace have their second matchup with Manchester United in two weeks. In the first match, Richards received his first career start for Palace and the teams played to a 1-1 draw. This weekend, the two sides will kickoff at 10a on Peacock.
Joe Scally was back to the starting lineup and Borussia Mönchengladbach were back to their winning ways after two losses that Scally did not start. Scally came off the bench in one match and didn’t appear in another after starting every match prior to the World Cup break, so his usage is a bit puzzling. ‘Gladbach face Schalke this weekend at 12:30p on ESPN+.
Erik Palmer-Brown continues to start for a Troyes side that continue to struggle defensively. The club has given up 45 goals through 21 matches and they are currently just one point out of the relegation spots. They face Lyon this weekend at 1p on beIN Sports.
Tim Weah has started three straight league matches for Lille, who face Rennes at 3p on beIN sports. Lille currently sit in sixth place, five points behind fifth place Rennes.
Sunday
Nottingham Forest v Leeds United – 9a on USA Network
Weston McKennie has joined the USMNT contingent at Leeds United and will have his first opportunity to help Tyler Adams, Brenden Aaronson, and Jesse Marsch avoid relegation when they kick off against Nottingham Forest this weekend. Leeds sit just a point out of the relegation spots, and three points back of their opponent this weekend, who are in 13th place in a crowded bottom third of the table where just six points separate the bottom eight teams. It should be quite a finish to the season as a team which already plays a high intensity style ratchets up the intensity, particularly for a USMNT fanbase looking for some of their foundational pieces to succeed on soccer’s largest stage.
Other notes:
Yunus Musah and Valencia travel to Girona at 10:15a in a match that will be shown on ESPN Deportes and ESPN+. Valencia are also just one point out of relegation and still adjusting to new management.
Kevin Paredes will get the opportunity to go up against league giants Bayern Munich when his Wolfsburg side host the league leaders at 11:30a on ESPN+. Paredes has appeared in Wolfsburg’s three matches since restarting from their winter break and picked up his first goal last weekend in a 2-1 loss to Werder Bremen.
Sergiño Dest’s AC Milan take on Inter in a Milan derby on Sunday at 2:45p on Paramount+. Dest missed last Sunday’s match due to muscular issues and was reportedly left off the upcoming Champions League squad.
Seattle Sounders carrying MLS banner at Club World Cup, eye dream clash vs. Real Madrid
3:26 PM ET Cesar Hernandez ESPNFC
12 noon on Fox Sports 1 Saturday
Long before helping the Seattle Sounders win the 2022 CONCACAF Champions League and qualifying for the current Club World Cup, forward Jordan Morris was just another local kid from the Emerald City, rooting for his favorite players.”I remember even before I was on the [Seattle] team and watching [CONCACAF] Champions League games, I wanted them to win the tournament and be the first MLS team to do it,” the 28-year-old told ESPN.Morris and the rest of the Sounders squad have accomplished at least part of that childhood aspiration, snapping a streak of 13 consecutive CCL titles for Liga MX teams. With a 5-2 aggregate victory at Lumen Field over Pumas UNAM in last May’s final, Seattle made history as the first-ever Major League Soccer side to win the North American competition in its modern era.On Saturday, that fairy tale will continue, and it could lead to a coveted clash against Real Madrid.
The Club World Cup, held this year in Morocco, brings together champions from each continent for a knockout-round tournament. The Sounders will debut against Egypt’s Al-Ahly at Ibn Batouta Stadium in Tangier. The winner then faces Madrid in the semifinal round. On the other side of the bracket, African champions Wydad Casablanca tackle Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hilal, who will then meet Brazilian outfit Flamengo.Granted, with the MLS regular season not kicking off for another three weeks, the Sounders will playing their first competitive matches of the year.”It’s definitely been more challenging in terms of building fitness and building sharpness within the group,” said Morris, who has spent a shortened four-week preseason with his teammates in the Spanish town of Marbella. “You gotta get up to fitness, speed and sharpness a lot quicker.”While other MLS sides are waiting to begin the regular season on Feb. 25, the Sounders have needed to expedite their efforts. They’ve done trainings in which players have been pushed more than normal, taken part in second sessions when needed, and played in two friendlies within a 24-hour time frame last Saturday — a 0-0 draw with Austria’s Wolfsberger AC and a 3-2 loss to Sweden’s Hammarby That said, there were few complaints about their beachside location.”Well, Marbella versus Tucson,” joked head coach Brian Schmetzr about the difference in this year’s preseason camp. “Not to put Tucson, Arizona, down, we’ve had some good days there.”It just lends a little bit more flavor, a little bit more pizzazz, a little bit more team bonding when you’re in a foreign country, it just feels different. The players are energized.”
eteran goalkeeper Stefan Frei was also content with his latest surroundings.”The weather has been good, the pitches have been fantastic, the training grounds are really close to our hotel. So it makes everything very, very convenient,” Frei said.Whether the camp location was selected simply for its proximity to Morocco or for the idyllic nature of the Marbella area, it seems like the right move for Seattle considering the immediate buildup and expectations being placed on them as the first MLS side in the Club World Cup.No longer watching from afar after Liga MX represented the CONCACAF region in every previous edition of the tournament, the Sounders will finally have a chance to boast what one of MLS’ top teams can achieve on a global stage. Looking ahead, Schmetzer was open about this weight on the shoulders of his team.”We don’t want to spend all this time and travel, and all that, to come to Morocco and not play very well, not be competitive. There is that little added bit of pressure individually and collectively, for sure,” he said.
With that pressure, there’s also an immense amount of pride for the players being part of a changing soccer landscape in America. With the 2022 World Cup over, there’s now a shifting focus toward the United States, which will co-host the 2026 World Cup with Mexico and Canada. In the early days of a new cycle, success at the Club World Cup could help kickstart even more growing interest for the sport in the country.”I think it continues to add to the excitement and add to the growth of soccer in this country,” Morris said, who was part of the USMNT’s World Cup squad in Qatar. “To be the first MLS team to play in this tournament, to be able to represent Seattle, represent MLS, is something that is a big honor. … It’s a once in a lifetime thing.”https://www.youtube.com/embed/8980x3l0GDo?wmode=transparentA highly significant and invaluable moment would also await them in the semifinals if they get that immediate win against Al-Ahly.Although the players and coach all stressed the idea of taking things game by game — Schmetzer himself said that he has been messaging his roster “that we’ll never get there unless we beat our first opponent” — there’s an undeniable thrill for all involved to possibly facing the 14-time UEFA Champions League winners.”I’ve been lucky enough to play against Real Madrid in friendlies, once with Toronto FC, once in an MLS All-Star Game, and that’s all nice and dandy, but to get to actually play in a meaningful competition in a meaningful game, that’s another level,” Frei said.No longer a kid watching CCL games and hoping for Seattle to succeed, Morris knew that he and his teammates could possibly face a top European side at the Club World Cup. “It was a cool experience, but the sentiment is that we have to get there first. We have to focus on this first game,” Morris said.In a competition as short and compressed as the Club World Cup, the measures of success and disappointment have varied wildly from CONCACAF’s previous Liga MX entrants, and often defined by just 90 minutes of play.In 2018, there was a sense of failure after Chivas arguably outplayed Japanese side Kashima Antlers before losing 3-2 in the initial round. In 2019, there was widespread praise for a Monterrey side that narrowly won their first game and then put up a fight in a narrow 2-1 loss to Liverpool in the semis. Similar accolades were given to Tigres in the 2020 edition for two close victories and then losing 1-0 to Bayern Munich in the final.Managing expectations and ambitions will be key, but then again, what has helped the Sounders reach the level that they’re currently at is through those high expectations that they put on themselves.
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“Our mantra has always been that we take every game, whether it’s a training game, anything, we want to win. We’re competitive in that way,” Schmetzer said.”All those experiences that we’ve had — winning some MLS Cups, winning [U.S.] Open Cups, winning the CCL championship — certainly will help us in that regard. The guys are super focused, they’re prepared. That’s the normal course of business for this franchise.”Seattle has been touted as one of the league’s model clubs since joining MLS in 2007 as an expansion franchise. The team has won two MLS Cup titles and four U.S. Open Cup wins while continuing to be among the top in attendance figures.”Our mentality is always to win trophies. We’ve been a club that prides ourself on that, and this is a new opportunity, a new challenge, but again, it goes back to taking it game by game,” the forward said.If Liga MX clubs have been close before, if teams from Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Ecuador and Democratic Republic of the Congo have all had an opportunity in previous finals, then why not Seattle?As showcased in the CCL last year, Frei continues to have the reflexes to single-handedly change the outcomes of matches, attacking midfielder Nicolas Lodeiro was capable of providing crucial goals and assists, and up top, there are few players in CONCACAF club soccer that have been as clutch in big game moments as Peruvian striker Raul Ruidiaz. In support, others like Morris and Cristian Roldan were brilliant. Also, if midfielder Joao Paulo is back to full fitness this week, that’ll provide an extra boost as well.
Players like these have bought into not only striving for success with the Sounders, but also being a part of what could be a storied history.”When you go through a Bayern Munich or an AC Milan trophy room, you see the black-and-white picture of the team that won their trophies for the very first time,” Frei said.”We’ve done that in 2016 [with an MLS Cup], we’ve done that with winning CONCACAF Champions League, and now we get to represent our community, our club, Seattle as a city, our families and also the league.”Even if they don’t win it all, even if they lose that first match, there could be another young fan watching from home, wishing to one day see them lift that title.
Weston McKennie reportedly finalizes move to Leeds, a win for all parties and an American dream
Another member of the United States men’s national team, midfielder Weston McKennie, is reportedly heading to Leeds United.Leeds is finalizing a deal with Juventus to bring McKennie to the English Premier League, where he’ll join forces with USMNT captain Tyler Adams, fellow U.S. teammate Brenden Aaronson and American manager Jesse Marsch. Pending a medical, the transfer could be completed Sunday.And crucially, McKennie is making the move with little downside. It is, according to multiple reports, an initial loan deal that gives Leeds the option to buy McKennie permanently this summer.The loan fee is reportedly $1.3 million. The eventual transfer fee would be upward of $35 million, which Leeds would presumably pay if McKennie, 24, performs well and keeps them in the Premier League, but presumably wouldn’t pay if they get relegated.Leeds currently sits in 15th out of 20 teams in the Premier League, with four wins in 19 games, just one point above the relegation zone. The bottom three teams at the end of the EPL season are relegated to the second-tier Championship. The downside of McKennie’s move, if it were a simple permanent transfer, would have been that three key USMNT players were in danger of spending prime years together in a second division.The exact terms of the actual deal have not been disclosed, but Leeds’ eventual purchase is likely, either contractually or implicitly, contingent on the club staying in the top flight. And the downside is therefore limited. If Leeds go down, McKennie and Juventus could find another buyer this summer.It is also a win for cash-strapped Juventus. McKennie’s current contract runs through the end of the 2024-25 season. Juve made the move to sell him after it received a 15-point penalty over its recent transfer activity. The club was found to have made fraudulent accounting maneuvers — a result and now an aggravator of its financial struggles.McKennie has played a key role, albeit a fluctuating one, for Juventus over the past three seasons. He has made 13 Serie A starts and has a goal and an assist in 2022-23. He made 15 starts during the 2021-22 season before suffering a foot injury.Overall, McKennie has scored nine goals in his three seasons at the legendary Italian club. He joined Juve after spending four seasons with Schalke in the Bundesliga.
