Women’s soccer took over the globe this past week, with six tournaments in the FIFA window. Amid the chaos of flipping between channels and live streams, it was perhaps easy to forget that NWSL training camps were rolling on, despite many teams missing players on international duty.

Throughout the week, clubs brought in new staff members, players found out about the U.S. women’s national team’s equal pay settlement and teams made progress in their on-field tactics.

Rest assured, we’re here to catch you up on what you might have missed this past week in the NWSL.

Beers are on Michelle Akers

Orlando Pride coaches Amanda Cromwell and Michelle Akers, both former USWNT players, were not convinced their multitude of young players fully grasped the context of the national team’s equal pay resolution with U.S. Soccer. So, after the deal was announced on Tuesday morning, they went home to celebrate.

“Hallelujah, it’s about time,” Cromwell said.

“‘Hell yeah,’ that was my reaction,” said Akers, later adding, “Beers are on me. It’s so exciting.”

Akers, a 1991 and 1999 World Cup champion and regarded as one of the best women’s soccer players of all time, was a part of the USWNT’s initial movements in the fight for equal pay. In 1995, Akers and a group of other veteran players rejected their contracts from U.S. Soccer and sat out of the training camp leading into the 1996 Olympics.

Called into the same camp, Cromwell was one of the younger players at the time, fighting for a spot on the national team roster.

“We’re asking our fellow teammates like, ‘What do you want us to do?’” she said. “It was really scary for some of us like, ‘What do we do in this situation? How do we fight with you, but also maintain our position to be on this team?’”

Cromwell recalled the team agreed to respect every player’s decision, recognizing they were all on the same page about pushing for higher salaries. Having recently come across a handful of her USWNT contracts from the ’90s, Cromwell said the low numbers were “shocking.”

“It would be really interesting for people to see that,” she said.

Standing on the Pride’s training grounds in Sylvan Lake Park in Sandon, Fla., where Akers used to train with the national team, the now 56-year-old said it’s been rewarding to see how much the conditions of the locker rooms and offices have improved since she was a player.

“I’m just so excited and thrilled and have such respect for the fight of every single player, and to stick with it for so many years, especially this last group,” Akers said.

‘Players don’t work for me’

Chris Petrucelli was announced as the Chicago Red Stars’ new head coach on Friday following what Chief Business Officer Vicky Lynch said was a long and careful search process.

In the wake of multiple allegations of emotional abuse and sexual misconduct against former Red Stars coach Rory Dames, Petrucelli said he’s focused on creating a positive and supportive environment where players can feel safe and unafraid to make mistakes.

“When you talk about any organization that includes athletes, the athletes always come first,” Petrucelli said on Tuesday. “The players, for me, are more important than anything else, and I view my role as a support role. I don’t view my role as a person in a position of power or things like that. I view my role as trying to help players reach their goals, try and help the team reach their goals. I work that way.

“I work with the players. Players don’t work for me.”

After a season of reckoning in the NWSL, during which multiple coaches were ousted over accusations of abuse and the commissioner resigned, Petrucelli wants to come into 2022 with a forward-thinking mindset. He expressed his commitment to support the players “in their dreams and desires” both on and off the field.

Coming to work in the NWSL was an easy decision for Petrucelli, who won a national championship as coach of the Notre Dame women’s team and was a two-time winner of the National Coach of the Year award.

“When you sit back and talk to the players, and you see the quality of the people that you have here, I think any coach would want to come work for them,” he said.

Finding ‘current’ identity

Similar to many NWSL teams this year, the Kansas City Current are navigating preseason with a lot of new players and staff members.

Head coach Matt Potter, hired in early January, applauded the team’s veteran leadership for helping build the Current’s identity and leading the way for the younger players, seven of whom are first-timers in the NWSL.

“That type of group who have experience in the league and on these types of stages have been instrumental in allowing those new players to express themselves in a manner that they’re getting to show their talents, too,” Potter said.

The Current, who debuted as an NWSL expansion team last season and finished last in the league, have recently begun working out their big-picture tactical strategy for 2022, such as their defensive and possession structures.

“I feel that we’re making progress,” he said. “We’re trying to focus on the behavior we want to see, and in doing so, it has a great vibe to it. The camp has had a really good kind of energy, and that’s what I would applaud, but that’s been player-led for sure.”

Kristen Hamilton, 29, said the veterans were reminiscing recently about the different NWSL teams they’ve played on together, a familiarity that’s already shining through in their on-field chemistry. Before arriving in Kansas City, Hamilton was teammates with Lynn Williams, Sam Mewis and Hailie Mace on the North Carolina Courage from 2017-21, and before that with Kristen Edmonds on the Western New York Flash.

“We’ve been pretty comfortable with everyone gelling together,” Hamilton said.

Jessa Braun is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports covering the NWSL and USWNT. Follow her on Twitter @jessabraun.

