For the U.S. ladies’s nationwide group, all roads to the 2023 Ladies’s World Cup and the 2024 Olympics run by way of Monterrey, Mexico, the place the squad will start its qualification marketing campaign Monday.
In case you’ve by no means heard of the CONCACAF W Championship, which runs July 4-18, there is a good purpose for that: it is a model new competitors. But it surely’s a reasonably vital one, particularly due to its new format: it is going to function the qualification event for each these aforementioned occasions, the primary time CONCACAF has opted for a double-qualification format. The stakes have by no means been larger.
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The event must be relatively forgiving for the People. The highest 4 groups within the eight-team event qualify robotically for the 2023 Ladies’s World Cup co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, that means the USWNT solely must survive the group stage. However qualifying for the Olympics is the place it will get trickier: solely the winner of the event will straight qualify for Paris 2024. The second- and third-placed groups are usually not out of it — they may compete in a playoff to be held in September 2023 for the second and ultimate CONCACAF spot — however the U.S. would absolutely prefer to get qualifying over with, if attainable.
Here’s a have a look at the important thing questions dealing with the U.S. heading into the event:
Who will lead the USWNT into the long run?
Coach Vlatko Andonovski has not been shy to solid veterans apart in favor of youthful expertise that is tearing up the Nationwide Ladies’s Soccer League in 2022. Tobin Heath was not referred to as in for these qualifiers and though Christen Press tore an ACL shortly earlier than the roster was introduced, Andonovski mentioned he wasn’t planning to name her in anyway.
As an alternative, newer gamers like Sophia Smith, Ashley Sanchez and Trinity Rodman are being requested to guide the assault, they usually’ve regarded a lot succesful. (Mallory Pugh is not new, however after years on the outs with the nationwide group, she is again and looking out like a brand new participant, too.)
It was a significant blow to Andonovski’s deliberate youth motion when Catarina Macario tore an ACL final month, however the USWNT confirmed off loads of threats when it received the SheBelieves Cup in February with a roster principally devoid of veteran attackers. Nevertheless, when it got here time to pick out this qualifying roster, Andonovski could not transfer on from Alex Morgan, who has been off to her finest membership begin in her total profession at age 33, scoring 11 in 10 video games. Megan Rapinoe, at 36 (turning 37 on Tuesday), might now not be a 90-minute starter, however Andonovski was clear that he felt she brings one thing particular and unpredictable to the desk. That veteran presence remains to be wanted, it appears.
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So who’s going to cleared the path to the subsequent World Cup and Olympics? The U.S. had the oldest squads on the previous two World Cups (and received each of them) however Andonovski appears decided to go a unique route. For the primary time since they joined the group, veterans comparable to Morgan are usually not assured minutes, not to mention roster spots, however it is going to come right down to who scores, who leads, and who makes probably the most impression.
Is the USWNT prepared for its subsequent goalkeeper transition?
Alyssa Naeher has been the USWNT’s beginning goalkeeper since late 2016, the successor to a task held by Hope Solo for the higher a part of a decade. So when the 34-year-old was injured throughout the Olympics final yr, the protected assumption was that she’d be the starter as soon as she was wholesome once more. Nevertheless, that is nonetheless solely an assumption because the USWNT’s latest matches, and Andonovski’s personal phrases, have supplied little readability.
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Just lately, all over the place Andonovski has been capable of finding a youthful participant to take over a task, he has taken that likelihood. Defenders Naomi Girma and Alana Cook dinner, who every had single-digit caps after they made this qualification roster, will in all probability get important minutes in Mexico. Morgan was on hearth within the NWSL however Andonovski nonetheless resisted calling her up for friendlies, opting to provide new gamers an opportunity. So why ought to goalkeeper be any totally different?
Casey Murphy, the 26-year-old North Carolina Braveness keeper, has made a powerful case within the NWSL, and he or she bought the nod to start out for the U.S. in a pre-qualification warm-up in opposition to Colombia.
Can Mexico or Canada spoil the USWNT’s possibilities?
Let’s be clear: the U.S. ought to completely qualify for the World Cup by the point they go away Mexico. The People have by no means did not qualify for a Ladies’s World Cup since FIFA began the occasion, and because the No. 1-ranked group on this planet, it is definitely not an excessive amount of to ask for the U.S. to complete within the high 4 in Monterrey both.
Qualifying for the Olympics is nicely inside attain as nicely. Of the 9 earlier CONCACAF tournaments the USWNT has competed in, they received eight of them. However that one they did not win in 2010 is the place it will get attention-grabbing. The U.S. suffered a shock loss to Mexico and couldn’t qualify straight for the World Cup: that point round, the People needed to face Italy in a home-and-away playoff to clinch their spot.
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Whereas Mexico are thought-about prone to qualify for the World Cup themselves at residence and are poised to finally see the good thing about their home league, Liga MX Femenil, Mexico is drawn into the identical group because the U.S., so the People will not even see them within the knockout spherical.
As an alternative the group to concentrate on right here is Canada. After successful gold on the Olympics final yr, there is no longer any dispute that Canada must be thought-about a dominant group in ladies’s soccer. Their fashion of play could also be a extra a gritty and defensive method than their American counterparts — their street to gold in Japan wasn’t paved in lots of objectives by way of the knockout rounds — however it may be terribly efficient nonetheless, particularly in opposition to groups that prefer to assault, just like the USWNT. The U.S., bear in mind, needed to accept a bronze medal in the identical Olympics after repeated stumbles.
It is simple to ascertain a Canada-U.S. ultimate with an computerized Olympic qualifying spot on the road and at that time, it might go both method.