Leeds solidifies itself as America’s EPL team
In England, the Texas-born McKennie will reunite with Aaronson and Adams. All played key midfield roles for the U.S. in its four games at the 2022 World Cup. McKennie and Adams started all four matches while Aaronson was one of the first players off the bench throughout the tournament.Aaronson has started every EPL game for Leeds while Adams has started all but two. McKennie will likely slot into the starting lineup sooner rather than later, and could complete an all-American three-man midfield on some occasions. He’ll also strengthen an already-strong friendship with Adams. The two have known each other for over a decade, and made their USMNT debuts in November 2017. Ahead of the World Cup, at a media event in Cincinnati, McKennie crashed Adams’ session and posed as a reporter. McKennie asked him: “What position do you find yourself most comfortable in? The 6 role? The 8 role?””Which one do you think, coach?” Adams shot back with a smile.”I mean,” McKennie said, “I mean, I like when you play 6 and run for me.” Both burst into laughter. And they’ll be coached, at least for now, by Marsch, the most accomplished American coach in European soccer; and his newly hired American assistant, Chris Armas. Marsch is on an increasingly hot seat, but an FA Cup win on Saturday should keep him in the job until at least February .The club is also minority-owned by the York family and 49ers Enterprises, the owners of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers.They are not quite Fulhamerica. Fulham will retain the record for American representation on a single Premier League roster. The London club employed Clint Dempsey, Carlos Bocanegra, Brian McBride, Kasey Keller and Edie Johnson during the 2007-08 season. Leeds now moves into joint-second place alongside 2012-13 Stoke City. But never has a single top-flight European club had three prime-age USMNT stars, and a fourth starter who went to an American high school and college (Jack Harrison), and an American head coach, and an American assistant coach, and American owners. Leeds, at this potentially fleeting moment, is America’s team.
There’s a convenient shortcut one can use to assess Weston McKennie’s fit at Leeds United: an increasingly strong connective tissue coloured red, white, and blue.
His coach at Elland Road is fellow American Jesse Marsch, who could also commiserate with McKennie about their respective stays in the German Bundesliga. He’ll join a midfield including their countryman Tyler Adams, the captain of his national team who has been a first-choice option for the USMNT alongside McKennie for years. When he looks to leave the centre of the park, he’ll do so alongside another American Brenden Aaronson, another U.S. international who became Leeds’ record signing last summer.
Scan beyond the obvious, however, and you’ll find an interesting partnership.For McKennie, this will appear to be a step down from a perennial title contender in Juventus to a side mired in a Premier League relegation scrap. Leeds’ move to sign him should not be seen as Marsch offering a life raft to a compatriot as the S.S. Old Lady appears to be taking on water. Rather, Leeds’ transition to playing in a 4-3-3 more often required someone who can do all the pressing work of a defensive-minded midfielder without forcing the coach to put another deep-lying player onto the pitch.“I thought seriously,” McKennie told The Athletic on Monday at Elland Road. “Juventus are a Champions League club, a strong club, one of the top teams in Italy and around the world. But for me, I just felt like I couldn’t express my style or play and my full potential there. Leeds are a team who I feel like I fit toe-to-toe with everything that they want to do and accomplish.“I have friends here. Obviously I think about myself first because it’s my career, but it helps. Tyler’s a similar player to me. He fits in well here, so I’ve heard only good things. That’s how I came to my decision.”For a player so often asked to do everything he can to keep an amorphous team well-calibrated, a more specialised role could be needed for his development. Conversely, Leeds have found a younger midfield replacement for Mateusz Klich, who has moved to D.C. United of MLS this winter — and McKennie won’t struggle to find friendly faces as he acclimatises.
When analysing McKennie, it is easy to prioritise the proverbial eye-test over the numbers.It is impossible to look away from the U.S. international when he is at his best. McKennie is a sharp reader of a game who loves to get into dangerous areas to give team-mates an outlet for passing — to force another Americanism into the mix, something of an ideal game-breaking wide receiver. His often eye-catching hairdos (with a patriotically colourful patch at the recent World Cup) are outshone by his work rate, which seemingly keeps him in the TV cameras’ shot no matter the vantage point. He’s also been somewhat amorphous in his young career, that less-specialised player who coaches often ask to fill gaps left open by more defined team-mates.“When I was at Schalke (from 2016-20), I was all over the place,” McKennie said yesterday. “I was playing right-back, I was playing midfield, I was playing striker, I was playing centre-back… everywhere. I learnt to play different positions.“When I came to Italy, they could see I was a bit hectic in some of my runs and pressing sometimes — running 60 yards instead of running 30 yards and doing the same thing.“I definitely learned some tactical and positional discipline. But at the same time, it became a little bit too much — where it felt like I was on a string. The string is pulled here, the string’s pulled there and I couldn’t completely have some type of freedom.“That was one of the main reasons why I came to the conclusion that I’d come to England and see how I shape up.”
McKennie holds off Borussia Dortmund’s Achraf Hakimi during his time at Schalke (Photo: Alexandre Simoes/Borussia Dortmund via Getty Images)
Like Aaronson and Adams before him, his first chance to make a strong impression on his new fanbase could come with his defensive pressing.So far in 2022-23, McKennie has averaged 4.98 ball recoveries per 90 minutes, with 41.9 per cent of these coming in the opposition’s half of the pitch. In comparison, Klich averaged 6.48 during two and a half Premier League seasons for Leeds, playing mostly under Marcelo Bielsa, including 47.4 per cent in the attacking third. Some of that was dictated by the difference in styles seen in the Bundesliga and Serie A, as McKennie averaged 8.18 recoveries per 90 with Schalke, while that rate dipped to 5.5 after moving to the fallen Serie A giant.While he filled the role assigned to him, it was never a fully compatible match between Juventus’ style and McKennie’s brand of flair.“In Italy, there’s a little bit more on the serious side — not in a bad way either,” McKennie said. “They’re very presentable. I’m very, I don’t know… outgoing. I have a really big personality and sometimes it doesn’t work out. Also, the playing style. Italian football in general is very defensive and different paced to what you get here (in England). I’m a very up and down (box to box) type of guy, so that was another reason.”
McKennie will no doubt hope that Marsch will enable him to unleash more from his game, which he had to contain at the Allianz Stadium.That box-to-box approach should serve Leeds well as it works to progress up the pitch more quickly. Currently, Leeds average 14.4 passes per minute of possession, a tick below the league average of 14.68. Leicester City lead the Premier League with a 16.2 passing rate, while Southampton operate at a more lethargic 13.1 clip.While Leeds pass close to the league average, they aim to be more progressive than most.Their 64.6 progressive passes per 90 is fractionally ahead of league leaders Arsenal, ranking sixth overall behind Liverpool, Manchester City, Brighton, Tottenham and Manchester United. While Marsch’s current midfield partnership of Adams and Marc Roca have both proven capable of spraying passes from deep, McKennie will be far from redundant.
To put it mildly, McKennie is seldom compared to Andres Iniesta.Among all midfielders in the European game’s Big Five leagues who played at least 500 minutes ahead of the recent World Cup, none had a smaller share of his team’s live (aka, open play) passes than the U.S. international. However, only six qualified midfielders had a higher share of their team’s received progressive passes, illustrating his capability of getting into promising areas down the pitch.The same point can be illustrated with a full season’s worth of play.McKennie logged 1,369 league minutes for Juventus in 2021-22, starting in 15 of his 21 appearances. In that time, Smarterscout data shows that his receptions were far more impactful for their ball progression as a team than his passes or his carries.
While it is odd to think of a first-choice midfielder being a poor passer, even in this age of role specialisation, McKennie’s strengths in receiving and ball recoveries should help round out the midfield when deployed ahead of summer signings Adams and Roca. That spatial awareness should be a welcome addition for Roca in particular, as the Spaniard can lack options to receive his line-breaking passes due to Leeds’ narrow shape.
Marsch may need to move further away from relying on a 4-2-3-1 base formation in order to accommodate a trio of midfielders who certainly did not come to Yorkshire for 25-minute shifts from the bench. Some of that work has taken place already this month: after lining up in a 4-3-3 just once before the World Cup — in October’s 1-0 defeat against Arsenal at home — Leeds have used the shape for four of their five league matches since play resumed post-Qatar, with Aaronson and Wilfried Gnonto alternating makeshift midfield responsibilities.
Although teenager Gnonto has been an electric inclusion, McKennie could offer much of the Italian’s threat to receive progressive balls while giving Leeds a more natural base shape. Marsch could then play the matchup game by game and pick between Aaronson and Gnonto to join Jack Harrison and Rodrigo in the attacking third — without giving them additional orders to track back.
Adams and McKennie, team-mates with the USMNT, reflect on the draw with Wales at the recent World Cup. Now they are club-mates at Leeds (Photo: Maja Hitij – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
After so much instability on the pitch since before Bielsa was replaced by the American last February, McKennie’s signing appears to give Leeds far greater balance in midfield.Roca can stay back with greater confidence that he’ll have a target to find with a pass while Adams continues doing the metronomic work of alternating a series of short passes with his tireless efforts to disrupt opposing build-up sequences.There is also the fact that, as the squad stood previously, Marsch’s go-to midfielder after Adams and Roca has been Sam Greenwood — a raw youngster who, up to the very end of last season, was regarded as a centre-forward. Beyond that, Adam Forshaw, a 31-year-old veteran of Leeds’ days in the Championship, has lacked fitness this term and barely played, and Darko Gyabi also boasts little experience at age 18.While signing a central midfielder now was not an urgent priority, it was not difficult to make the argument that Leeds recruiting one of McKennie’s calibre in this window felt extremely prudent.https://theathletic.com/report/podcast-clip/?clip_id=7045 They can also enjoy a trial period to determine if he is the missing piece to complete Marsch’s newly preferred midfield trio before committing significant funds to making the move permanent.McKennie was brought in on loan with 24 Champions League appearances for Schalke and Juventus to his name, with Leeds holding a purchase option close to £30million ($37m). Currently a point above the relegation zone, they will have to avoid the drop back down to the Championship over the next four months if they are to trigger that option, on top of certain other conditions.But that is a question for later in the season. For now, McKennie is squarely focused on making a strong first impression for a team hoping to escape the battle at the bottom of the league far sooner than they did last season, when survival was not assured until the final match. That is very much in his character, as those close to him say he’s “too much of a fighter” to stomach being relegated.He has enough to focus on the short-term to ensure that purchase option does not loom over his Premier League debut.“I’m an in-the-moment type person — I’m coming here with how the deal is but if I love it then I don’t see why not,” added McKennie when asked about the prospect of staying. “If maybe Leeds aren’t happy with me or I’m not happy, we’ll see how that goes.“But, for now, my head is here.”
How McKennie sealed Leeds transfer following Orta’s vision and the American connection
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Weston McKennie to Leeds United is a done deal and the links between Elland Road and the United States grow stronger but Germany and Gelsenkirchen is where the roots of this transfer lie.McKennie has joined a club who are stars and stripes in so many respects: with Americans as their head coach and primary assistant, future American owners and, after McKennie’s transfer from Juventus went through, a squad with three USMNT internationals in it. But as negotiations played out last week, German Bundesliga side Schalke were referenced in dispatches as the place where Leeds’ tracking of McKennie first started, the part of his career which caught director of football Victor Orta’s eye and got him thinking.Orta has a tendency to work like that.Initial interest develops into long-term appreciation and sometimes, as with Robin Koch, a deal is done to sign a player who Orta has been monitoring in the background for years.Leeds, it transpires, first thought about buying McKennie in 2020, the summer when Juventus prised him out of Schalke, initially on loan. After that, with the move becoming permanent the following March, the idea of recruiting him was shelved but Orta has a habit of staying in touch, keeping the door open and nurturing relationships in the meantime. Communication improves the odds of a successful outcome if the opportunity presents itself again.That was where Leeds found themselves with a week of this year’s January window to go, after a call to Juventus was met with a receptive response at the other end of the line. Before last Tuesday, when an enquiry from Elland Road bloomed into active talks about the 24-year-old, it was not certain McKennie would be leaving the Italian giants this month. He was aware that Leeds admired him and there was talk about Premier League interest from Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Nottingham Forest but none of it promised anything definitive.McKennie, in any case, had been a regular presence in Juventus’ team during the first half of the season and, for much of this month, Leeds spent time thinking about Azzedine Ounahi, Morocco’s World Cup star.