Mallory Pugh reached 20 goals and 20 assists for her international career, Ashley Sanchez showed off her nifty ball distribution, SheBelieves Cup MVP Catarina Macario registered two goals and an assist for an almost “Cat Trick.” The only thing missing from the United States women’s national team’s 5-0 win over Iceland in the tournament finale Wednesday night was the Becky Sauerbrunn goal everyone on Twitter was trying to manifest.

In their third shutout in seven days, the U.S. claimed their fifth SheBelieves Cup title on Wednesday. For head coach Vlatko Andonovski, the goal of the campaign was to evaluate a younger roster and give experience to the 11 players who came into the competition with 10 caps or fewer.

The USWNT concluded the tournament with the ultimate test on Wednesday, as seven starters under the age of 25 stepped onto the Texas field in 23-degree temperatures to face 2-0 Iceland in a winner-take-all game.

“Everything, everything was in some ways against us, and I told them today, ‘Let’s see what we’re made of,’” Andonovski said. “A little bit of adversity, a little bit of challenge, and it was an opportunity for some of these players to dig probably a little deeper than they have ever had before.”

A draw and two 5-0 wins later, here are key takeaways from the USWNT’s performance at the SheBelieves Cup.

‘This is a process’

“Process” was the word Andonovski used the most throughout the SheBelieves Cup. He made it very clear he’s not ready to draw conclusions or form opinions about the team or players at this point in time. The tournament was just a step on the journey toward building a World Cup roster.

“I feel comfortable saying that we made strides,” the coach said of the tournament. “Obviously there’s always going to be room for improvement, especially with a young group of players like this one, but with what we had lined up, I feel pretty comfortable saying that we did a pretty good job.”

Deep player pool

Andonovski undeniably has one of the hardest jobs in sports. Naming a 23-player World Cup roster is a daunting task when the USWNT’s talent pool feels as deep as the Mariana Trench. That’s especially apparent now that the young squad stepped up to win an international tournament, albeit a friendly one against lesser competition than in past SheBelieves Cups. Andonovski will have to weigh their selections with those of the USWNT veterans, at least 11 of whom weren’t a part of the most recent camp.

On paper, every young player is talented enough to earn a spot on the team. But those players who took time to rest or stepped away for life reasons — Crystal Dunn is expecting her first child and Christen Press is taking mental health leave — will likely be looking to take their spots back.

Four players who can expect to stick around

Catarina Macario is the present and future of the USWNT. Playing in the number nine — center forward position — for the first time with this younger group, she provided creativity Andonovski plans to build the team around.

In the first match of the tournament, only midfielder Rose Lavelle was showing signs of chemistry with Macario, but by the end of the third game, the rest of the team was syncing better with her runs and ball movements. After Macario sat on the bench for most of the Olympics, she showed off her all-around talent with strong defense and two world-class goals that Andonvoski believes should be “on highlight reels all over the world.”

Ashley Sanchez got her first and second starts for the USWNT in Games 2 and 3 of the SheBelieves Cup after Rose Lavelle went down with an injury, and she seized the opportunity. The 22-year-old midfielder exhibited her confidence on the ball, using fancy footwork most players wouldn’t try in a game, threading narrow through-balls to the forwards and dribbling out of the defensive third.

The center backs didn’t get a whole lot of action in the tournament. Regardless, it was apparent Alana Cook has the composure, positioning and distribution to make an impact on the USWNT’s backline.

Emily Fox has been an asset on the attack with her ability to dribble through and out of pressure. She’s capable of contributing to the play both on the flank and in the middle of the park, and her composure earned praise from Andonovski during the tournament.

Future of the forwards

The attacking third was full of new players, and it’ll be interesting to watch how the forward line evolves over the next year. Andonovski has been keeping a close eye on Macario, Pugh and Smith, who continue to work on reading each other’s runs and crosses in front of the net, but have the technical ability and movement to put together creative attacks as a unit.

Trinity Rodman made her USWNT debut in the first game of the tournament before leaving with an ankle injury, which Andonovski said was non-serious.

Evolution of the midfield

The group that showed the most improvement over the three games was the midfield. By the third game, they were initiating better chemistry with the forwards and getting into better positioning. Andi Sullivan, especially, was creating clear angles for passes and dropping into spaces that enabled her to control the tempo at the six position.

Andonovski doesn’t appear to be rebuilding the midfield as much as he is the other position groups. Ashley Sanchez and Morgan Gautrat are the only midfielders he’s called up in the last four months who weren’t on the 2020 Olympic roster. Gautrat, a two-time FIFA World Cup champion, played in the first match before sitting out the next two with an injury. She was healthy enough to play in the third game, but the coaching staff felt it wasn’t worth risking anything in the cold weather.

Best part of the pitch

Though they didn’t face much pressure during the tournament, the USWNT’s defenders received the highest marks. Team defense gets the credit for the three shutouts, but the backline also stood out for their organization, marking, tracking back, distribution and contribution to the attack. Andonovski called their performance in the third game “spot on.”

Jessa Braun is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports covering the NWSL and USWNT. Follow her on Twitter @jessabraun.

