The USWNT kicks off their packed 2023 calendar this week with two friendlies against the Football Ferns in New Zealand.

The games are outside of the FIFA international window, which means the U.S. will be much closer to full strength than New Zealand, who are currently No. 24 in the FIFA rankings. Regardless, the trip allows the U.S. to get a feel for 2023 World Cup travel and provides New Zealand with a stern opponent as it prepares to host the tournament with Australia later this year.

Vlatko Andonovski’s roster for the January friendlies held few surprises, but here’s what I’d like to see from the team this week.

More attacking opportunities

The USWNT is missing 2022 Player of the Year Sophia Smith for these friendlies. The 22-year-old is rehabbing an old injury that the team decided would be best fully healed going into next month’s SheBelieves Tournament.

Smith was a consistent spark for the U.S. in 2022 and will surely be a locked-in starter going forward, but her absence allows the team to cycle in a few players who haven’t gotten as much playing time. Alex Morgan can handle the center-forward position (backed up by Ashley Hatch if necessary), and Mallory Swanson likely will still be the first choice on the left wing, but the right wing is open. Andonovski can take advantage of the opportunity to rotate players who are pushing for playing time.

Trinity Rodman should start one of this week’s friendlies. The Washington Spirit forward has had ups and downs while trying to break into the front three rotation after a good performance against England in October. Rodman’s instincts increasingly include dropping closer into the midfield to progress the ball, which suits Andonovski’s system of having the attack linking up with the players behind them.

This is also Margaret Purce’s chance to remind Andonovski what she can do on the right side. The Gotham FC forward returns to the squad after being left off for what Andonovski described as form in late 2022. Purce brings energy as a substitute that’s difficult to replace, and if she gets a start, she can establish chemistry with the attacking players around her.

Finally, with the understanding that New Zealand might sit back in a lower block, Ashley Sanchez should get more time to partner with Rose Lavelle as dual-attacking midfielders. Sanchez is one of the USWNT’s most creative players, but Andonovski appears to be reluctant to insert her into high-stakes games. The New Zealand friendlies are an opportunity for her to shine.

More variety, in spades

Sometimes in 2022, watching the USWNT meant watching the same actions over and over again. Even the things the U.S. does well, like forcing turnovers and moving quickly on the counterattack, felt like they belonged to a single script.

It’s good to have a game plan, but the U.S. needs to move away from some of the tactical rigidity that has permeated Andonovski’s tenure and let the playmakers simply play.

That sentiment is perhaps easier said than done, but the U.S. could make a few adjustments to re-balance the squad, particularly against a team unlikely to press high up the field. The USWNT currently plays with attacking-minded outside-backs, who are instructed to make overlapping runs and cross the ball into the box with frequency. It’s a good option to have, but a lack of patience in the midfield can turn into route-one soccer, with long balls sent over the top or wide and lobbed back centrally in the air. The tactic has been exposed against top competition, creating gaps behind the outside backs that leaves the defensive structure vulnerable and the USWNT’s wide attacking players tracking back to provide help.

The answer lies primarily in the midfield, where strict roles have hindered the team’s ability to progress the ball and simultaneously make runs that open up space. Solutions? Solidify the distributive relationship between the No. 6 and the two center backs, let Lindsey Horan float box to box, and don’t rely too heavily on Lavelle to create in the attack and leave her on an island.

With the focus on results, the U.S. looked too nervous to introduce freedom at the end of 2022. These friendlies should give them the space to try new things.

Clean sheets

With the advantages of roster cohesion and and the expectations for the No. 1-ranked team in the world, defensive lapses leading to goals against would be a disappointment for the USWNT this week. There’s no shame in being beaten on your best day, but too often last year, the U.S. missed marks on set pieces and showed a lack of urgency on recovery runs, leading to chances that never should have happened.

Part of the reason for traveling so early in the year is to see how the squad handles the ebbs and flows of the mental side of the game. If the defense looks flat-footed while holding a lead or pushing forward in numbers, the same questions about the team’s ability to stay focused when results matter will linger.

Watch for who Andonovski selects at center-back: The final game 2022 marked a departure from his favored pairing of Alana Cook with either Becky Sauerbrunn or Naomi Girma. Emily Sonnett is also back with the team, and likely eager to make her mark on these games with the returns of Tierna Davidson and Kelley O’Hara looming in the near future. This week’s friendlies should also allow Crystal Dunn to keep building her minutes at left back and for Sofia Huerta to hone her defensive positioning on the right.

A year out from a World Cup, it’s not necessarily fair to expect any team to be 100-percent mentally focused as they begin the slow build toward the group stage. But the U.S., now seven months away from tournament kickoff, is in the middle of that slow build. At this stage, we can expect players and their manager to be progressing toward the best version of what the USWNT can be in 2023.

Claire Watkins is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @ScoutRipley.

Seven-time Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, at a White House ceremony this afternoon. 

The Team USA standout is the most decorated women’s swimmer in the sport’s history. In addition to her seven Olympic golds, she’s also won a total of 21 gold medals at the World Championships, the most of any swimmer regardless of gender. 