McKennie had been tracked by Leeds since his time at Schalke (Photo: Ronald Wittek/Pool via Getty Images)
Signing a new central midfielder was a temptation but not an outright necessity. As they came into January, Leeds’ priorities were a defender capable of playing left-back and a quality forward — bases covered by the £10million ($12.3m) arrival of Max Wober from Red Bull Salzburg and the record-breaking capture of Georginio Rutter from Hoffenheim for a fee that could rise to £35m ($43.2m) with add-onshttps://495d424347a4a7f599f26bd0c1ef6213.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-40/html/container.html
The club had allowed Mateusz Klich to move on after more than four years in England, terminating his contract so he could join DC United ahead of the 2023 MLS season, and that slimmed down their midfield ranks, but whereas Wober and Rutter were viewed as essential additions, signing a new central midfielder was dependent on availability and price. The latter, in the end, was where Leeds’ interest in Ounahi fell down.When they asked French club Angers about Ounahi last summer, they were told he would cost between £8m and £12m ($9.9m and $14.8m).When they went back to Angers in this window, following his impressive World Cup with surprise semi-finalists Morocco, the club currently bottom of Ligue 1 were talking about a fee closer to £20m ($24.7m), if not more. Napoli, the Serie A leaders, were also quoted a high price for the 22-year-old which they declined to match. Orta told Leeds not to go overboard on him and, if it came to it, to leave Ounahi alone.By last week, Leeds were actively working on McKennie instead and Napoli had not budged either.It might have been a sign of the lack of active offers for Ounahi that on Sunday, with less than three days to go before the transfer deadline, Angers sold him to fellow French club Marseille for less than £10m ($12.3m) up front — a modest fee given his performances at the World Cup.
Leeds were told by Angers after the World Cup that Ounahi would cost around £20m ($24.7m) (Photo: Mike Hewitt – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
McKennie was valued much higher, above £20m ($24.7m) by Juventus — and that price tag was considered realistic.The deal struck by Leeds, a loan for the rest of this season with an option to buy which the Yorkshire side plan to activate in the summer, will cost them closer to £30m ($37m) if they do take McKennie permanently, reflecting his Champions League experience (24 appearances) and his status as one of the leading members of the USMNT squad.
ADVERTISEMENTTriggering that option to sign him full-time will rely on Leeds avoiding relegation, and there are also other conditions attached.Based on assurances he has been given about what his role will be at Elland Road, McKennie can expect to be in the thick of Leeds’ Premier League campaign, provided he stays fit.Juventus are in crisis after an investigation into their financial management ended with a 15-point deduction in the league.Head coach Max Allegri even talked about relegation as a genuine threat for a side now 13th in Serie A after they lost 2-0 to Monza on Sunday, a match which played out as McKennie was preparing to board a flight to the UK.Nonetheless, a loan deal with an option for McKennie suits them. Even if Leeds had completed a permanent deal now, Juventus were not planning to spend money on new players in what was left of the January window.His transfer is highly likely to become permanent later this year but if for some reason that plan falls through, McKennie’s value will not diminish drastically. Where Leeds are concerned, they avoid a scenario where they take on a £30m ($37m) fee and then fall back down to the EFL in May. Contracts held by players of McKennie’s stature invariably include relegation release clauses.
USA’s McKennie takes on Virgil van Dijk of the Netherlands in the round of 16 at the 2022 World Cup (Photo: Chris Brunskill/ISI Photos/Getty Images)
After several days of discussion over the structure of the deal, a loan with an option to buy worked for everyone.There were complications on Friday night, at a point where McKennie thought the transfer was as good as wrapped up. By then, he had started saying his goodbyes to team-mates in Turin and was getting ready to travel to England. Further discussions the next morning, though, got all sides on the same page and by lunchtime, Allegri was confirming to the Italian press that McKennie would not be involved against Monza. “He is at the centre of a negotiation,” Allegri said. “I think the club have already found an agreement with his new team.” “It was stressful,” McKennie told The Athletic after officially joining Leeds tonight. He had first been told that a bid for him from Yorkshire might be on its way a fortnight ago. “I’m at home and one minute I’m chilling. The next I’m calling my agent like ‘do I need to pack, do I not need to pack, what am I doing?’ I’ve got three dogs, I’ve got everything up and running in Turin, perfected. I’m trying to figure out what I need to do because I’m not just packing one suitcase.“I’m the type of player who lives in the moment so when I heard the deal was possibly going through, going through the process and all trending well, in my head it was already ‘I’m leaving, I’m coming to Leeds.’ Then you start thinking ‘is it happening, is it not, what’s going on?’ It was a bit of a head-turner but as soon as I was told ‘you’re flying tomorrow’ — good!”Orta tracking McKennie since his Schalke days did not mean the US connection at Leeds was not important.Tyler Adams, a fellow central midfielder McKennie has grown up with internationally and will now link up with domestically, was influential in selling the move and the location. Adams was at Elland Road this evening to welcome McKennie and interview him for the club’s TV station after as he finalised his loan forms. While Juventus are in a spell of trouble, they were Italy’s dominant club for years and McKennie was accustomed to mixing in Champions League circles. Prior interest from non-Champions League sides in England had failed to attract him in the same way.Jesse Marsch, Leeds’ American head coach, spelt out McKennie’s role in his line-up, and McKennie was given an idea of how Leeds want to evolve down the line, with a takeover by minority shareholder 49ers Enterprises bubbling behind the scenes. The overall vision satisfied him enough to say yes.Though a permanent move to Leeds for McKennie would technically happen in the summer transfer window, the past month has seen the club commit to £70m ($86.4m) worth of first-team players — beyond what was widely anticipated for January.Monday also saw them put in place an agreement for Diego Llorente to go on loan to Roma, a switch which is intended to become permanent and could recoup the £18m ($22.2m) paid for a centre-back who has never managed to wholly convince in two and a half seasons in England.
It has been the most active January for years at Elland Road and a break from tradition for a club who, for so long, saw the winter window as a bad time to do business.In getting McKennie over the line the day before the deadline, they have comprehensively pushed the boat out.
Seattle Sounders carrying MLS banner at Club World Cup, eye dream clash vs. Real Madrid
Long before helping the Seattle Sounders win the 2022 CONCACAF Champions League and qualifying for the current Club World Cup, forward Jordan Morris was just another local kid from the Emerald City, rooting for his favorite players.”I remember even before I was on the [Seattle] team and watching [CONCACAF] Champions League games, I wanted them to win the tournament and be the first MLS team to do it,” the 28-year-old told ESPN.Morris and the rest of the Sounders squad have accomplished at least part of that childhood aspiration, snapping a streak of 13 consecutive CCL titles for Liga MX teams. With a 5-2 aggregate victory at Lumen Field over Pumas UNAM in last May’s final, Seattle made history as the first-ever Major League Soccer side to win the North American competition in its modern era.On Saturday, that fairy tale will continue, and it could lead to a coveted clash against Real Madrid.
The Club World Cup, held this year in Morocco, brings together champions from each continent for a knockout-round tournament. The Sounders will debut against Egypt’s Al-Ahly at Ibn Batouta Stadium in Tangier. The winner then faces Madrid in the semifinal round. On the other side of the bracket, African champions Wydad Casablanca tackle Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hilal, who will then meet Brazilian outfit Flamengo.Granted, with the MLS regular season not kicking off for another three weeks, the Sounders will playing their first competitive matches of the year.”It’s definitely been more challenging in terms of building fitness and building sharpness within the group,” said Morris, who has spent a shortened four-week preseason with his teammates in the Spanish town of Marbella. “You gotta get up to fitness, speed and sharpness a lot quicker.”While other MLS sides are waiting to begin the regular season on Feb. 25, the Sounders have needed to expedite their efforts. They’ve done trainings in which players have been pushed more than normal, taken part in second sessions when needed, and played in two friendlies within a 24-hour time frame last Saturday — a 0-0 draw with Austria’s Wolfsberger AC and a 3-2 loss to Sweden’s Hammarby That said, there were few complaints about their beachside location.”Well, Marbella versus Tucson,” joked head coach Brian Schmetzer about the difference in this year’s preseason camp. “Not to put Tucson, Arizona, down, we’ve had some good days there.”It just lends a little bit more flavor, a little bit more pizzazz, a little bit more team bonding when you’re in a foreign country, it just feels different. The players are energized.” Herculez Gomez and Sebastian Salazar debate the biggest storylines and break down the best highlights that soccer in the Americas has to offer. Stream on ESPN+ (U.S. only) Veteran goalkeeper Stefan Frei was also content with his latest surroundings.”The weather has been good, the pitches have been fantastic, the training grounds are really close to our hotel. So it makes everything very, very convenient,” Frei said. hether the camp location was selected simply for its proximity to Morocco or for the idyllic nature of the Marbella area, it seems like the right move for Seattle considering the immediate buildup and expectations being placed on them as the first MLS side in the Club World Cup.No longer watching from afar after Liga MX represented the CONCACAF region in every previous edition of the tournament, the Sounders will finally have a chance to boast what one of MLS’ top teams can achieve on a global stage. Looking ahead, Schmetzer was open about this weight on the shoulders of his team.”We don’t want to spend all this time and travel, and all that, to come to Morocco and not play very well, not be competitive. There is that little added bit of pressure individually and collectively, for sure,” he said.With that pressure, there’s also an immense amount of pride for the players being part of a changing soccer landscape in America. With the 2022 World Cup over, there’s now a shifting focus toward the United States, which will co-host the 2026 World Cup with Mexico and Canada. In the early days of a new cycle, success at the Club World Cup could help kickstart even more growing interest for the sport in the country.”I think it continues to add to the excitement and add to the growth of soccer in this country,” Morris said, who was part of the USMNT’s World Cup squad in Qatar. “To be the first MLS team to play in this tournament, to be able to represent Seattle, represent MLS, is something that is a big honor. … It’s a once in a lifetime thing.”A highly significant and invaluable moment would also await them in the semifinals if they get that immediate win against Al-Ahly.Although the players and coach all stressed the idea of taking things game by game — Schmetzer himself said that he has been messaging his roster “that we’ll never get there unless we beat our first opponent” — there’s an undeniable thrill for all involved to possibly facing the 14-time UEFA Champions League winners.”I’ve been lucky enough to play against Real Madrid in friendlies, once with Toronto FC, once in an MLS All-Star Game, and that’s all nice and dandy, but to get to actually play in a meaningful competition in a meaningful game, that’s another level,” Frei said. No longer a kid watching CCL games and hoping for Seattle to succeed, Morris knew that he and his teammates could possibly face a top European side at the Club World Cup. “It was a cool experience, but the sentiment is that we have to get there first. We have to focus on this first game,” Morris said. In a competition as short and compressed as the Club World Cup, the measures of success and disappointment have varied wildly from CONCACAF’s previous Liga MX entrants, and often defined by just 90 minutes of play. In 2018, there was a sense of failure after Chivas arguably outplayed Japanese side Kashima Antlers before losing 3-2 in the initial round. In 2019, there was widespread praise for a Monterrey side that narrowly won their first game and then put up a fight in a narrow 2-1 loss to Liverpool in the semis. Similar accolades were given to Tigres in the 2020 edition for two close victories and then losing 1-0 to Bayern Munich in the final. Managing expectations and ambitions will be key, but then again, what has helped the Sounders reach the level that they’re currently at is through those high expectations that they put on themselves.
“Our mantra has always been that we take every game, whether it’s a training game, anything, we want to win. We’re competitive in that way,” Schmetzer said. “All those experiences that we’ve had — winning some MLS Cups, winning [U.S.] Open Cups, winning the CCL championship — certainly will help us in that regard. The guys are super focused, they’re prepared. That’s the normal course of business for this franchise.” Seattle has been touted as one of the league’s model clubs since joining MLS in 2007 as an expansion franchise. The team has won two MLS Cup titles and four U.S. Open Cup wins while continuing to be among the top in attendance figures. “Our mentality is always to win trophies. We’ve been a club that prides ourself on that, and this is a new opportunity, a new challenge, but again, it goes back to taking it game by game,” the forward said. If Liga MX clubs have been close before, if teams from Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Ecuador and Democratic Republic of the Congo have all had an opportunity in previous finals, then why not Seattle? As showcased in the CCL last year, Frei continues to have the reflexes to single-handedly change the outcomes of matches, attacking midfielder Nicolas Lodeiro was capable of providing crucial goals and assists, and up top, there are few players in CONCACAF club soccer that have been as clutch in big game moments as Peruvian striker Raul Ruidiaz. In support, others like Morris and Cristian Roldan were brilliant. Also, if midfielder Joao Paulo is back to full fitness this week, that’ll provide an extra boost as well.Players like these have bought into not only striving for success with the Sounders, but also being a part of what could be a storied history.”When you go through a Bayern Munich or an AC Milan trophy room, you see the black-and-white picture of the team that won their trophies for the very first time,” Frei said. “We’ve done that in 2016 [with an MLS Cup], we’ve done that with winning CONCACAF Champions League, and now we get to represent our community, our club, Seattle as a city, our families and also the league.” Even if they don’t win it all, even if they lose that first match, there could be another young fan watching from home, wishing to one day see them lift that title.