When the U.S. Soccer Federation and U.S. women’s national team players announced a historic settlement on Tuesday after a six-year fight over equal pay, they briefly celebrated before zeroing in on the next obstacle: FIFA’s unequal prize bonuses at the men’s and women’s World Cups.

The settlement laid out U.S. Soccer’s commitment to equal pay rates in tournaments, including the FIFA World Cup. That is not U.S. Soccer’s money to give away, but with the resolution in writing, the Federation affirmed it will support USWNT players in bringing their concerns to FIFA.

Both sides realize the profound challenge of taking on the global soccer behemoth, but there’s also a lot of power in being the No. 1-ranked women’s soccer team on the planet.

“I think with the players and the Federation in a place where we’re working together, it’s going to be pretty formidable,” forward Megan Rapinoe said of their case to FIFA. “I think it’s going to take aggressive and persistent and constant action on our part.”

To Rapinoe, that pressure involves persuading World Cup sponsors to invest more, or forming a federation coalition to confront FIFA.

“Clearly, they’re not all that motivated on their own to do anything, so you have to be loud and constant and aggressive in this sort of pursuit of equality,” she said. “They’re certainly in a place to do it, and it’s just a matter of them either feeling that the pressure is too much or — I don’t anticipate this, but — a sudden change of heart and mind.”

The equal pay settlement is entirely contingent on the ratification of a new collective bargaining agreement, which U.S. Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone expects the Federation and the USWNT Players Association to finalize by March 31. At that point, they hope to have a detailed plan in place for confronting FIFA.

“It’s a little thought exercise that we have to do to make sure that the men’s and the women’s teams are being paid equally until FIFA equalizes it themselves,” said defender Becky Sauerbrunn. “We have amazing lawyers that are thinking through that and have come up with proposals that’ll be presented to the Federation.”

The players also have the U.S. men’s team on their side.

“It’s a great sign that we will come to a solution,” Sauerbrunn said.

The players expressed gratitude for Cone, the former USWNT World Cup champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist who has spearheaded U.S. Soccer’s negotiations since succeeding Carlos Cordeiro as president in 2020 after his ignominious resignation.

“On a personal level, with being a former player, this is something I have tried to resolve since the day I became president,” Cone said. “It took me a lot longer than I was expecting it to take, but we got here today and I couldn’t be more excited.”

In her opening statements on Tuesday, Cone said that she’ll “be the first to admit” the Federation’s mistakes in the past and she understands the players’ frustrations regarding equal pay.

“I know there is still a lot of work to do in continuing to build the relationship with U.S. Soccer and I am fully committed to doing so,” she said.

The Federation and USWNTPA have held 35 negotiated sessions toward a new CBA, with Sam Mewis telling reporters Tuesday that Crystal Dunn was in talks at that very moment.

Once that agreement is finalized, U.S. Soccer and the players will turn their attention to FIFA as a unified front, something that was hard to imagine just a few months ago when tensions were running high. Even two weeks ago, nine USWNT stars criticized U.S. Soccer for “[standing] by as abuse continued to occur unchecked” in a letter addressed to Cone and Cordeiro following new accusations made against former Chicago Red Stars coach Rory Dames.

“I think there’s a multi-pronged pressure approach we can put on FIFA, ultimately to do what is the right thing, but also what is the best business practice,” Rapinoe said.

They’ll have plenty of evidence to show for women’s soccer being good business. While the USWNT continues to draw sold-out crowds, the Women’s Champions League match between Barcelona and Real Madrid scheduled at Camp Nou in March sold all 85,000 tickets in three days and Canada’s win in the gold-medal match last summer was the most-watched event of the Tokyo Olympics.

“At this point, we’re not wondering if the women’s game can make money. We’re not wondering if there’s star power. We’re not questioning the equality on the field,” Rapinoe said. “I think, at this point, it’s just a willful discrimination and a willful negligence.”

Jessa Braun is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports covering the NWSL and USWNT. Follow her on Twitter @jessabraun.

The United States women’s national team bounced back from Thursday’s scoreless draw with the Czech Republic with a 5-0 win over New Zealand in their second match of the SheBelieves Cup on Sunday.

Referring to the USWNT’s competitions as an ongoing “process” as they prepare for the 2023 World Cup, head coach Vlatko Andonovski was hesitant to pinpoint anything that has been “good” or “bad” in the team’s performances in the SheBelieves Cup so far.

“I’m happy for today’s result, but I’m not any more happy than I was in the last game,” he said.

One area where the USWNT did improve from Thursday to Sunday was their ability to create more scoring opportunities, as they forced three own goals from New Zealand defender Meikayla Moore and got two goals from Ashley Hatch and Mallory Pugh.

Below are three takeaways from the USWNT’s match against New Zealand.

Figuring it out in the midfield

Andonovski said after the game that he thought the team’s passing distribution in the attacking third was better in the second match than in the first, but the creativity still needs to be better.