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The esteemed award recognizes those who have "made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavors," according to a White House press briefing. 

Ledecky is one of 19 medal recipients chosen by the Biden administration this year. She joins a class that spans the worlds of politics, sports, film, human rights, religion, and science. Her fellow 2024 awardees include Everything Everywhere All at Once actress Michelle Yeoh, pioneering Hispanic astronaut Dr. Ellen Ochoa, and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, plus posthumous winners Jim Thorpe, the first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal for the US, and assassinated civil rights leader Medgar Evers. 

Olympic gymnast Simone Biles and USWNT legend Megan Rapinoe were among 2022’s class of Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients. Biles and Rapinoe were the fifth and sixth women athletes to be given the honor, making Ledecky the seventh.

After an illustrious career for both club and country, Gotham FC and U.S. Women’s National Team defender Kelley O’Hara announced today via Kelley on the Street that she will be retiring from professional soccer at the end of this year, making the 2024 NWSL season her last.

"I have always said I would play under two conditions: that I still love playing soccer, and if my body would let me do it the way I wanted to," O’Hara told Just Women’s Sports in the lead-up to her retirement announcement. "I realized a while back that I was always going to love it, so it was the physical piece that was going to be the deciding factor."

The 35-year-old will retire as a two-time World Cup champion, an Olympic gold medalist, and at least a two-time NWSL champion, depending on where Gotham finishes this season. Her legacy as a player is hard to fully encapsulate, and will forever run through some of the biggest snapshots in USWNT and NWSL history. 

In 2012, O’Hara played every minute of the USWNT’s Olympic gold medal run, after having recently converted into a defender. Her soaring goal off the bench in the 2015 World Cup semifinal is the stuff of legend. And her return from lingering injury to play in every knockout match of the national team’s 2019 World Cup win cemented a storybook international career. 

It was O’Hara who scored the overtime goal in 2021 to earn the Washington Spirit their first-ever NWSL championship, and O’Hara who returned to help see Gotham earn a title in 2023 after years spent in the trenches with the club’s previous iteration, Sky Blue. Her 15-year career spanned two professional women’s soccer leagues in the U.S. (she earned her first professional title in 2010 with WPS’s FC Gold Pride), as well as sweeping changes to the sport both on and off the pitch.

On the field, O’Hara has always been known for a motor that never quits, making the right flank her domain in attacking possession and defensive transition. In recent years, she’s also been celebrated for a competitive fire that raises the level of her teammates, whether she’s in the starting XI or supporting from the bench.

But injuries take a toll, a reality not always seen by the fans watching from home. "I've never taken anything for granted, and I feel like I've never coasted either," O’Hara said of her late-career success in the NWSL despite battling injuries. "I've always been like, 'I gotta put my best foot forward every single day I step on this field' — which is honestly probably half the reason why I'm having to retire now as opposed to getting a couple more years out of it. I've just grinded hard."

Recently, O’Hara has been sidelined at Gotham with ankle and knee injuries, and the situation motivated her to really prioritize listening to her body. "To get injured and come back, and get injured and come back, and just keep doing it, it really takes a toll on you.

"People don't see the doubt that's associated with injury,” she continued. "As athletes we feel a certain way, we perform a certain way, our body feels a certain way, we're very in tune with our bodies. And there's always so much doubt surrounding injury. It’s like, 'Can I feel the way I felt before?' The reality is sometimes you don't."

O’Hara didn’t arrive at the decision to move on from her playing career lightly. But once she began seriously considering making 2024 her final year during the last NWSL offseason, it felt right. "Once I was like, 'Alright, you know what, this will be my last year,' I have had a lot of peace with it," she said. "Truly the only thing I felt was gratitude for everything that my career has been, all the things I've been able to do and the people I've been able to do it with."

She said she’ll miss daily interactions with her teammates and all the amazing memories they’ve created, though she feels lucky to have formed relationships that go beyond sharing a locker room. "You're basically getting to hang out and just shoot the shit with your best friends every day," she reflected. "Which is so unheard of, and I just feel very lucky to do it for so long."

The Stanford graduate also mentioned that the NWSL’s suspension of regular season play in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic made her realize how much playing allowed her the space to simply be creative every day. The tactical elements of soccer provided O’Hara an outlet for problem solving and made use of her naturally competitive edge.

She’s now gearing up to channel her on-field intensity into her post-playing career full time, which is a new chapter she’s excited to begin. "I don't know if the world's ready for it, like the fact that I'm not going to be putting all of my energy into football all the time," she said with a laugh. 

O’Hara said she would like to stay connected to the game in some fashion, whether it be as an owner, coach, or member of a front office. She’s also interested in the growing media space surrounding women’s sports, having provided on-camera analysis for broadcasters like CBS Sports in addition to starting a production company with her fiancée.

"I just feel like I have a lot of passions, and things that excite me," she says. "And I do want to stay as close as I can to the game, because I feel a responsibility — and I'm not sure in what capacity — to continue to grow it."