USMNT coach Hudson says Tolkin, Vazquez, Zendejas in the mix for Nations League
The purpose of any January U.S. men’s national team camp has always been to identify players for the future, and at least on that front, it sounds like the mission was accomplished.Following Saturday’s surprisingly intense 0-0 draw with Colombia, USMNT interim head coach Anthony Hudson didn’t eliminate anyone in this camp from future consideration, but he mentioned three players as ones to watch out for when the team reconvenes in March for Nations League matches against Grenada and El Salvador.Two won’t be a surprise: Alejandro Zendejas may have had to leave camp early — he was named to the starting lineup as Club América faced Mazatlán later on Saturday night — but Hudson still clearly rates the 24-year-old dual national.
Similarly, Brandon Vazquez has seemingly boosted his chances, with Hudson praising him after he scored against Serbia and then bringing him up again after the Colombia draw as a candidate for future call-ups.“All I can say on Brandon and Alejandro is, for me personally, I thought they were both very, very good,” Hudson told reporters in his post-match press conference. “Alejandro in the last game, I thought was excellent. He was great in training. We loved to have him in camp. Good character, enjoyed being here. And the same with Brandon. I’ve really enjoyed working with him. So they’re two players that are well and truly going to be in our conversations when we get back to Chicago.”Vazquez’s 2022 season with FC Cincinnati was impressive enough that he was seen as a potential dark horse for the final World Cup roster, only for Gregg Berhalter to tell him it was too late to integrate him before the tournament.Zendejas, meanwhile, drew raves from Hudson before he flew back to Mexico City, and has both the USMNT and Mexico making major overtures for his international future.Curiously, Vazquez — another dual national eligible for both countries — says he has not heard from El Tri. Either way, playing in a Nations League match would be far more consequential, as FIFA recognizes that as an official competition. Even subbing in for the final seconds of one match in that tournament would tie either player’s international future to the USMNT for good.
‘Big personality’ Tolkin in the frame
New York Red Bulls wingback John Tolkin also impressed Hudson, with the 20-year-old being name-checked as “someone in our group of players” for future consideration.“I love him around the place, I love him in camp,” enthused Hudson. “He’s just got such a big personality. And then you see his personality on the field: he’s incredibly brave, he’s an aggressive player, he’s a physical player. I don’t think this situation fazed him at all.”Tolkin, after coming up through the Red Bulls’ academy system and impressing as a teenager with the club’s satellite team (which at the time played in the USL Championship, but has since moved to MLS Next Pro), quickly became an MLS fixture after making his debut in the league in May 2021. Despite not turning 21 until July, he’s already racked up 59 MLS appearances.“He embraces everything. He’s a very confident kid,” added Hudson. “He’s one that we’re glad we’ve seen, because he’s impressed us before when he [was] in our pre-World Cup camp. He’s now someone that’s in our group of players.”Left back has long been a problem position for the USMNT, but Tolkin finds himself in a large group of candidates for the job.
Antonee Robinson is a locked-in starter, but after that it seems like any number of options could become more of a fixture. Joe Scally plays regularly at right back with Borussia Monchengladbach, but within the USMNT is probably more of a candidate to play on the left. Sam Vines was still in consideration for the World Cup squad well into fall of 2022 as well, while 19-year-old Jonathan Gómez started against Serbia and is already in Europe with Real Sociedad.
Reggie Cannon can play on either flank, while DeJuan Jones — who finished Saturday’s game on the left after looking strong in 80 minutes on the right — has been a first-choice left back with the New England Revolution for years. Kevin Paredes has been playing further forward with Wolfsburg, but is a left back candidate and scored his first Bundesliga goal just hours before the USMNT kicked off on Saturday. George Bello hasn’t gotten a call-up since summer of 2022, but has 14 appearances at Arminia Bielefeld at just 21 years old.
Nonetheless, Tolkin’s first call-up saw him seize his opportunity, and based on Hudson’s remarks, it seems that the competition at left back will be fierce in the coming months.
Power Rankings: Who are the favorites to be the next USMNT head coach?
With reports that José Mourinho and Zinedine Zidane have been eyed for the U.S. men’s national team coaching job, it would seem that the Gregg Berhalter era is coming to a close. And while there is nothing official yet from U.S. Soccer, there could well be a head coaching search coming for the men’s program in the not-too-distant future. Who knows, it might already be underway!It is an appealing job, given that Berhalter guided a very young group to the knockout stage of the 2022 World Cup. Now with that young group set to hit their prime and a deep talent pool coming up the ranks, this will be a job that, if it opens, will generate a lot of interest. The fact that the 2026 World Cup is mainly in the United States should make the job even more appealing.With that in mind, here are our power rankings for USMNT coaching candidates.
13Giovanni van Bronckhorst
Why it makes sense: A top-tier Dutch international, Van Bronckhorst had a recent spell at Rangers that saw them win the Scottish Cup and also reach the Champions League group stage for the first time in 12 years.He also has a close relationship with the Reyna clan, having played with Claudio Reyna at Rangers. In fact, Gio Reyna was named after Van Bronckhorst.Why it doesn’t make sense: Van Bronckhorst has never been a manager at the international level and a steady, seasoned hand is needed to guide this group. While he is available, his time at Rangers wasn’t as successful as it could have been given the resources at his disposal.
Why it makes sense: The Colorado Rapids head coach has turned a club with some major issues into a very solid team on the pitch. Given the lack of resources in Colorado, Fraser has gotten more from less than any other league head coach over the past three years. A former U.S. international, his calm and steady style would be a stark contrast to a fiery predecessor.
Why it doesn’t make sense: Fraser has yet to win a trophy with Colorado. It might be a tough sell to the federation ahead of hosting the World Cup in 2026, given that Fraser’s resume lacks any big splashes (even if he is the most under-appreciated head coach in MLS, by a mile).
Why it makes sense: Berhalter got plenty out of this young group including a Nations League win (over rival Mexico), a Gold Cup win (again, over rival Mexico) and a trip to the knockout rounds of the World Cup. Continuity does matter in international soccer and based on results alone, Berhalter may deserve another cycle.
Why it doesn’t make sense: Yeah, no. You just can’t now.
10Steve Cherundulo
Why it makes sense: A former United States international and a highly-respected player in the German Bundesliga, Cherundulo is certainly finding his footing as a head coach in MLS. He spent time in Germany as an assistant and in 2018 with the USMNT on their staff. In his first season as head coach of LAFC, Cherundulo won the Supporters’ Shield and MLS Cup last year. Additionally, he knows how to manage big-ego players and handle a locker room.
Why it doesn’t make sense: Cherundulo turns 44 years old next month and still needs some more seasoning as a head coach. He’s only been a top-flight head coach since last year. Next cycle, however, he might be the front-runner for the job.
Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
9Peter Vermes
Why it makes sense: Among the most accomplished head coaches in MLS history, Vermes has turned Sporting Kansas City into a model team over the past decade. As a former MLS player and United States international, he was a model of consistency. The man is simply intensity personified when it comes to the sport in this country.
Why it doesn’t make sense: A head coach who is as fiery and passionate as Vermes might be too much for this generation of players. Sporting KC hasn’t won a trophy since 2017 (the U.S. Open Cup) and has missed the playoffs two of the past four seasons.
Why it makes sense: Probably not a name that pops off the list for many national team fans or media insiders, but a source said that Schmetzer is a name to watch for this cycle. Why? He is calm, steady and has managed big personalities in Seattle while finding success. Since taking over the Sounders in 2016, they have won MLS Cup twice (and twice were runners-up) while becoming the first MLS club to win the CONCACAF Champions League. That international success gives Schmetzer some real clout.
Why it doesn’t make sense: At 60, Schmetzer is the oldest candidate in this group. While his Champions League success with Seattle is impressive, he has never played or coached at the international level.
7Tata Martino
Why it makes sense: From his time with Atlanta United, Martino has been a favorite among national team fans for the way he built a winning culture and handled a lot of star power. He is bilingual and highly respected, with an impressive resume that includes stints in charge of Argentina and Barcelona.
Why it doesn’t make sense: Martino’s tenure with Mexico didn’t exactly see the Argentine cover himself with glory. El Tri lost two finals to the USMNT and failed to qualify out of the World Cup group stage for the first time since 1978.
Photo by Francois Nel/Getty Images
6 José Mourinho
Why it makes sense: Mourinho isn’t just a name in coaching, he may be the name. His hiring would create instant excitement in the fanbase. His resume is filled with trophies and he’s helped rebuild a slightly damaged reputation with a respectable spell at Roma thus far.
Why it doesn’t make sense: He’d demand money to leave Roma and his temperament just simply may not jive with the American mindset. It sounds exciting, but Mourinho, despite his resume and success, would still represent a huge gamble at the international level (he has never coached a national team).
Why it makes sense: The Philadelphia Union head man has become one of the top managers in MLS over the past four seasons. The Union develop young talent and are prudent in the transfer market. He is methodical and steady while maximizing the player pool at his disposal. Curtin has spent offseasons in Europe with Red Bull Salzburg, learning the style there.
Why it doesn’t make sense: Curtin has never played or coached at the international level. The American certainly has a bright future and is well-regarded, but like Cherundulo, this may not be the cycle for him (although a move abroad is likely the next step and European clubs are certainly watching).
4 Tab Ramos
Why it makes sense: One of the most accomplished United States internationals of all time, Ramos has an intriguing resume for this job and is among the top candidates. He guided the U.S. to four consecutive U-20 World Cups as well as serving as an assistant coach with the senior team. He was a tremendous player and being bilingual certainly has its perks in CONCACAF. He might make the most sense except for…
Why it doesn’t make sense: Ramos had a tough two seasons as head coach of the Houston Dynamo, a club that only committed to spending after his departure. Should that be held against him? No. In fact, he is admired as a head coach (and is currently head coach of Hartford Athletic in the USL). But will it be held against him? Sadly, yes.
Why it makes sense: The current coach of Championship club Norwich, Wagner is a former United States international who has experience in the Bundesliga and Premier League. This would be a great opportunity (and lifestyle choice) for an energetic, visionary head coach. If Wagner has an interest, he should be considered a front-runner.
Why it doesn’t make sense: Would Wagner have interest? Despite being capped eight times by the USMNT, Wagner never spent substantial time in the United States. He also may not want to leave Norwich, which he only joined this month and is currently in the thick of a promotion battle.
2 Giovanni Savarese
Why it makes sense: This one might be a surprise to many, but Savarese should be a name heavily considered for this role. He is a player’s coach who has just the right measure of feistiness mixed with a strong tactical acumen. He is loved in Portland by his players and is known as a fantastic recruiter. In MLS and prior to that with the New York Cosmos, he managed some very big personalities. He also earned 30 caps with Venezuela.
Why it doesn’t make sense: Savarese has had success in Portland but has never won a trophy. That shouldn’t take Savarese out of the mix though, as his Portland teams have consistently been among the best in the league. But he’s never been on a coaching staff at the international level, meaning his personality and vision would have to win over the federation’s brass.
1 Jesse Marsch
Why it makes sense: As the second native-born American to ever coach in the Premier League, Marsch has the credentials from his time coaching in MLS and then his stops in Europe (Austria, Germany and now Leeds United). His job keeping Leeds afloat last season was certainly impressive. He also was an assistant with the national team for the 2010 World Cup, giving him a unique perspective.
Why it doesn’t make sense: Unless he wants to move on from Leeds (or vice versa), it is hard to pull away a competitor like Marsch from the Premier League. It is, however, unclear exactly how long he’s got left as Leeds manager.