“I wanted us to be just a little bit more sophisticated, just a little more creative in certain situations,” he said. Andonovski did praise the creativity of midfielder Ashley Sanchez, who started in place of the injured Rose Lavelle.

What worked best were plays near the opponents’ 18-yard box, especially accurate crosses and well-timed runs into those crosses.

Sofia Huerta holding her own at right fullback

Playing the entire match, Huerta was one of the most productive players on the pitch Sunday. Her precise crosses contributed to the attack, resulting in two assists — one to Midge Purce and the other to Ashley Hatch. Purce’s header that skimmed New Zealand defender Moore was counted as an own goal, but was a direct result of Huerta’s consistent dangerous services into the right areas.

In her own half, Huerta made the most impressive defensive play of the game, saving a New Zealand chance with a well-directed header out of the box.

Ashley Hatch’s serious ‘early goal’ energy

You could chalk it up to beginners’ luck, but NWSL 2021 Golden Boot winner Ashley Hatch has been lethal in front of net. Not only has she scored three games in a row, but she’s scored her goals within six minutes of stepping onto the pitch.

She’s the kind of player Andonovski needs to keep around when the U.S. could use a quick goal off of the opening whistle, or if the team is struggling to find rhythm in the second half and needs a sub to get momentum rolling.

The U.S. plays their final match of the SheBelieves Cup on Wednesday against Iceland at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN. The teams will battle for first place in the tournament after Iceland defeated New Zealand 1-0 in their first match on Thursday, followed by a 2-0 victory over the Czech Republic on Sunday.

Jessa Braun is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports covering the NWSL and USWNT. Follow her on Twitter @jessabraun.

Ashley Sanchez did exactly what U.S. women’s national team head coach Vlatko Andonovski wanted from her in her first start with the team.

Reaching her fourth cap with the U.S. in a 5-0 win over New Zealand in the SheBelieves Cup, Sanchez brought the creativity they feared they might lose with midfielder Rose Lavelle sidelined with an injury.

“We needed Rose Lavelle type of actions on the field, and that’s what Ashley Sanchez gave us,” Andonovski said.

Lavelle, usually playing in the 10, is known for her creativity on the ball and ability to dance around defenders. Against New Zealand, Sanchez turned into pockets and consistently got past the first defender to take her team into the attacking third.

“She was the one that actually brought lines on the dribble, penetrated on the dribble and passed the ball in the next zone,” the coach said. “Very happy with her performance, and I’m glad that she did some things that were actually brave.”

Sanchez’s footwork was among the most impressive parts of her performance, the highlight being her roulette on the left sideline, which was ultimately called out of bounds.

“I spoke a lot to her about being brave and being herself and she has special qualities. We just have to support her and be patient with her and she will be able to showcase,” Andonovski said.

Sanchez, 22, was subbed off in the 67th minute after the U.S. was already ahead 4-0. After failing to convert in a scoreless draw with the Czech Republic in the first game of the SheBelieves Cup, the USWNT found success in front of New Zealand’s goal mainly off of crosses.

Though Sanchez wasn’t directly involved with the USWNT’s goals, she contributed to the attack with balls driven across the box that matched perfectly with the timing of the forwards’ runs.

“The opportunities that we had when we came anywhere in or around the box, I thought we were very precise and were able to force own goals or even score nice goals as well,” Andonovski said.

“We definitely put them in an uncomfortable position by serving in some dangerous crosses,” said Ashley Hatch, Sanchez’s teammate with the Washington Spirit. Hatch scored the USWNT’s fourth goal following three first-half own goals by New Zealand.

Sanchez, an attacking midfielder, was joined in the middle of the park by Andi Sullivan at the six and Kristie Mewis at the eight. The three had good cohesion, and by the second half were finding effective angles and passing options for center backs Alana Cook and Tierna Davidson.

In her first start, Sanchez not only shined for her coach before the 2023 World Cup roster is named, but also for her family and friends at Dignity Health Tennis Center, just 30 miles from where she grew up in Monrovia, Calif.

Jessa Braun is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports covering the NWSL and USWNT. Follow her on Twitter @jessabraun.

The main message coming out of the U.S. national team’s 2022 debut is that the “new kids” are going to be alright.

Fielding the youngest starting lineup since 2018, the squad recorded a 0-0 draw against the Czech Republic in their first game of the SheBelieves Cup on Thursday.

There is still a ways to go in the process of building an effective 2023 FIFA World Cup roster, but coach Vlatko Andonovski said he’s happy with where the young team’s level is currently at.

The players showed flashes of chemistry on Thursday, especially between Catarina Macario and Rose Lavelle, and the quality of play will only get sharper as the team continues to train and play together. The NWSL starting in March will also be a game changer, as every player except Macario is only two weeks into preseason, with fitness levels nowhere near game ready.

Read on for the takeaways from game one of the SheBelieves Cup.

Calm in the center, chaotic on the flanks, and it works

The backline was an interesting but effective mix. Center backs Alana Cook and Tierna Davidson provided a steady, calm presence while the fullbacks were free to run wild. Somehow, at one point, right back and team captain Kelley O’Hara ended up in the left corner of the attacking third. 

