This article is part of the Guardian’s Women’s World Cup 2023 Experts’ Network, a cooperation between some of the best media organisations from the 32 countries who qualified. theguardian.com is running previews from two countries each day in the run-up to the tournament kicking off on 20 July.
Overview
Four years ago in France, the United States became the third team to successfully defend a World Cup since the second world war, joining Brazil’s men (in 1962) and Germany’s women (in 2007). And while Vlatko Andonovski’s squad have maintained their uninterrupted six-year perch atop the Fifa rankings and will begin as narrow favourites in Australia and New Zealand, the Americans’ pursuit of an unprecedented third successive world title has been anything but straightforward amid a sometimes tumultuous generational transition and a recent spate of injuries.
The US were compelled to retool their roster after a lacklustre bronze-medal finish with a veteran-heavy squad at the Tokyo Olympics, where their once-swashbuckling attack struggled for ideas in the final third despite ample time on the ball, but it’s anything but a finished product as their “three-peat” bid draws near. While it’s true the 2015 and 2019 tournament-winners faced urgent questions during the run-up before peaking at the right time, those squads were all but set months in advance. Not this year.
Andonovski wound up choosing 14 first-time World Cup players, up from 11 debutantes in 2019. Questions over the fitness of mainstays Rose Lavelle, Julie Ertz and Megan Rapinoe are concerning enough, but the recent glut of injuries has ensured the newcomers will be pressed into action. Two of the long-intended attacking centrepieces are out of the picture: Chicago Red Stars forward Mallory Swanson, who was in the form of her life with goals in six straight international appearances when she suffered a torn patella tendon during an April friendly, along with Chelsea-bound forward Catarina Macario, who will not have recovered from a torn ACL in time.
Also out are the captain Becky Sauerbrunn and veteran midfielder Sam Mewis. While the Americans do have the squad depth to absorb their absences, they will become far more dependent on youngsters Sophia Smith, Trinity Rodman and Alyssa Thompson, who at 18 is the second youngest player ever to be named to a US World Cup squad after current USWNT assistant coach Tiffany Roberts Sahaydak.
The coach
Andonovski, a longtime NWSL manager who favours a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 formation, has been a steady hand since he succeeded Jill Ellis as the US’s ninth coach in November 2019. But the 23-match unbeaten run to start his tenure was ended by Sweden in their first contest of a Tokyo Olympics that quickly went sideways as his game management came under criticism. Questions over his fitness for the role surfaced in November when the United States suffered their first three-game losing streak in nearly 30 years with friendly defeats to England, Spain and Germany, but his job has never been in any serious jeopardy. His selections have broadly reflected an emphasis on NSWL form. Consider the surprise pick of Savannah DeMelo, a 25-year-old midfielder enjoying a standout club season for Racing Louisville FC, who is the third player ever to make a US World Cup squad without having previously made an international appearance.
Star player
The pacy 22-year-old Sophia Smith made a convincing pitch as the next face of US women’s soccer with an extraordinary 2022 for club and country, becoming the youngest NWSL MVP in leading the Portland Thorns to a third league title while adding 11 international goals to become the youngest player to lead the USWNT in scoring in a calendar year since 1993. With Swanson and Macario both out of the World Cup, the US will rely on Smith even more for scoring punch. “She can stop pushing now, and she will still be a very good player, one of the best players this country has ever produced,” says Thorns coach Rhian Wilkinson. “And my job is to keep pushing her, and to make sure she is the best player this country has ever produced because she has that in her right now.”
Rising star
The 22-year-old centre-back Naomi Girma, who has been capped 15 times since making her senior debut last year, has established herself in Andonovski’s team with her mature poise, vision, distribution and ability in a position where experience is typically valued. During a standout debut season with the San Diego Wave that saw her win NWSL Rookie of the Year and Defender of the Year honours, the Californian has been equally rock-solid for country whether paired alongside Alana Cook or Sauerbrunn. “[She’s not just] making five-yard passes to the person next to her,” former US star Carli Lloyd said. “She’s threading balls through the centre of the park, picking out forwards’ feet.”
Did you know?
Rose Lavelle, the breakout midfield star of the last World Cup whose left-footed strike in the final was hailed as an instant classic, has a 10-year-old English bulldog named Wilma Jean Wrinkles (who is closing in on 13,000 followers on Instagram) that she FaceTimes from the road.
Standing of women’s football in the US?
The 1972 passage of the federal legislation known as Title IX – the law that makes it illegal for government-funded institutions to discriminate on the basis of sex – mandated equal funding for women’s sports programs that gave the United States a crucial head start on the international scene and generated a player pool that remains the envy of the world even as the gap is narrowing. Additionally, soccer’s modest popularity in the United States among men’s sports has given the women’s game ample space to flourish.
Realistic aim at the World Cup?
The United States have won four World Cups and never finished worse than third in the tournament, adding four Olympic gold medals along the way. Anything short of a fifth would be a disappointment. But the historic feat of winning a third straight – so far from home, so compromised by injury, the once-yawning gap with their rivals never slimmer – promises their stiffest test to date.