Photo by ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images
What’s next for USMNT after World Cup? Busy 2023 schedule on deck
March 24: Nations League @ Grenada CBS/Paramount Plus
(Photo by Ronald Cortes/Getty Images)
The USMNT will have two CONCACAF Nations League group-stage matches in March, starting with a trip to Grenada. The U.S. defeated Grenada 5-0 in the home leg last June. This will be the first FIFA window after the World Cup, meaning the USMNT should be able to call upon most of its top players including those who featured in Qatar.
March 27: Nations League vs. El Salvador – CBS/Paramount Plus
(Photo by MARVIN RECINOS/AFP via Getty Images)
The U.S. squad will return home to host El Salvador at a to-be-announced stadium three days after facing Grenada. El Salvador drew the USMNT 1-1 in San Salvador last summer.
May 20-June 11: U-20 World Cup Fox
(Photo by ORLANDO SIERRA/AFP via Getty Images)
The USMNT’s under-20 team will compete in the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Indonesia next summer. The squad includes Philadelphia’s Quinn Sullivan, who has scored nine times for the U-20 team, and Paxten Aaronson, who is set to join Eintracht Frankfurt in Germany next month.
June: Nations League Finals – CBS/Paramount +
(Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports)
Assuming all goes well in the March group stage matches, the USMNT will advance to the Finals of the Nations League in June (the exact dates are to be announced). The USMNT defeated Mexico 3-2 in the final of the 2021 competition.
The USMNT is set to compete in the 2023 Gold Cup at to-be-announced venues against to-be-drawn competition this summer. The U.S. will be defending its title after defeating Mexico 1-0 in the 2021 Gold Cup final.
Three more windows in the fall
(Yukihito Taguchi-USA TODAY Sports)
After the summer tournaments, FIFA will have international windows again in September (4-12), October (9-17) and November (13-21), giving the USMNT opportunities to play up to six more friendlies later in the year. Those matches will be announced at later dates.
TV info: Turner Sports (TNT, TBS and HBO Max) owns the rights to U.S. Soccer’s friendlies; Fox Sports will broadcast the Gold Cup; and CBS (Paramount+) still holds the rights to Nations League matches. Exact channel information will become available closer to the match dates.
Paxten Aaronson a bright spot as USMNT plays scoreless but entertaining draw vs. Colombia
10:32 PM ET EPSNFC Jeff CarlisleU.S. soccer correspondent
CARSON, Calif. — The United States men’s national team earned a 0-0 draw with Colombia in the second of two January friendlies for the home side, as both teams fielded relatively inexperienced sides.Colombia had the edge in shots 12-5, but shots on goal were 2-1 in favor of the home side. And it was the U.S. that had the better chances with Paxten Aaronson, in his USMNT debut, going close in the first half. Sean Johnson was the slightly busier of the two keepers, but overall had little to do on the night.
Rapid reaction
1. U.S. earns draw in a very un-January friendly
Friendlies that cap off the January camp are often tepid affairs. The U.S. players are in preseason mode, and the lack of sharpness outweighs most of the positives. There is also the relative lack of experience on show. While the U.S. featured World Cup participants Walker Zimmerman, Kellyn Acosta, Jesus Ferreira and Aaron Long, as well as veteran Paul Arriola, some of the other players were making their initial forays at the international level.
That went for Colombia as well. Aside from left back Frank Fabra, no Colombian starter had more than three caps. But this encounter had some spice to it, helped in no small part by the heavily pro-Colombia crowd. There was plenty of end-to-end play and some clear looks at goal in the opening half, including a deflected effort from Paxten Aaronson in the 14th minute that grazed the post.LAFC‘s Cristian Arango had some clear opportunities as well, but failed to get a shot on target. Such was the chaotic nature of the game that the performers on show seemed to alternate good plays with poor ones, often in the same sequence. Matthew Hoppe was a case in point. The Middlesbrough winger was indefatigable in terms of his defensive pressure, and consistently put himself in good positions with his runs off the ball. But his decision-making on the ball looked rusty, a product of the lack of playing time with his club.There was some physical play as well, with a trio of first-half yellow cards dished out by referee Said Martinez, all to Colombia. Two were the result of attacking runs by Arriola that forced the Cafeteros into fouls near the box. The frenetic pace cooled a bit in the second half, with interim manager Anthony Hudson feeling confident enough to finish out the match with two young center backs in Jalen Neal and Sam Rogers. Substitute Brandon Vazquez nearly got on the end of a Kellyn Acosta free kick late, but couldn’t connect, leaving both teams to settle for a draw.
Interim manager Anthony Hudson had said he would heavily rotate his squad from the team that fell 2-1 to Serbia, and he was true to his word, making 10 changes to the lineup that started against Serbia, with Zimmerman the only holdover. That meant another pair of international debuts, this time for Paxten Aaronson — brother of Leeds United and U.S. international midfielder Brenden Aaronson — and New York Red Bulls defender John Tolkin.Aaronson — who signed with Eintracht Frankfurt from the Philadelphia Union in November — was up for the challenge and showed off many of the same qualities as his older brother. He was an absolute pest on defense, was active in seeking out the ball and showed off some lightning-quick feet. He nearly got onto the scoresheet in the 14th minute when his deflected effort grazed the post.His performance wasn’t completely free of struggle. One area where Aaronson needs to improve is simply to sense danger with his back to his opponent. He was dispossessed four times in the first half, a problem that can be solved by simply playing quicker.Fellow debutant Tolkin struggled with some physical battles as well, but adapted as the game went on. The quality of his left foot isn’t in question. But games like this are about the future. These players just starting their international careers don’t need to produce for the U.S. next week or even in March, when the first choice players will convene for the first time since the World Cup. Yet players have to start somewhere, and this was a needed first step.
3. Did anyone earn a spot for the March window?
Across the two games, 12 players made debuts (the most ever in these January camps), with Vazquez doing the most to help himself. The U.S. goal scorer against Serbia came on as a substitute in this match and while he didn’t score, the FC Cincinnati man provides a physical presence that few others in the pool can match. Combine that with his finishing touch, and he is a player who could force his way in.
Alejandro Zendejas, who returned to Club America after the Serbia match, should also get an extended look given his dynamism on the wing and his precision in terms of end product. Of course, with Zendejas the question is if he’s called up for an official competition, will he commit or file that one-time switch to Mexico? That remains to be seen.
Credit is due to Cade Cowell as well. He was an unused sub on this night, but showed plenty of potential against Serbia. The key now is can he replicate that performance at club level with the San Jose Earthquakes?
Otherwise, it feels as though the rest of the young performers in this camp are still a ways away from threatening to break through. That said, for many of them, time is on their side.
Best, worst (and mixed-bag) performers
Best: Paul Arriola, U.S.
It’s perhaps no surprise that one of the more experienced players on the field would fare well (he earned his 50th cap), but the FC Dallas man was a menacing presence on the flank and forced two different Colombian players to commit yellow card fouls.
Best: Diego Valoyes, Colombia
The Colombia attacker gave Tolkin all he could handle, especially in the first half. He also created a team-high three chances.
Best: Paxten Aaronson, U.S.
Aaronson’s had more positives than negatives in his international debut, and adjusted his game in the second half.
Worst: Frank Fabra, Colombia
The U.S. found plenty of success down his side, with Arriola forcing a yellow card foul. Fabra struggled on the ball as well, completing just 67.5% of his passes.
Mixed bag: Matthew Hoppe, U.S.
A “worst” label would have been too harsh considering the positions he put himself in, but his decision-making and touch let him down at times. He is in desperate need of games at club level.
Highlights and notable moments
Paxten Aaronson was one of the players who stood out for the USMNT, as evidenced in this early scoring chance against Colombia.With more playing time and experience, he can be expected to put these into the net.
After the match: What the managers and players said
U.S. interim coach Anthony Hudson, on Paxten Aaronson’s debut: “Paxten is a really exciting player, hugely confident. He came in a day or two late but you can see his quality. We don’t know what his level will be, but we believe in his talent and will see what he can do.”
USMNT keeper Sean Johnson, on the camp: “It’s a great group of players, and that speaks to the depth of our player group. … There’s good times ahead for us. We would have loved to win, and we had our chances, but it was solid all around. As a group, I feel like this camp was a step forward.”
Hudson, on whether he’ll continue as interim coach: “Until I’m told otherwise, I’m going to do my best for the team and the players.”
Up next
U.S.: With no games until the March matches against Grenada and El Salvador as part of their Nations League title defense, expect all the action to be off the field as the speculation mounts during the coaching and general manager search.
USWNT SCHEDULE 2023: FROM SHEBELIEVES CUP TO THE WORLD CUP
LYNN WILLIAMS AND THE USWNT ARE GEARING UP FOR THE WORLD CUP IN JULY. (BRAD SMITH/ISI PHOTOS/GETTY IMAGES)
The U.S. women’s national team is ramping up its preparation for the World Cup this summer. The reigning World Cup champions started their year with two resounding wins against New Zealand. The trip also provided a preview of the team’s World Cup base camp in Auckland and of the arenas for its group-stage matches.The SheBelieves Cup comes next in February, with matches against Brazil, Canada and Japan. February also brings FIFA’s intercontinental playoffs, which will decide the final three World Cup qualifiers — including one of the USWNT’s group-stage opponents. What do we know about the rest of the USWNT’s 2023 schedule? Very little so far, outside of the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
FIFA has marked two more international windows on the calendar ahead of the start of the World Cup on July 20. One runs from April 3-11, and it brings with it the possibility for two international friendlies. Another runs from July 10-18, just before the World Cup; the USWNT played a three-match Send-Off Series ahead of the 2019 tournament.
SHEBELIEVES CUP
The top team in the FIFA world ranking, the USWNT will face off against three squads in the top 11 at the SheBelieves Cup: No. 6 Canada, No. 9 Brazil and No. 11 Japan.
Thursday, Feb. 16 — 7 p.m. ET
United States vs. Canada (Exploria Stadium, Orlando)
Sunday, Feb. 19 — 3:30 p.m. ET
United States vs. Japan (Geodis Park, Nashville)
Wednesday, Feb. 22 — 7 p.m. ET
United States vs. Brazil (Toyota Stadium, Frisco, Texas)
WORLD CUP
The USWNT will play three group-stage matches at the World Cup, one against each of its opponents in Group E.
Group E includes the team the United States beat in the 2019 World Cup final, the Netherlands. Still, USWNT legend Julie Foudy said the USWNT landed a “very winnable group.”
Friday, July 21 — 9 p.m. ET
United States vs. Vietnam (Eden Park, Auckland)
Wednesday, July 26 — 9 p.m. ET
United States vs. Netherlands (Wellington Regional)
Tuesday, Aug. 1 — 3 a.m. ET
United States vs. Intercontinental playoff winner (Eden Park, Auckland)
Should the USWNT advance from the group stage, the knockout round will start Aug. 5. The round of 16 runs from Aug. 5-8, followed by the quarterfinals from Aug. 11-12 and then the semifinals from Aug. 15-16. The championship match is set for Aug. 20 in Sydney, with the third-place match one day earlier in Brisbane.
Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe headline USWNT SheBelieves Cup roster
12:56 PM ET ESPN FC Jeff Carlisle U.S. soccer correspondent
San Diego Wave forward Alex Morgan, OL Reign forward Megan Rapinoe and Portland Thorns defender Becky Sauerbrunn highlight the 23-player U.S. women’s national team roster for the SheBelieves Cup.The competition includes Brazil, Japan, and Olympic champions Canada in the four-team competition. All three teams qualified for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, and are ranked in the top 11 in the world.The U.S. will face Canada on Feb. 16 in Orlando, and then take on Japan three days later in Nashville. The U.S. will finish out the tournament with a match against Brazil in Frisco, Texas.”All three of these matches are great opportunities for the players and coaches as we enter the final stretch to choose the World Cup roster,” USWNT coach Vlatko Andonovski said.”To get to play three top teams, all who are in the World Cup, over seven days, will test our team mentally and physically, and that’s exactly what we need at this point in our preparations. We still have a few players in the pool recovering from injuries, but we are confident that they will be ready for selection for our April matches.”Rapinoe, who has recovered from an ankle injury, is the only addition to the roster from the group that played two matches in New Zealand earlier this year. She enters the competition with a chance to hit 200 caps during the tournament. She is currently on 197.Defender Tierna Davidson, a 2019 Women’s World Cup champion and 2020 Olympic bronze medalist, is in the final stages of her recovery from an ACL injury and will participate in the first part of the training camp in Orlando but will not be on the tournament roster.Reigning NWSL MVP Sophia Smith is the most notable omission from the roster. A U.S. Soccer spokesperson said Smith has recovered from a foot injury that prevented her from taking part in the New Zealand matches, but hasn’t regained enough fitness to participate.The U.S. is attempting to win the tournament for the fourth straight time, and sixth time overall, having prevailed in 2016, 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2022.