O’Hara, starting left back Emily Fox and second-half sub Emily Sonnett demonstrated an impressive level of comfort in carrying the ball through opponents, sending crosses and starting plays in Czech’s half. 

In the center, Cook and Davidson held the composure, producing 90 and 85 percent passing completions, respectively. Andonovski says he expects them to play together a few more times, at least, going forward. 

Veteran Becky Sauerbrunn, who came on in the second half for her 200th cap on Thursday, will be subbed with Davidson throughout the tournament. Sauerbrunn has a limit of 95 minutes of playing time in the SheBelieves Cup.

Trinity Rodman has steady first USWNT performance

The 2021 NWSL Rookie of the Year made her long-awaited USWNT debut, subbing on for Mallory Pugh in the 61st minute. Right away, she added energy to the pitch and threatened the backline after getting an early chance on goal.

Rodman is already known as one of the best playmakers in the NWSL. Against Czech Republic, she sent a familiar ball into the 18-yard box for her Washington Spirit teammate Kelley O’Hara, almost identical to the game-winning play that the two made in the league championship in November when O’Hara buried a header goal off a long lob from Rodman.

The 19-year-old has strong work ethic and natural talent, and as Becky Sauerbrunn says, “Anyone with eyeballs can see that.” But it’s clear Rodman will need at least a couple more matches with the national team to really settle into her groove and do the damage everyone in the NWSL knows she’s capable of.

“I was excited to see her,” Andonovski said of Rodman against Czech Republic. “I know the players around her were excited to see her there. I just think this is the first of many for her, so she definitely needs more minutes, more caps, more games and I have no doubt that she’s going to perform even better.”

Honorable mentions for Sophia Smith, Kristie Mewis

While Catarina Macario and Woman of the Match Rose Lavelle had the most impact in the attacking third, Sophia Smith and Kristie Mewis also made a difference in energy and creating opportunities.  

The first 21st-century-born player to be named to a USWNT roster, Smith made her 11th cap on Thursday. She impressed with her hunger and ability to create goal-scoring opportunities for herself, even though she often hung back to complement O’Hara’s forward runs.  

Subbing on for Morgan Gautrat at the start of the second half, Mewis made creative plays almost at the level of the Lavelle-Macario duo. Her passes should become more effective once the other midfielders and forwards have had more games together and time to get on the same page.

Hopes for Sunday

In the USWNT’s next game on Sunday against New Zealand, it would be good to see Aubrey Bledsoe, Ashley Hatch and Sofia Huerta get some playing time, and to see the midfielders sharpen their positioning to be more dangerous and to create more opportunities for themselves and teammates. 

Bledsoe, the 2021 NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year, is the only player on the roster without an international cap. Casey Murphy played in goal on Thursday and, as she has in all three of her caps, impressed everyone. At this point, it’s clear she can handle the high-pressure environment of the world stage. Now it’s Bledsoe’s turn.

With the US having a tough time breaking down Czech Republic’s low block, it might be worth giving Hatch a turn in the nine or a forward position, considering she’s the reigning NWSL Golden Boot champion and third-fastest goal scorer in USWNT history after scoring in 24 seconds against Australia in November. 

Sofia Huerta fits seamlessly into the USWNT’s fullback style of pushing up the field and contributing crosses. 

Next up: the USWNT plays New Zealand at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday. The game will be televised on ABC.

Before the U.S. women’s national team’s scoreless draw with the Czech Republic in the SheBelieves Cup opener Thursday night, Catarina Macario told the media that her preferred position is the nine.

Macario is happy playing anywhere, but after some probing from broadcaster and former USWNT player Julie Foudy on the call, she admitted she feels she’s at her best when scoring goals. Finding the back of the net is something Macario has done everywhere she’s been — 63 goals in 69 appearances at Stanford, and nine in 13 appearances for her club team, Lyon, this season.

But in 12 caps with the USWNT, the 22-year-old has been labeled a midfielder.

Finally on Thursday, in front of Macario’s family and friends near her hometown of San Diego, the two-time MAC Hermann trophy winner was slotted into the starting lineup as a center forward. And, in the USWNT’s 2022 debut, she impressed the nation.

“I think that we’re going to see a little bit more of Cat in [the nine] position going forward,” Andonovski said after the game in Carson, Calif.

Playing up top against the Czech Republic’s low block was no easy task. Despite having 64 percent of the possession, the U.S. struggled throughout the game to find a way past the organized Czech defense.

“You need someone like Cat with her precision and technical abilities,” said Andonovski. “I thought that when we were able to find her underneath the line, she did an incredible job of unlocking them or creating opportunities for the players around her, so I was very happy with that.”

Macario proved very successful at dropping behind the front row of defenders and tapping one-touch balls into the runs of center midfielder Rose Lavelle. 

“That’s pure creativity and technical ability, so I’m very happy to see that because I think she has the ability to do that,” Andonovski said. “The players around will have to get used to those passes or expect those passes so we can make plans to be more dangerous.”

