The United States Women’s National Team are preparing for their first mini tournament of the year in SheBelieves Cup. Today, U.S. Soccer announced the 26-player roster that will compete in the tournament in early March against Argentina, Canada, and Colombia.
This is the first official international window of the year, which means that head coach Emma Hayes was able to call in players from Europe. She has done that, with a lot of the mainstay players in place for this camp. Eleven players on this roster
were not on the roster for January Camp last month.
“The SheBelieves Cup is a fantastic tournament which gives us the opportunity to replicate the group stage of a FIFA tournament,” Emma Hayes said in a statement. “Three quality games in quick succession also allow us to replicate conditions that will prepare us for the World Cup qualifying campaign this fall. As always, we want to keep developing our player pool to be more and more prepared. As we gain more experience, I expect our standards to keep improving.”
For this year’s SheBelieves Cup, there are a couple of new rules in place. Teams are able to call in 26-player rosters, with coaches selecting 23 of them for each matchday roster. There is also a new way to decide matches. Teams that win after 90 minutes will still get 3 points in the SheBelieves Cup standings, while losses give you 0 points. Matches that are level after 90 minutes will proceed directly to penalty kicks. Both teams will earn a point in the standings, and the winner of the penalty shootout will earn a second point.
The 26-player USWNT roster:
GOALKEEPERS (3): Claudia Dickey, Mandy McGlynn, Phallon Tullis-Joyce
DEFENDERS (9): Jordyn Bugg, Emily Fox, Naomi Girma, Lilly Reale, Tara Rudd, Emily Sonnett, Gisele Thompson, Kennedy Wesley, Kate Wiesner
MIDFIELDERS (8): Sam Coffey, Lindsey Heaps, Claire Hutton, Riley Jackson, Rose Lavelle, Olivia Moultrie, Jaedyn Shaw, Lily Yohannes
FORWARDS (6): Maddie Dahlien, Jameese Joseph, Trinity Rodman, Emma Sears, Ally Sentnor, Alyssa Thompson
The USWNT will open up SheBelieves Cup by playing Argentina on March 1st in Nashville. They follow that up with a March 4th match against Canada in Columbus, and will finish the tournament on March 7th in Harrison against Colombia.