A sense of responsibility to grow the game has been a consistent refrain for the USWNT and NWSL players of O’Hara’s era, who ushered in a new age of equal pay for the national team and collectively bargained protections for those in the league. The landscape for new players looks different than it did 14 years ago, in large part due to this pivotal generation.

"I feel an immense sense of pride around that, because I don't know if any of us knew that was gonna happen," she said. "We kind of, as things unfolded, took the next step towards changing what women's football looks like in this country and around the world.

"I'm really grateful to have been part of this era with the players that I was [with], not backing down and pushing and knowing that was the right thing to do."

Whatever the future holds, O’Hara is going ahead full throttle. It’s a piece of advice she’d also give to the next generation of professionals looking to make their own impact.

"Whatever you do in life, do it because you love it, and the chips will fall in place," she said. "If you love something, you're willing to do what it takes. You're willing to make the sacrifices, you're willing to handle the roller coaster.

"To me, it's simple. Don't do it for any other reason but that, and I think you'll be alright."

The Phoenix Mercury center spoke with Robin Roberts about her 10-month incarceration, reflecting on her poor living conditions and shaky mental state ahead of her May 7th memoir.

"The mattress had a huge blood stain on it. I had no soap, no toilet paper," Griner told the ABC News anchor in last night’s 20/20 special. "That was the moment where I just felt less than a human." 

She also detailed some of her lowest moments during that time, saying with tears in her eyes that she went so far as to consider taking her own life on more than one occasion. However, the thought of Russian officials not releasing her body back to her family made her reconsider.

"I just didn't think I could get through what I needed to get through," said Griner.

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In February 2022, Griner was arrested and charged with drug possession and smuggling by a Russian court after Sheremetyevo International Airport police found vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage. The cartridges were prescribed by Griner’s doctor for chronic pain back in Arizona, where medical marijuana is legal. In the interview, the two-time Olympic gold medalist said she had a "mental lapse" while packing, and never intended to bring the cannabis products with her when she returned to play for UMMC Ekaterinburg.

"It's just so easy to have a mental lapse," Griner said. "Granted, my mental lapse was on a more grand scale. But it doesn't take away from how that can happen." 

She was later sentenced to nine years behind bars after her Russian attorneys advised her to plead guilty the following July. Griner was then sent to a remote penal colony where she was forced to spend her days cutting cloth to make military uniforms. From there, it only got worse.

"Honestly, it just had to happen," she said when asked about her decision to cut off her signature long locks. "We had spiders above my bed making nests.

"My dreads started to freeze," she added. "They would just stay wet and cold and I was getting sick. You've gotta do what you've gotta do to survive."

Shortly after Griner’s initial arrest, the U.S. State Department classified her case as wrongfully detained, escalating its urgency within the government and calling even more attention to the situation. On December 8th, she was freed in a prisoner exchange negotiated by the Biden administration.

While she told Roberts she was "thrilled" when she got the news, she was also very upset about having to leave fellow wrongful detainee Paul Whelan behind. She also continues to carry guilt about her arrest, saying "At the end of the day, it's my fault. And I let everybody down."

Griner’s memoir, Coming Home, hits shelves on May 7th.

"Coming Home begins in a land where my roots developed and is the diary of my heartaches and regrets," Griner told ABC News in an exclusive statement. "But, ultimately, the book is also a story of how my family, my faith, and the support of millions who rallied for my rescue helped me endure a nightmare."

Longtime USWNT fixture Carli Lloyd took to Instagram Wednesday morning to announce that she’s pregnant with her first child. 

"Baby Hollins coming in October 2024!" she wrote. The caption framed a collaged image of baby clothes, an ultrasound photo, and syringes indicating what she described as a "rollercoaster" fertility journey.

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In a Women’s Health story published in tandem with Lloyd’s post, the Fox Sports analyst and correspondent opened up about her struggles with infertility and the lengthy IVF treatments she kept hidden from the public eye.

"Soccer taught me how to work hard, persevere, be resilient, and never give up. I would do whatever it took to prepare, and usually when I prepared, I got results," Lloyd told Women’s Health’s Amanda Lucci. "But I found out that I didn’t know much about this world. I was very naive to think that we wouldn’t have any issues getting pregnant. And so it began."

Lloyd went on to discuss her road to pregnancy in great detail, sharing the highs and lows of the process and expressing gratitude for the care and support her family and medical team provided along the way. She rounded out the piece with a nod toward others navigating the same challenges, encouraging people to share their own pregnancy journeys, painful as they may be.

"My story is currently a happy one, but I know there are other women who are facing challenges in their pregnancy journey. I see you and I understand your pain," she said. "My hope is that more and more women will speak up about this topic, because their stories helped me. I also wish for more resources, funding, and education around fertility treatments. There is much to be done, and I hope I can play a role in helping."

The 41-year-old New Jersey native retired from professional soccer in 2021, closing out her decorated career with 316 international appearances, the second-most in USWNT history, in addition to 134 international goals. A legend on the field, Lloyd walked away from the game with two World Cups, two Olympic gold medals, and two FIFA Player of the Year awards.