The chemistry between Macario and Lavelle was one of the most impressive aspects of the first match, and something Andonovski was hoping to see coming into this tournament. He says Lavelle is “one of the better ones” when it comes to reading Macario’s movements. Their creativity enables them to play interchangeably and make nifty combinations with each other.

“She’s just a big magician, I feel like, with the ball,” Macario said of Lavelle. “She’s incredibly creative and you never know what she’s going to do.” 

With four shots each, Macario and Lavelle tied for the most in the game, and Lavelle was later named Woman of the Match. 

“I’m excited to see these players back on the field together because I think that they can do some damage once they start clicking,” Andonovski said.

With it being Macario’s first time in the nine, everyone else will need time to adjust to her inventive runs and passes. The team has had only a couple of training sessions to work with her in camp, since she arrived late due to a game with her club team.

Andonovski has referred to Macario as “the future of the team,” so it’s no surprise that he’s started to build the team around her.

For example, her presence influences which wingers the coach puts on the field. In the starting lineup on Thursday were Sophia Smith and Mallory Pugh, and coming on in the 61st minute were Trinity Rodman and Midge Purce.

“We want wingers that have abilities to play behind the line a lot more. Especially at least one of them has to have ability to play as a second line to complement Cat’s movements, because if she’s coming underneath the line, somebody has to stretch them out, and that’s where Soph comes in,” Andonovski said.

With Macario up top and central, playing the ball through the middle is also a goal.

“At times we were forcing it, but we wanted to do that,” Andonovski said. “We wanted to be brave, we wanted to try to be more creative and unload the team in different ways.

“We want to win every game we step on the field, we want to win every tournament, but for us, the most important thing is to get something out of it and ultimately win the qualifiers and qualify for the World Cup and win the World Cup.”

Jessa Braun is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports covering the NWSL and USWNT. Follow her on Twitter @jessabraun.

The most challenging thing about the NWSL Challenge Cup is waiting for it to start. Especially this year. 

A month from now, on March 18, Racing Louisville FC and the Kansas City Current will kick off the third edition of the nearly two-month-long tournament. With two expansion teams entering the mix after an offseason filled with trades, the league is going to look much different in 2022. 

Every week, we will take you behind the scenes of NWSL training camps, giving you insight into how teams are shaping up, what coaches and players are saying and, occasionally, the fun off-field updates you didn’t know you needed.

This week’s entry takes you coast to coast, with thoughts on the Washington Spirit, North Carolina Courage, San Diego Wave and OL Reign.

Washington Spirit look to start fresh

The 2021 NWSL champions Washington Spirit have undergone some big changes both on and off the field. Y. Michele Kang assumed majority ownership of the team on Feb. 8 after a very public dispute with former majority owner Steve Baldwin that lasted nearly half a year. On the field, 11 players are currently away from the team on international duty, including seven with the U.S. women’s national team at the SheBelieves Cup.

Head coach Kris Ward and players Andi Sullivan, Tara McKeown and Karina Rodriguez spoke to the media recently about Kang, who acquired the interests of Baldwin and Bill Lynch to become the first non-white, female majority owner in the NWSL. While they said the news came as a relief, they also seemed worn down from all the activity of the past few months.

“There’s a lot that we still have to recover from,” Ward said.

The coach has been trying to check in with every player individually to gauge how they’re doing after a tumultuous season. In the span of several months last year, head coach Richie Burke was fired amid accusations of verbal and emotional abuse, a COVID-19 outbreak within the team led to two forfeited games, the ownership dispute reached a tipping point and the Spirit overcame it all to win the 2021 championship. Meanwhile, the NWSL was dealing with the fallout from multiple abuse scandals that rocked the league with firings and resignations.

“It’s definitely easier, but there’s still fatigue from it, for sure,” Ward said. “That suffering part is still going to take some people to get over, the fatigue of the last six months, eight, nine, 10 months — however long it’s really been.”

The Spirit still need a home facility, too. They spent the first two weeks of preseason at a public sports complex in Virginia.

On the brighter side, the team is viewing the absences of 11 players as a good problem to have.

“To have to lose them multiple times throughout the year, that’s what the best clubs have to deal with, so we have to be able to adjust and adapt to that reality,” Ward said.

While veterans Andi Sullivan, Kelley O’Hara and Emily Sonnett are away with the USWNT, Ward is looking to Sam Staab and Dorian Bailey to step up as leaders, with help from Gaby Vincent.

North Carolina Courage forge ahead

While North Carolina Courage players dealt with their own emotional turmoil last season, after head coach Paul Riley was fired following accusations of sexual coercion and emotional abuse, coach Sean Nahas has taken a very different approach.

“I’ll be honest with you, I haven’t talked about last fall at all,” Nahas said. “I don’t want to with the players. I want to stay forward and focused. We should never be stagnant and complacent with where we are.”