U.S. women’s national team roster by position (Club; Caps/Goals) — 2023 SheBelieves Cup:
GOALKEEPERS (3): Adrianna Franch (Kansas City Current; 10), Casey Murphy (North Carolina Courage; 12), Alyssa Naeher (Chicago Red Stars; 87)
DEFENDERS (7): Alana Cook (OL Reign; 21/0), Emily Fox (North Carolina Courage; 24/0), Crystal Dunn (Portland Thorns FC; 128/24), Naomi Girma (San Diego Wave FC; 12/0), Sofia Huerta (OL Reign; 27/0), Becky Sauerbrunn (Portland Thorns FC; 212/0), Emily Sonnett (OL Reign; 70/1)
MIDFIELDERS (6): Lindsey Horan (Olympique Lyon, FRA; 123/26), Taylor Kornieck (San Diego Wave FC; 9/2), Rose Lavelle (OL Reign; 86/24), Kristie Mewis (NJ/NY Gotham FC; 47/7), Ashley Sanchez (Washington Spirit; 19/3), Andi Sullivan (Washington Spirit; 39/3)
FORWARDS (7): Ashley Hatch (Washington Spirit; 15/5), Alex Morgan (San Diego Wave FC; 201/120), Midge Purce (NJ/NY Gotham FC; 22/4), Megan Rapinoe (OL Reign; 197/63), Trinity Rodman (Washington Spirit; 12/2), Mallory Swanson (Chicago Red Stars; 84/28), Lynn Williams (NJ/NY Gotham FC; 49/15)
USWNT ROSTER BUBBLE: WHAT WE LEARNED FROM NEW ZEALAND GAMES
TRINITY RODMAN NOTCHED THREE ASSISTS IN TWO GAMES DURING THE USWNT’S TRIP TO NEW ZEALAND. (HANNAH PETERS/GETTY IMAGES)
The U.S. wrapped up their January game schedule in New Zealand on Friday, kicking off 2023 with two big wins, nine goals scored and none conceded. The trip was as much about getting acclimated to long travel in the World Cup host country as it was about friendly competition, but now that we’re under six months away from the tournament, every game matters.Here are my three main takeaways from the 4-0 and 5-0 wins, which provided some insight into final roster decisions.
THE USWNT’S ATTACKING DEPTH IS RIDICULOUS
No matter who is healthy in July, the U.S. is going to have to leave multiple world-class attackers off the World Cup roster due to sheer force of numbers.
Take a look at the list of attacking players who have been in camp in the last calendar year and wonder at the potential: Sophia Smith, Trinity Rodman, Alex Morgan, Catarina Macario, Mallory Swanson, Ashley Hatch, Lynn Williams, Midge Purce, Megan Rapinoe and Alyssa Thompson have all gotten minutes with the U.S. and made an impact. The USWNT took seven forwards to the 2019 World Cup, which puts the numbers at odds with the current player pool before even considering other players who deserve looks, like Christen Press and Mia Fishel.In New Zealand, the team was without Macario, Rapinoe and Smith and still didn’t miss a beat in the attack. Midge Purce, whom coach Vlatko Andonovski placed on the bubble late in 2022, did everything but get on the scoresheet in the team’s first match. The Gotham FC forward was the biggest bright spot in the USWNT attack during a tepid first half.
If Purce came back with a vengeance, then Trinity Rodman set the whole house on fire. The 20-year-old notched three assists in two games, providing passing outlets and attacking dangerously off the dribble. Rodman has just three USWNT starts in her career thus far, but she looked calm and collected as she collaborated well with the rest of the frontline. Lynn Williams also looked sharp in her first minutes with the U.S. since last February, scoring one goal and notching one assist off the bench in two games.But perhaps the best example of Andonovski’s looming impossible attacking decisions is Ashley Hatch. Hatch has been in with the U.S. for an extended period of time dating back to December 2021, but she has struggled to get on the field as other players have risen around her. Competing positionally with both Alex Morgan and Catarina Macario, Hatch also doesn’t have the versatility to play both centrally and out wide like a number of her teammates.And yet, there she was scoring in New Zealand, making the most of the minutes granted to her. Hatch probably still has a steep climb onto the 2023 World Cup roster, but her job is to make the decision as difficult as she possibly can. That level of competition is good for the team at large, with every player making an impact in preparation even if they don’t get the call in July.
TAYLOR KORNIECK SCORED IN THE SECOND GAME AFTER A SHAKY START IN THE FIRST. (BRAD SMITH/ISI PHOTOS/GETTY IMAGES)
THE MIDFIELD STILL FEELS THIN
Andonovski made one major positional concession last week when he put Rose Lavelle and Ashley Sanchez on the field together as a No. 8 and a No. 10, superseding the stretched dual No. 10 we saw at times in 2022.
The new spacing allowed Andi Sullivan to play at her best as the team’s defensive midfielder. The Spirit captain moved confidently and passed around New Zealand’s mid-block press. It’s obvious that the team’s Plan A is to rely heavily on Sullivan, and reconfiguring the playmakers around her to provide defensive support and passing lanes paid dividends in the second half of the first match and the entirety of the second.
Plan B in midfield personnel, however, feels as thin as ever. Andonovski started Taylor Kornieck as the No. 6 in the first half of the first match, and the San Diego midfielder didn’t appear ready for the role thrust upon her in her very first USWNT start. Portland Thorns defensive midfielder Sam Coffey didn’t get time in either match, with Kornieck coming off the bench in the second match to close things out.
In general, the midfield roster as constructed feels full of too many specialists, which has resulted in only a few players getting consistent starts. Kornieck is great in the air and has strong passing vision to break lines, but she’s not a No. 6 defensively. Kristie Mewis is another reliable option as a No. 8 off the bench, and Sanchez effectively gives them another creative attacker when she’s on the pitch.But if the plan is to have Lavelle or Horan play as true No. 8s, the team appears to be relying too heavily on its specialists without giving experience to the players who could become starters with time. Sanchez proved this week that she has a unique skill set worth adjusting for, but other roles remain unclear.
THE USWNT’S CONCERNS LIE LESS IN THE ATTACK AND MORE IN THE MIDFIELD AND DEFENSE. (HANNAH PETERS/GETTY IMAGES)
THE BACKLINE IS VERY ATTACKING-MINDED
We can attribute some of this to the way the U.S. wanted to play New Zealand, who were missing a number of key players, but the USWNT defense once again shined in attacking possession rather than defensive transition.
Sofia Huerta excelled as an attacking generator in the second match, and what she brings as a crosser will likely cement her place on the 2023 World Cup roster. Crystal Dunn looked her sharpest at left back in the second match, combining in passing triangles that unlocked New Zealand’s defensive formation.
Naomi Girma started both matches and was given the freedom to push forward and find the best passing lanes through New Zealand’s defense. But in the very brief moments the U.S. had to scramble on counterattacks, the defense felt somewhat shaky.
Casey Murphy started the second match in goal. The 26-year-old had one cautious punch off a corner kick turn into a chance opportunity, upon which the USWNT benefitted from a foul call to calm the danger. Murphy has all the tools to be a great international goalkeeper, but even in limited action, her occasional hesitation in goal is obvious enough to set the defense on edge. The U.S. has struggled at times to defend set pieces over the last year, and the communication didn’t always seem crisp last week.
Overall, the team appeared collectively calm, like they had righted some structural imbalances from late in 2022 and were having fun. As the schedule turns to the SheBelieves Cup in February, these games provided several lessons the U.S. will want to carry with them.
Claire Watkins is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @ScoutRipley.
Five players the USWNT still has time to call up before the World Cup
The U.S. women’s national team is 179 days away from kicking off the 2023 World Cup, and the roster feels close to being settled.
USWNT head coach Vlatko Andonovski has said as much, indicating at a recent press conference that the team’s technical staff has shrunk their list of possible candidates from somewhere north of 40 down to just 32.
That follows a trend that the USWNT has seemed very intentional about, with little serious change in squad selection. Rosters have seen players come and go, but those changes are largely down to replacing injured regulars; Andonovski has kept to a smaller pool of players for some time now.
There’s merit to that approach, to be fair: players know the system, they know the culture on and off the field, no one’s coming in and having to play catch-up. However, the benefits of that approach can become a problem if players feel too comfortable. A settled team is also one with a hierarchy, and plenty of teams (including past, World Cup-winning iterations of the USWNT) have benefitted from a positive tension that comes when the competition for places is more open.
It’s late in the process, but there are a few players that the USWNT should still take a serious look at. The World Cup is going to be more competitive than ever, and there are players who either merit their first-ever call-ups, or deserve another look due to good form and how their specific skill sets dovetail with the USWNT’s needs right now.
Sam Staab
Data in soccer isn’t always perfect, but sometimes it can really tell a story. This is a graph of the top six individual NWSL center back seasons in American Soccer Analysis’ Goals Added (G+) metric since Staab entered the league in 2019, along with the most recent season for the last four players to appear at center back for the USWNT.
(Note: Emily Sonnett’s 2022 sample size, due to injury and the CONCACAF W Championship, falls below the 1,000 minute threshold, so we’re using her 2021 G+ score)
Simply put, Staab had a monster season on a team that was a mess off the field for so much of 2022. Staab’s G+ score was the best among all center backs, and was bettered by only nine players in the NWSL last season (a mix of Best XI players, USWNT starters, and legends like Debinha and Jess Fishlock).
So okay, Staab was great last year, and that comes following a championship-winning season. She’s a left-footed center back (something the USWNT does not have until Tierna Davidson returns), and she has outstanding chemistry with Vlatko Andonovski’s current first-choice defensive midfielder, Andi Sullivan. She’d also be arguably the most athletic center back on the current team, and would bring a weapon — she can launch a throw-in almost to the back post, and they’re zipping in there rather than floating slowly — that no one in the USWNT pool has shown they can match.
FBref says that in 2022, she was in the 98th percentile among NWSL center backs for expected assists. And going back to G+, that figure breaks down player actions into six categories: dribbling, fouling, interrupting, passing, receiving, and shooting. In the passing category, Staab was head and shoulders above any player at any position in the league. That’s a testament to her borderline telepathic connection with U.S. attackers Ashley Hatch and (especially) Trinity Rodman, which is the root of much of the Washington Spirit’s goal threat.
In other words, Staab has all of the tools to do things no center back in the USWNT pool can do. She’s succeeded at club level, is only getting better, and has important on-field links with existing USWNT players. That’s a recipe for a player that can succeed right away, much less someone who deserves a first call-up.
Even if Davidson is healthy and back at her best in time for the World Cup, Staab has made a case at club level that is arguably better than anyone in the pool over the last year, and as such she merits a serious look within the squad before they jet off to New Zealand.
Morgan Gautrat
One issue the USWNT has had for some time now is a lack of midfield balance, with the two more attacking players in Andonovski’s 4-3-3 jumping into the attack with aggression. When the ball turns over, it leaves the No. 6 with little support to slow transitions down. The USWNT either has to successfully counter-press, or they’re defending three-on-three or four-on-four in huge amounts of space.
Andonovski has of late begun to alter his team to deal with this. Against Germany, he asked Lindsey Horan to be less aggressive, instead playing as a more traditional No. 8. In the two friendlies against New Zealand, the USWNT played out of a 4-2-3-1 formation, with Horan and Rose Lavelle both seeing time closer to Sullivan and Taylor Kornieck, the defensive midfielders in those two wins.
