USWNT roster set for 2022 Concacaf W Championship

CHICAGO – U.S. Women’s National Team head coach Vlatko Andonovski has named the 23-player roster that will represent the USA in Mexico at the 2022 Concacaf W Championship, an eight-team tournament at which berths to the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup and the 2024 Paris Olympics are at stake.

Andonovski also named three additional players who will be a part of a 26-player BioSteel Training Camp for the two matches against Colombia prior to the team’s departure for Mexico and will name 23 players from those 26 to suit up for each of the matches against Colombia. The first match will take place on Saturday, June 25 at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colorado (7:30 p.m. ET / 5:30 p.m. MT on FS1 and ViX) and the second at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah on Tuesday, June 28 (10 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. MT on ESPN and ViX).

Four players on the 26-player roster hail from Colorado and will be competing for minutes in front of their hometown crowd in midfielder Lindsey Horan (Golden) – who is fresh off helping Olympique Lyon win its record eighth UEFA Women’s Champions League title as well as securing the French Division 1 Féminine title — midfielder Jaelin Howell (Windsor) and forwards Mallory Pugh (Highlands Ranch) and Sophia Smith (Windsor). In addition, first-time call-up Taylor Kornieck was a standout midfielder at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

Forward Ashley Hatch was a star forward at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah and in the second friendly will be competing for minutes at the same stadium – Rio Tinto – in which she earned her first USWNT cap as a college senior 2016.

“Since we were last together in April, we’ve been evaluating a lot of games and hours of video and have had extensive conversations among the coaching staff to arrive at this 26-player roster for the Colombia games and the final 23 for qualifying,” said Andonovski. “As usual, the players don’t make these decisions easy, but we feel this is a roster that can accomplish all of our goals over the four weeks we will be together for what we hope will be seven successful games.”

U.S. Women’s National Team Concacaf W Championship Roster by Position (Club; Caps/Goals):

GOALKEEPERS (3): Aubrey Kingsbury (Washington Spirit; 1), Casey Murphy (North Carolina Courage; 4), Alyssa Naeher (Chicago Red Stars; 80)

DEFENDERS (7): Alana Cook (OL Reign; 9/0), Emily Fox (Racing Louisville FC; 13/0), Naomi Girma (San Diego Wave FC; 1/0), Sofia Huerta (OL Reign; 12/0), Kelley O’Hara (Washington Spirit; 152/2), Becky Sauerbrunn (Portland Thorns FC; 202/0), Emily Sonnett (Washington Spirit; 65/0)

MIDFIELDERS (6): Lindsey Horan (Olympique Lyon, FRA; 109/25), Taylor Kornieck (San Diego Wave FC; 0/0), Rose Lavelle (OL Reign; 71/20), Kristie Mewis (NJ/NY Gotham FC; 38/5), Ashley Sanchez (Washington Spirit; 7/2), Andi Sullivan (Washington Spirit; 27/3)

FORWARDS (7): Ashley Hatch (Washington Spirit; 8/4), Alex Morgan (San Diego Wave FC; 190/115), Mallory Pugh (Chicago Red Stars; 72/23), Midge Purce (NJ/NY Gotham FC; 14/3), Megan Rapinoe (OL Reign; 187/62), Trinity Rodman (Washington Spirit; 3/1), Sophia Smith (Portland Thorns FC; 15/4)

Additional Players for June Friendlies Roster vs. Colombia (Club; Caps/Goals):

DEFENDERS (1): Carson Pickett (North Carolina Courage; 0/0)

MIDFIELDERS (2): Sam Coffey (Portland Thorns FC; 0/0), Jaelin Howell (Racing Louisville: 5/1)

These rosters mark the return of two of the USA’s most decorated veterans in forwards Alex Morgan (190 caps/115 goals) and Megan Rapinoe (187/62), both of whom have two World Cup titles and an Olympic gold medal on their resumes and both of whom last played for the USA in October of 2021. Team captain Becky Sauerbrunn also returns after having missed the April friendlies while recovering from a knee injury. Sauerbrunn, with 202 caps, Morgan and Rapinoe are by far the most capped players on the roster. World Cup and Olympic veteran defender Emily Sonnett also returns after missing the April friendlies due to a rib injury suffered in the NWSL.

Morgan made her USWNT debut at Rio Tinto Stadium back in 2010 while Sauerbrunn and defender Kelley O’Hara (who is the fourth-most capped player on the roster with 152 games played) previously played for the Utah Royals in the NWSL. 

These are the first full National Team callups for defender Carson Pickett, midfielder Sam Coffey and Kornieck, although all have played for the USA at the youth levels. Pickett is the first player with a limb difference ever called in to the U.S. Women’s National Team. The 28-year-old was born without part of her left arm.

Should there be any injuries that necessitate changes to the CWC roster, Andonovski can select any player on the USA’s 59-player preliminary roster that was announced by Concacaf on June 8. Teams can make injury replacements on their Concacaf W Championship rosters up to 24 hours before their first matches. For the USA, that would be July 3.

Following the two matches against Colombia, the U.S. team will depart directly to Mexico to prepare for the Concacaf W Championship, which will run from July 4-18 and will be played entirely in Monterrey. The tournament’s 16 matches will be split across two stadiums: Estadio Universitario and Estadio BBVA, the latter of which is one of Mexico’s likely venues for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

The USA was drawn into Group A and will face Haiti on Monday, July 4 at 6 p.m. local (7 p.m. ET), Jamaica on Thursday, July 7 at 6 p.m. local (7 p.m. ET) and Mexico on Monday, July 11 at 9 p.m. local (10 p.m. ET). The Semifinals will take place on Thursday, July 14 with the Third-Place Match and Championship Game being held on Monday, July 18. All the matches of the tournament will be available in English on Paramount+ and in Spanish on TelevisaUnivision’s streaming service ViX. The USA’s opening match against Haiti will also be broadcast on CBS Sports Network.

The top two finishers in each group after round-robin play will advance to the semifinals while earning World Cup berths. The third-place finisher in each group will earn a berth to the 10-team inter-confederation playoff tournament that will be held in February of 2023 to decide the final three berths to the expanded 32-team field at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

The tournament winner will also get an automatic berth to the 2024 Olympics in Paris while the second and third place finishers will play off in September of 2023 for Concacaf’s second and final Olympic berth. The tournament winner and the Olympic qualifier via the playoff series will also qualify directly to a new Concacaf competition, the 2024 W Gold Cup.