Nahas said the new CBA represents a massive step forward for the league, and the Courage have gotten better about providing the players with support and resources, such as housing and doctors. A clause in the CBA also offers players up to six months of paid mental health leave.

On the field, Nahas has been extremely satisfied with the players’ energy and fitness levels, saying they’re the best he’s ever seen at the beginning of preseason. By the sounds of it, the Courage have been training at a higher intensity than the majority of other teams in the NWSL so far. With so many coaches encouraging their players to ease into the preseason environment, especially after everything that happened last season, the Courage seem to be a bit of an outlier. Nahas and veteran Denise O’Sullivan both said the players have set that high standard for themselves.

Casey the Cook

Over on the West coast, when San Diego Wave FC head coach Casey Stoney isn’t at the training facility, she’s been focusing on food.

“Am I a chef? No,” she said. “But I love cooking. I think it’s quite therapeutic. You can be creative and make decent recipes, and I also love making people happy by food. I think you can have a real pleasure in cooking someone a nice meal.”

She’s been cooking up a storm on the soccer field, too, building the expansion team from the ground up while instilling a culture. The main ingredient? Trust.

“A lot of the players here haven’t experienced an environment where they can trust people, so building relationships and building care into our environment,” Stoney said.

The coach has been regularly checking in with players, especially the rookies. In Stoney’s initial meeting with them, the first question she asked was, “Can you cook?” Those who couldn’t, she said, would be enrolled in cooking classes and given nutritional menus, setting them up to be the best soccer players they can be.

Cowboys and Chihuahuas in Seattle

Perhaps the most underrated news to come out of NWSL camps this week is that OL Reign roommates Lauren Barnes and Jess Fishlock are thinking of getting a dog. Barnes said it’ll likely be a rescue, and a small lap dog like a Chihuahua or Jack Russell Terrier.

Apparently this is news to OL Reign head coach Laura Harvey.

“This is going to be an interesting journey,” Harvey said. “This should be chronicled on something, Instagram or something, because watch out.”

Meanwhile, Harvey has found delight in her new passion for country music. The coach committed to creating a playlist at some point and “rocking out” to show everyone her “fave” new jams. That should probably be chronicled, too.

Jessa Braun is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports covering the NWSL and USWNT. Follow her on Twitter @jessabraun.

United States women’s national team coach Vlatko Andonovski has his sights set on the future, filling the roster for the SheBelieves Cup with young players and budding talents. Eleven of the 23 players who will take the field when the U.S. opens the tournament against the Czech Republic on Thursday night have 10 caps or fewer.

The coach is intent on giving opportunities to players with the potential to make the USWNT’s World Cup qualifying roster this summer.

“This a group we want to see more of in camp,” Andonovski said. “We want to give them a chance to be in our system and we want to give ourselves a chance to evaluate them, not just in camp but also in camp with games.”

Andonovski will have much to evaluate in the attacking third, in particular. Ashley Hatch, 26, started to make her case in Australia in November when she scored two goals in two games against the Matildas. She buried the first one just 24 seconds into the USWNT’s opening match, making it the third-fastest goal in team history. At the SheBelieves Cup, 26-year-old Midge Purce and 21-year-old Sophia Smith will also look to prove themselves up top.

“It really challenges you,” veteran midfielder Andi Sullivan said of Andonovski’s decision to bring in young talent. “I think he’s just been consistent in what he’s looking for from people here, people in the league, and I think just constantly raising the level no matter where you are and who you are, and that there’s always an opportunity.”

While Andonovski originally left the three most inexperienced players — Trinity Rodman, Jaelin Howell and Naomi Girma — off of the roster following January camp, he added Rodman and Howell after veterans Lindsey Horan and Abby Dahlkemper were ruled out due to injuries.

It’s been clear that Andonovski values NWSL performances. Look no further than the fact that seven players on the USWNT’s SheBelieves Cup roster come from the reigning champion Washington Spirit.

The roster’s readiness

Andonovski said Wednesday that, while most players are not ready to play all three 90-minute games of the round-robin tournament, Catarina Macario is in peak shape. The sole member of the team not in the NWSL, Macario is deep into her season with Lyon, while her U.S. teammates started their preseason just two weeks ago.

“It’s very obvious when you see her on the field, when you see her in training, that she just looks a little bit sharper with things that I’m pretty sure all the players are going to get once we get more training,” Andonovski said.

It wouldn’t be surprising to see the coach play Macario in the midfield in all three games to set a high bar and maintain a consistent game flow.

On-field relationships

One of the USWNT’s main goals with the SheBelieves Cup is to strengthen the relationships among players on the field.

A few pairings Andonovski mentioned are Tierna Davidson and Alana Cook in the back, Macario and Rose Lavelle in the midfield, and Sophia Smith and Mallory Pugh up top.

“These are players we believe need to spend time together so they can strengthen their relationships that we’ve seen in training, that make us believe if these relationships get stronger or they get to know each other better, that we’ll be more than successful with this team,” he said.