Horan is a natural in this role, and plays there at the club level with Lyon. Lavelle looked very sharp, and against teams that are more likely to stand off and congest, she makes plenty of sense as an option going forward. But it just so happens that there’s a two-time World Cup-winning No. 8 who thrives at the specific tactical need the U.S. has for someone who denies passing lanes and anticipating opposing moves before the opponent can actually make them.
We’re talking about Gautrat here, who came back from a long battle with injury to be the platform for the Chicago Red Stars. Yes, Mallory Swanson had a spectacular season that got her into the MVP discussion, but the only reason Chicago were actually able to leverage that into wins is the success of their central midfield.
Danny Colaprico and Vanessa DiBernardo were both important in that regard, but Gautrat took things to another level. She was the connective tissue of the team, improving their defensive structure, possession, and overall fluency. Gautrat is off to Kansas City, which is very bad for the Red Stars, but it also means she’ll be in a better club situation in 2023.
The USWNT is — even with Sam Mewis an unknown at this point — stocked with plenty of No. 8s. However, with Kristie Mewis trying to shake off the universal difficulty anyone at NJ/NY Gotham FC had in 2022, and Taylor Kornieck shuffling between all three central midfield roles at club and national team level, the door should still be open for Gautrat.
We could not touch on this topic without talking about Fishel, who scored 33 goals in 2022 for Tigres. In soccer, it is generally good to score that often, and it also generally leads to national team call-ups.
Pro Soccer Wire already got into Fishel’s status with the USWNT this month, so we’ll be a bit more brief here. Andonovski has said his piece on this point, and in his eyes the situation boils down to the incredible depth of talent the U.S. has up front.
Fishel is dominating in a league that is not at NWSL’s level, and it is fair to wonder how many goals the other USWNT strikers would produce in the exact same situation at Tigres. Is Fishel on the level of the players getting called in? It’s hard to gauge without more direct reference points between NWSL and Liga MX Femeníl. Certainly her aerial ability looks the part, and she’s comfortable enough dropping off the front line and linking play like Alex Morgan has been doing over the past year.
However, when a player is scoring as often as Fishel is — particularly a first-round draft pick who was on numerous youth national teams and got a USWNT call-up in college — the normal thing to do is to call them up and see how they stack up within the group. Even if the idea is prepping her for the culture for the next World Cup cycle and not this one, there’s reason to call her in now.
There’s one ideal way to figure out how Fishel’s form in Mexico translates at the national team level, and it’s one the USWNT has overlooked. If she’s in camp, you get your answer. Getting Fishel into the group is the fairest way to settle whether she should be competing with Morgan and Hatch today, rather than sometime after the World Cup.
The only USWNT-eligible forward with more NWSL goals over the past three full regular seasons than Balcer (22) is Hatch (26). Balcer has been a consistently dangerous player on a successful team, and yet has just one cap in a late 2021 friendly at Australia.
There’s also a stylistic match that isn’t far off from Fishel’s. The USWNT has increasingly wanted its No. 9 to drop off and connect more, thanks in part to its evolution and the goalscoring punch they get from Swanson and Sophia Smith (not to mention the flock of players fighting for the other wide forward roles this summer).
People look at Balcer and think instinctively that she’s going to be a target forward, but she’s at her best as a second forward or as a false No. 9. If the USWNT is going to build itself around an attacking identity that fits Catarina Macario — which, by the way, we don’t actually know what Andonovski will do when he has Macario and Morgan both available — having another option that takes up similar positions has serious merit.
It’s tough to shoehorn one more forward into this team, but if having good chemistry applies for Staab, it surely applies for Balcer. With her Reign teammates Rose Lavelle, Sofia Huerta, and Megan Rapinoe all factors in the attack, it stands to reason that Balcer would be able to transition from one red, white, and blue kit to another.
Mandatory Credit: Stephen Brashear-USA TODAY Sports ORG
Re-open the goalkeeping competition
We’re cheating a bit here on this last item, but it may be the spot most likely to see a shake-up before the World Cup.
In fact, after the W Championship, Andonovski already made a shift. With AD Franch ramping her form up dramatically as the summer began, the Kansas City Current goalkeeper pushed her way back into the USWNT frame. Andonovski had a decision to make, and Franch has taken a spot that was held by Aubrey Kingsbury for a few months.
What’s curious about that is that Casey Murphy’s spot seems solid, despite club form that would point in the opposite direction. Murphy’s USWNT debut showed how high her ceiling is, but her 2022 with North Carolina was rocky at best. Murphy has the tools and has shown flashes of world-class play, and based on Andonovski’s willingness to get her minutes, he seems to see her spot as one that’s at least somewhat settled.
With the depth of talent available, it probably shouldn’t be. Franch should get a crack at climbing the depth chart, just as much as Kingsbury — admittedly coming off of a club season that was not as sharp for her as we saw in 2021 — shouldn’t necessarily be out of contention. Both of them have a strong argument that their form has been at least as good as Murphy’s over the past 12 months.
Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports
Bella Bixby just helped the Portland Thorns win it all, and seems to be emerging not just as a top goalkeeper, but as a leader. Jane Campbell, who was far more consistent in 2022 than in years past, brings the penalty kick-saving X factor to the table that could make her worth a place on the flight to the World Cup purely as a specialist to send on late in extra time. Phallon Tullis-Joyce offered some compelling evidence, particularly in organizing the defense in front of her, that she belongs in the conversation as well.
Andonovski, to his credit, held the door open for as many as six or seven goalkeepers for much of the last three years. It’s just that for most of that time, there wasn’t actually much competition. This may be the first moment in the entire cycle where that many candidates are actually on even terms with one another, and in that case it’s time to stoke the competition rather than turn the page. Alyssa Naeher has the No. 1 shirt on lock, but both of the other goalkeeper slots should be more up for grabs than they appear to be.
REPORT: NWSL WILL EXPAND TO SAN FRANCISCO, UTAH AND BOSTON
The league is in advanced discussions to expand with those three teams, with both Boston and San Francisco set to pay around $50 million in expansion fees. Owners in Utah will pay the agreed-upon amount from a few years ago, anywhere from $2 to $5 million.
Both San Francisco and Utah are set to begin play in 2024 while Boston will launch its team later.“We remain engaged in our expansion process and are excited about our prospects,” a league spokesperson told the WSJ and other outlets. “When we have news to share, we will do so.”Among those backing the Bay Area team are former USWNT standouts Brandi Chastain, Aly Wagner, Leslie Osborne and Danielle Slaton.Previously, NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman had said that “over 30 investor groups” were interested in joining the league, and that two teams were going to be added for the 2024 season.Both Utah and Boston have previously had professional teams. Utah Royals FC entered the NWSL in 2017 but folded and essentially transferred to Kansas City in December 2020. It was agreed upon that the franchise could be revived at a later date.Boston, meanwhile, was home to the Boston Breakers. The Breakers were part of the NWSL for five years before folding in 2018.While San Francisco has not previously had a team, both Angel City FC in Los Angeles and the San Diego Wave have experienced successes in their first seasons as expansion clubs.
Leeds United: A reshaped squad with focus on potential, resale value and first-team impact
They were no longer Marcelo Bielsa’s baby and change was coming in other respects too. Raphinha was destined for Barcelona, saying goodbye to Leeds by trekking the length of the field at Brentford on his knees. Kalvin Phillips would soon have Manchester City all over him. The signing of Brenden Aaronson from RB Salzburg fell into place immediately and a busy summer lay ahead.
Leeds did not intend to wholly abandon the promotion squad of 2020 but the passionate loyalty shown to it by Bielsa was giving way to a bigger appetite to recruit, helped by £90million ($110.7m) promised from the sales of Phillips and Raphinha. The dressing room looked different by the end of that transfer window. As January finished last night, the make-up of it had moved again, redrawn by fresh expenditure which could hit £70million if Weston McKennie becomes a permanent fixture.
Ten first-team players signed in the space of eight months, 12 counting Darko Gyabi and Sonny Perkins, which is the most sizeable overhaul of the squad at Leeds since the first transfer window on Andrea Radrizzani’s watch as chairman, back in 2017. They have remnants of the side who took the club out of the Championship two and a half years ago, some still prominently involved, but they are not far off the point of an entirely new line-up, moving away from the previous policy of gradual, incremental change. January, at Elland Road at least, has never been so active.
The sale of Phillips last summer helped fund recent transfers (Photo: Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images)
In reality, a shift in mindset had to happen. Leeds reached the point last season where the depth of their first-team ranks was asking for trouble. Injuries compounded the cracks but thin resources and a young core below the surface of the starting team made them easier to pick apart. It is not that the club have abandoned the recruitment of potential — in fact, the opposite is true — but the past two windows have focused on increasing the supply of players who are either proven in general or proven in the division they are arriving from.
Age is a significant factor in Leeds’ recruitment and has been for years. Victor Orta does not target outfield signings who are 30 or over. Goalkeepers are different but even there, Leeds are into their third season with Illan Meslier as first-choice, one of the youngest keepers in the Premier League. While the club, since the beginning of last summer, have worked on landing footballers with a meaningful track record, most are yet to reach their peak. Joel Robles aside, Marc Roca is the eldest of the incomings at 26. Mateusz Klich departing leaves Rodrigo as the only outfield player brought in since promotion who is in his 30s. Leeds are sticking to a model of potential and resale growth, but gambling on shorter odds at the same time.
Max Wober and Tyler Adams make that point as well as anyone else. Wober, bought from Red Bull Salzburg at the start of January, has taken no time to show leadership, the trait which earned him the armband at Salzburg. Adams, the captain of the USMNT, is considered a natural candidate for the same role at Leeds as and when the baton passes on from Liam Cooper. For all that, Wober is 24 and Adams is 23, both of them young by the standards of the modern game. But what the club’s recruitment has done, and what it had to do after last season finished, was address the scenario where inexperience on the pitch was too great and options on the bench too untested. As Bielsa’s final year in charge went on, the substitutes behind his preferred line-up grew ever more raw. Dependable choices were too few in number.
It is apparent from the Premier League table as it stands that the business done by Leeds for this season has not yet had the effect they wanted. They are 15th with four wins and just a point separating them from the bottom three, albeit while reaching the FA Cup fifth round. But after a month in which the club made successful bids for Wober, McKennie and Georginio Rutter, there is far more of a case to say Jesse Marsch has what he needs to deliver a better position, and that it should be forthcoming in the second half of the term.
By any measure, the balance of the squad at Elland Road is not completely perfect. If Wober plays as a left-sided centre-back then it remains to be seen if Leeds can shore up the troublesome left-back role, although the presence of a confident-looking Wober in the backline might serve to help with that.
Loaning Diego Llorente to Roma means right-sided central defenders are not crawling out of the woodwork either. On deadline day, Leeds looked briefly at Manchester United’s Axel Tuanzebe as additional cover after he was offered to them before deciding to remain as they were. Marsch, though, has stronger resources than Bielsa did latterly, even if selling Raphinha and Phillips stripped two of the club’s best players from the dressing room. Marsch has stronger resources than he himself had in the 12 matches he took charge of towards the end of last season. One look at Leeds’ personnel on May 22 shows how much change has occurred:
With McKennie signed on loan from Juventus and his proposed £30million transfer lined up to fall in the next window, Leeds’ net spend for this season stands at between £30million to £40million — £90million or so raised from exits, £130million or so spent on new arrivals. Recruitment at Elland Road has been maligned at points of Radrizzani’s reign as majority shareholder but the way in which that cash has been used to reshape the team looks like good and logical business.
While Raphinha and Phillips were used to fund last summer, Leeds avoided losing Jack Harrison yesterday despite concerted interest from Leicester City running right to the last hour of the deadline. More contract talks with Harrison are expected soon. Llorente’s form has been such that negotiating a loan and an option with Roma, potentially recouping money paid for him in 2020, feels like a savvy move; a proposal worth taking. One thing that cannot be said about Llorente is that he looked like the solution to the problematic rate at which Marsch’s side have been conceding goals.
