After a two-week January camp culminating in a pair of matches against Colombia, if anyone was wondering what shape the USWNT was in following an unpredictable and turbulent 2020, well, wonder no more.

With ten goals scored in the span of two games, which saw the return of Megan Rapinoe and Carli Lloyd after nearly a year off the pitch, as well as the highly-anticipated debut of newly-minted U.S. citizen Catarina Macario, the USWNT looked dominant in their first showing of 2021.

 

RAPINOE AND LLOYD HAVEN’T MISSED A BEAT

After watching the U.S. face off against Colombia, any viewer would be forgiven for thinking that former captains Rapinoe and Lloyd had been playing throughout this past year. Per Andonovski, after undergoing a knee scope surgery — which ended up being more severe than initially thought — Lloyd rejoined the team as one of the most fit players on the roster and proved it in 90 minutes against Colombia on Monday and in an additional 27 minutes on Friday. Though she couldn’t quite finish a goal of her own, Lloyd assisted for sisters Sam and Kristie Mewis in the team’s first match and another for Midge Purce in the 86’ on Friday for the team’s sixth and final score of the game.

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— U.S. Soccer WNT (@USWNT) January 25, 2021

Krieger ➡️ Macario

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— Just Women’s Sports (@justwsports) January 23, 2021

Of course, fans won’t soon forget Mewis Monday as the sisters monopolized the score sheet in the team’s first match against Colombia. Younger sister Sam Mewis scored her first career international hat trick, before Kristie closed out the game with a textbook left-footed volley to the back of the net.

 

VLATKO ANDONOVSKI IS BEGINNING TO LEAVE HIS MARK

Taking over for Jill Ellis following the 2019 World Cup, manager Vlatko Andonovski was initially going to have only a few months to assemble his roster for the Tokyo Olympics. The postponement of the games due to COVID has now given him the chance to bring the team together on multiple occasions and, to use his signature phrase, “layer in the details.”

Watching both matches last week, it’s becoming much more clear what Andonovski means by layering in the details, as the team pressed high in the attacking third, disrupted Colombia’s short pass attacking style, and worked out its set pieces.

January camp ends, however, with the same major question dogging Andonovski as before: how will he whittle down a roster boasting more than two dozen world class players to a mere 18 for the Olympics?

Though he’s a pro at delivering consistent and diplomatic responses to any journalist hoping to crack his thinking, Andonovski has made one thing clear: he does not view this team as one in need of drastic change. In an October interview with The Equalizer’s Jeff Kassouf, he stated, “I’ve said all along, this team doesn’t need reconstruction… but they do need to evolve… other teams are not staying where they’re at, they’re getting better, too, so we’ve got to be ahead of the curve.”

Andonovski’s consistent messaging around focusing on the details and finessing what already exists suggests he may be leaning towards an Olympic roster anchored largely by those veterans who won the 2019 World Cup. If that’s the route he takes, it’s not likely to shock many.

While Andonovski took over a team with a strong internal ethos and a culture steeped in excellence, he’s clearly started to find ways to create marginal yet significant changes. In his first concrete contribution, he reinstated Becky Sauerbrunn — who he coached in Kansas City — as captain, a title she previously held in 2016 and 2017. Sauerbrunn is a player Sam Mewis dubbed her “moral compass,” stating in a pre-game press conference that “whatever she’s doing is what I know is right, so I should probably do the same thing.”

 

TOKYO OLYMPICS: WHO’S A LOCK, WHO’S ON THE FRINGE?

While Andonovski won’t name names just yet, Julie Foudy shared her Olympics analysis during Friday’s halftime show on ESPN. Per Foudy, all eyes are on the bubble players who will round out a roster that she believes will include goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher; defenders Abby Dahlkemper, Crystal Dunn, Kelley O’Hara, Becky Sauerbrunn, and Emily Sonnett; midfielders Julie Ertz, Lindsey Horan, Rose Lavelle, and Sam Mewis; and forwards Tobin Heath and Christen Press. Foudy also named forwards Carli Lloyd, Alex Morgan, and Megan Rapinoe as “probable” selections.

Foudy’s overall prediction leaves room for three more players, one of which will be another keeper, most likely Ashlynn Harris. And based on this week’s performance, one has to think that Macario has a solid chance of making the cut, particularly given U.S. Soccer’s efforts in expediting her request for FIFA eligibility, which she was awarded during camp.

For the remaining spots, Andonovski has a solid bench of younger players to choose from, including Mallory Pugh and Sophia Smith, who did not see playing time against Colombia due to injuries. It is also no secret that Andonovski respects the NWSL as a proving ground for talent. Having served as a head coach since the league’s inception in 2013 before rising to the manager role for the USWNT, Andonovski is familiar with all of the league’s top players. He drafted and coached Kristie Mewis at FC Kansas City, and in November cited her performance in both the NWSL Challenge Cup and Fall Series when calling her into camp. Could a strong SheBelieves Cup performance send both Mewis sisters to Tokyo?

Lynn Williams likewise scored her 10th international goal against Colombia and is a one-time NWSL MVP. Expect her to be well in the mix when Vlatko sits down to decide on his forwards.

Mewis ➡️ @lynnraenie pic.twitter.com/SYlGE344Uf

— Just Women’s Sports (@justwsports) January 23, 2021

For an 18 player roster, versatility will be key, which Andonovski leaned into this week by playing Crystal Dunn — who he called “the most versatile player on the field” — at both left back as well as the number 11 attacking position. Macario also showcased her creativity and confidence on the field playing in both the 11 and 9 spots across both games.

Purce, too, took a turn up top, subbing in for Williams in the 68’ minute during Friday’s match. Having played both up front and on the backline for her club Sky Blue, she could be another versatile player providing roster flexibility.

The ability to play in multiple positions isn’t just imperative given the limited number of players, but also crucial as the Olympic schedule gives teams only two days off in between games. Flexibility in the roster will give Andonovski depth in multiple positions despite the roster limit. Though some may assume that this schedule could hinder older players, Andonovski does not seem to share that sentiment, having told Kassouf, “I would not count those senior players out.” Based on last week’s lineups, he means it.

Noticeably missing from this camp were Alex Morgan, Christen Press, and Tobin Heath, who are all predicted to rejoin the team for the SheBelieves Cup. As Andonovski continues to polish the edges, the upcoming February tournament will give him a solid opportunity to add their skills back into the rotation as the team continues to develop the set pieces they’ve become known for while implementing new passing and player patterns.

 

THE SHEBELIEVES CUP SHOULD OFFER MORE CLARITY

To their credit, Colombia showed glimmers of their potential over the course of two games, however, the USWNT will face teams in the upcoming SheBelieves Cup that are much closer to the level of competition they are set to face in Tokyo. The rosters for those games, and the accompanying starting lineups, will be a much stronger indication of who is headed to the Olympics, should the show still go on this summer.

Though the fate of the Tokyo Olympics remains up in the air, if they do take place this summer, it’s likely safe to say that USWNT fans will see an Olympic team that closely resembles the 2019 World Cup roster. It could be one final ride for the team’s core ahead of an expected roster overhaul following the games.

With that said, this is a team overflowing with talent, and there are still ample opportunities for younger players to prove they belong in Tokyo. And as coach Andonovski stated in Friday’s post-game press conference, “ultimately, the best ones will go.”

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.