McKennie is probably the best indication of how proactive Leeds were in January. A central midfielder was not essential but it made sense to find one — and to find one who offered a high chance of improving Marsch’s starting line-up quickly. Marsch has not been able to call on Adam Forshaw any more than Bielsa was and there is risk in a scenario where Sam Greenwood is routinely the first midfield change from the bench. It is no secret or surprise that many of the signings made by Leeds, McKennie included, have been identified and scouted with Marsch’s tactics in mind. Leeds have made a concerted attempt to find names who should fit. But however suited they are to Marsch’s footballers, many of them are still fundamentally good footballers. And it could not be claimed on this occasion that Leeds sat on their hands when January came:
The board at Leeds have supported Marsch through difficult periods, unmoved by dissent towards him, but this is where they will look for the surge of momentum he has been promising to manifest itself in better results. He can vary his formation readily now, with Adams, Roca and McKennie offering a strong midfield in a 4-3-3, Rutter and a returning Patrick Bamford providing more scope for two up front, and enough attacking depth to field two completely different groups of four in a 4-2-3-1. Leeds appear to have struck a better balance in finding signings who possess promise and future resale value but also the capacity to impact on the season now. Part of the reason why a change of ownership is in the pipeline at Elland Road is because Premier League clubs need continuous clout in the market — the ability to provide repeat investment at a level which keeps a team turning over.
This almost feels like the second stage of Premier League life for Leeds which is why, once again, survival is critical. They are further away from the promotion team than they have ever been. They are in the middle of boardroom transition. They are experiencing brushes with relegation, like many promoted sides do, and they are trying to bridge the gap to competent, mid-table existence. They have work to do to stay up and here and now, that work falls predominantly to Marsch. But they are stronger than they were and as the January window recedes once more, not many clubs will feel happier about the way they used it.
Why The Athletic is jumping on the Wrexham bandwagon – first stop, the Turf Hotel
So there I was, probably like countless footballers up and down the land, minding my own business as the clock ticked down towards the end of the transfer window when the gaffer asked for a quiet word.
“We’re sending you to Wrexham for the month,” he said. “This is a big opportunity. They’re a club going places, as you saw for yourself on Sunday. Get some games under your belt on loan and who knows where it might lead.”
Okay, I made that last bit up. My days of playing football ended years ago via a ruptured Achilles. Plus, I’ve known Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson long enough for him to take great delight in greeting me and a colleague from another newspaper as “the gruesome twosome” before his weekly press briefing at Bradford City. So he can rest assured the boots will not be following me to north Wales.But my laptop certainly will be making the trip as I set about the task of covering a hectic month that could go a long way towards deciding whether Wrexham will soon get that long-awaited EFL return to go with its newfound city status.Starting with Saturday’s National League trip to Altrincham, The Athletic will be joining Parkinson’s side every step of the way as they negotiate eight tasty fixtures in February, including an FA Cup fourth-round replay at Sheffield United that now has Tottenham Hotspur as the prize.I’ll also be keeping an eye on goal machine Paul Mullin as he goes toe-to-toe with Erling Haaland in the race to be the country’s top goalscorer.
Exciting times at a club reborn since the February 2021 takeover by Hollywood duo Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, as I discovered for myself last weekend. The atmosphere as the home side came from a goal down to lead 3-2 until the final seconds against Championship high-flyers United was electric, probably the best I’ve experienced all season.That was not just in terms of noise but also the passion from both sets of supporters that never once strayed towards the antagonism that can too often sour these big occasions, particularly when the kick-off is late enough to offer the opportunity for a few hours in the pub beforehand.The only regret was that the new Kop stand is yet to be built. Imagine how loud things would have been at a four-sided ground?
Wrexham fans – and the club’s owners – enjoyed a classic FA Cup tie against Sheffield United at the weekend (Photo: Michael Steele/Getty Images)
With five home games in February — including huge fixtures against Woking and Chesterfield, two clubs hoping to capitalise if Parkinson’s side and Notts County slip up — this interloper from West Yorkshire is hoping for more of the same, including plenty more airings of the ‘Always Sunny in Wrexham’ tribute to Deadpool star Reynolds and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia co-creator McElhenney by local band Declan Swans.
It is so catchy that two members of the Sheffield United press corp were still singing ‘Bring on the Deadpool… and Rob McElhеnney’ when getting into their cars at 8.30pm on Sunday.I can’t claim to be a lifelong Wrexham fan, as you’ve probably guessed. Before Sunday, my last visit to the Racecourse had been on Boxing Day 1986, for a 2-2 draw with Burnley.But the place did leave a lasting impression, not least how from my vantage point on the back row of what is now called the University End there seemed to be a pub to our right that was actually part of the ground, complete with balcony overlooking the pitch.
It fascinated me. Why did it have an uninterrupted view of the pitch? Did the drinkers watch for free? And would this Burnley team, comfortably the worst in the club’s history that season, look any better through the bottom of a dandelion and burdock glass? (I was 13 at the time!)On checking just now with The Football Grounds of England & Wales — a truly seminal book by Simon Inglis that sufficiently engendered a love of football grounds in a young Sutcliffe that last October I finally achieved the lifelong ambition of joining the Ninety Two Club — this is the very same Turf Hotel that viewers of the Welcome to Wrexham documentary now see as the heartbeat of the area’s football support.The Turf will be one of my first stop-offs for a pint. Then it’s down to work. And it’s here that I’d love your help, Wrexham supporters.What would you like to read about your club? Whose story — be that a lifelong fan who lives just down the Mold Road or a new devotee from overseas who fell in love with the club via the documentary — should we tell? Is there a player you really want to hear from?We spoke to Phil Parkinson at length before the Sheffield United Cup tie but is there anyone else on the coaching staff whose story you’d like told? All suggestions are welcome in the comments below.For now, though, I’m doing what all loanees sent out on deadline day have to do — I’m getting to know my new surroundings. It promises to be a lot of fun.
Da bod yma,
Sooty.
PS Don’t worry Blades fans, I won’t be neglecting the ‘day’ job. I’ll still be keeping across all things Sheffield United, especially with my gaffer insisting any loan deal didn’t include a clause precluding me from facing the club I’ve covered since The Athletic started life in the UK, way back in August 2019. So, see you all at the Lane next Tuesday.
Twelve teams reached the halfway point of the Premier League season over the weekend, while Fulham became the first to reach 20 games.
For players at those 13 clubs, the disciplinary slate has been wiped clean for now.
But there are still seven teams yet to have played 19 matches this term, leaving a handful of players treading a tightrope ahead of their fixtures over the next few days — including some hoping to be involved in Arsenal’s clash with Manchester United on Sunday.
Here, The Athletic explains the rules around suspension in the Premier League and looks at the players who could still be punished for their ill-discipline.
How many yellow cards lead to a ban in the Premier League?
Premier League players are allowed some leeway regarding yellow cards, but repeat offenders run the risk of suspension.
Any player who is shown five yellow cards inside the first 19 league games of the season will serve a one-match ban in the league. It is key to point out that yellow cards no longer carry across into either of the domestic competitions, although red cards still do.
Reaching the 19-game mark offers relative respite, but cautions from the first half of the season are not totally cleared.
Those who accumulate 10 Premier League yellow cards prior to, and including, the 32nd game of the season must serve a further two-game suspension.
Manchester United’s Brazilian midfielders will have to keep themselves in check at Selhurst Park on Wednesday. Both Casemiro and Fred have been shown four bookings this season so another caution in midweek would mean that they are suspended for the trip to Arsenal on Sunday.
Jeffrey Schlupp and Joel Ward will also have to watch out on Wednesday as the Palace pair are also treading the tightrope.
Manchester City’s 19th game sees them host Tottenham on Thursday evening but with Erling Haaland and Joao Cancelo leading the way on only three bookings, there are no suspension worries for Pep Guardiola.
The same can be said of the Liverpool players in action at Stamford Bridge in Saturday’s early kick-off, with Trent Alexander-Arnold’s three bookings keeping him in the clear.
Alexis Mac Allister will have to be mindful during Brighton’s visit to the King Power Stadium at the weekend. The World Cup winner goes into that match with four yellow cards to his name – another one would see him suspended for the subsequent visit of Bournemouth.
Jesse Marsch, whose team became the first in Premier League history to be shown 100 yellow cards in a season last term, will have to remind a few of his players to maintain their discipline. Robin Koch, Rasmus Kristensen and Marc Roca are all another caution away from suspension heading into the visit of Brentford.
Last, but certainly not least: Mikel Arteta’s title-chasing Arsenal.
Bukayo Saka is in danger of picking up a one-match ban (Photo: Steve Bardens/Getty Images)
Gabriel Jesus picked up his four yellow cards in quick time but his injury will mean he avoids any possibility of a ban. However, Gabriel, Bukayo Saka and William Saliba will all have to be on their best behaviour against Manchester United.
A booking for any of those three would see them miss the trip to Everton on Saturday, February 4.
Players at risk of suspension this week
Manchester United — Casemiro & Fred
Crystal Palace — Jeffrey Schlupp & Joel Ward
Manchester City — none
Liverpool — none
Brighton — Alexis Mac Allister
Leeds — Robin Koch, Rasmus Kristensen, Marc Roca
Arsenal — Gabriel, Bukayo Saka, William Saliba
Which players have picked up the most bookings in the Premier League this season?
Several players have already been forced to serve suspensions for their repeat offences, which leaves them at risk of further bans.
The all-important 32nd set of fixtures is currently set to be played on the weekend of April 22. Once that match round is complete, there are no more suspension risks associated with picking up individual yellow cards.
Here is the list of players that have picked up the most bookings this season.
Other than Andreas Pereira, who was shown his fifth yellow card after Fulham had already played 19 games, each of the above players have had to serve one-game suspensions this season.
Ruben Neves being shown a yellow card — a familiar Premier League sight (Photo: Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)
Which teams have accumulated the most cards in the Premier League this season?
Fulham have been the worst offenders regarding discipline this season.
Marco Silva’s players have been shown 49 yellow cards and one red card, a record that looks set to challenge the mark set by Leeds last season (101 yellows and three reds).
At the other end of the spectrum, Manchester City have picked up the least bookings. Their tally of 17 yellows is one fewer than Liverpool — both teams have been shown one red card each.
Here is how the Premier League disciplinary table looks, in order of most yellows:
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Gareth Bale leaves grass and gravity behind to score in 2018 (Photo: Shaun Botterill via Getty Images)
Mohamed Salah reacts as he realises he forgot to bring his shooting boots (Photo: Michael Regan via Getty Images)
Courtois refused to be caught out in the final last year, including this save from Mane (Photo: Matthias Hangst via Getty Images)
Karim Benzema may not be at full fitness after recent injury struggles (Photo: Mateo Villalba/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images).
Vinicius Jr gave Trent Alexander-Arnold a torrid time in last year’s Champions League final (Photo: Visionhaus/Getty Images).
Tyrell Malacia (L) and Weston McKennie (R) after the Leeds United midfielder’s challenge (Photo: OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images)
Chris WrightToe Poke writer
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McKennie holds off Borussia Dortmund’s Achraf Hakimi during his time at Schalke (Photo: Alexandre Simoes/Borussia Dortmund via Getty Images)
Adams and McKennie, team-mates with the USMNT, reflect on the draw with Wales at the recent World Cup. Now they are club-mates at Leeds (Photo: Maja Hitij – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
McKennie had been tracked by Leeds since his time at Schalke (Photo: Ronald Wittek/Pool via Getty Images)
Leeds were told by Angers after the World Cup that Ounahi would cost around £20m ($24.7m) (Photo: Mike Hewitt – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
USA’s McKennie takes on Virgil van Dijk of the Netherlands in the round of 16 at the 2022 World Cup (Photo: Chris Brunskill/ISI Photos/Getty Images)
The sale of Phillips last summer helped fund recent transfers (Photo: Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images)
Wrexham fans – and the club’s owners – enjoyed a classic FA Cup tie against Sheffield United at the weekend (Photo: Michael Steele/Getty Images)
Ruben Neves being shown a yellow card — a familiar Premier League sight (Photo: Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)
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