Camp environment

With so many new faces on the roster, it’s fair to wonder whether practices have been as competitive without as many veterans to set the tone. Becky Sauerbrunn and Kelley O’Hara are the USWNT’s highest-capped players in the SheBelieves Cup.

It may take longer for the chemistry to build, but overall, the players say it’s been business as usual.

“I think the really special thing about this team is all the personalities and the history, and that they’re all interwoven together,” Sullivan said. “So I think the standard for this team is so high no matter what, and that’s due to the culture that’s been built for decades, so I feel like there’s not a lot that’s different.”

Three names to note

Of the 11 young players on the team, the one to watch for in this tournament is Trinity Rodman. Along with Spirit teammate Aubrey Kingsbury, Rodman has yet to earn her first USWNT cap after declining an invitation to Australia in November. After a standout 2021 NWSL campaign, in which she won a championship with the Spirit and Rookie of the Year, the 19-year-old will finally get a chance to prove herself in an international game setting.

With 87 caps, two-time FIFA World Cup champion Morgan Gautrat is appearing on her first game roster since November 2019 against Costa Rica, Andonovski’s second game as head coach. The center midfielder played a key role in the Chicago Red Stars’ run to the NWSL finals last season, starting all 24 games in which she appeared. There is much at stake as Gautrat makes her long-awaited return to the national team and uses the opportunity to make her case for a spot on the 2023 World Cup roster.

Kelley O’Hara is a veteran leader on the team who’s stuck around despite the recent influx of young national team prospects. On both the USWNT and the Spirit, O’Hara is known for being fiercely competitive, setting the bar high, speaking her mind and expecting nothing less than the best from her teammates. The defender’s energy will be critical to the team’s success this week.

Schedule

Joining the U.S. in the tournament are the Czech Republic, New Zealand and Iceland, squads Andonovski called “very, very good, quality teams.”

The U.S. will need to tap into another level of sophistication in order to break down their opponents’ defenses, since all three of these teams are very organized when they don’t have possession. If successful, the U.S. will be in line to win its third consecutive SheBelieves Cup title.

USWNT vs. Czech Republic
Thursday, 11 p.m. ET
ESPN, TUDN

USWNT vs. New Zealand
Sunday, 3 p.m. ET
ABC, PrendeTV

USWNT vs. Iceland
Wednesday, 9 p.m. ET
ESPN, PrendeTV

Jessa Braun is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports covering the NWSL and USWNT. Follow her on Twitter @jessabraun.

Vanessa Gilles feels like she’s known Cari Roccaro for years, even though they just met two weeks ago. The Angel City FC teammates’ bond was evident as they bantered back and forth during their call with the media on Thursday.

​​Gilles, an Olympic gold medalist with Canada, will leave Los Angeles for a couple of weeks to participate in national team camp ahead of the Arnold Clark Cup that runs from Feb. 17-23. With Angel City already such a tight-knit team, she knows they’ll stay in constant communication while she’s gone.

“Hopefully they don’t forget about me, which I don’t think they will,” Gilles said, before turning to Roccaro. “Do you agree, Cari?”

“Yes.”

“OK, thank you.”

“I will not forget about you,” Roccaro added. “But don’t go bothering me when you’re at camp.”

Ali Riley and Did Haračić showed a similar bond during ACFC’s media call last week. The comfort Angel City players feel with each other is evident just two weeks into the NWSL preseason and the club’s on-field existence, and it appears to be a direct result of Freya Coombe’s small-roster philosophy.

The coach named 25 players to the preseason squad, fewer than almost every other NWSL team this year. For context, San Diego Wave FC, Angel City’s expansion club counterpart, invited 34 players to camp, while the reigning champion Washington Spirit brought in 38.

“We want players that are here to feel secure, and with us being a new team, we wanted to provide a really strong environment for them where it wasn’t a case of we’ve got 40 people and then we’re whittling down that group,” Coombe said last week.

“I wanted them to come in, start to form relationships with each other, start to get to know each other and really help harness the strength of that group and that unit to be able to move on and play through this season. So, that was our rationale for having less players.”

If the team needs a change halfway through the year, the former NJ/NY Gotham coach is open to adding new talent, but current players have been promised they won’t get traded away. Providing players with that sense of security has been a tenant of Angel City’s philosophy from the beginning.

Coombe has been in a similarly high-stakes position before, having turned NJ/NY Gotham FC from an NWSL bottom dweller into 2021 Challenge Cup runners-up as head coach. Now, she faces the task of building a team from scratch.

Coombe’s small-roster approach has raised questions from fans about potential injuries and a lack of competitiveness in training camp. The NWSL, after all, is a business and arguably the most talented women’s soccer league in the world. But Gilles, who joined Angel City after four years at Bordeaux to develop her game under high pressure, has found that she’s been consistently challenged in camp.

For Roccaro, the small-team environment is “lovely.” The defender, formerly with the Houston Dash and North Carolina Courage, has experienced preseasons with rosters that were double the size of Angel City’s. In 2018, she made it through an entire preseason with Houston before getting cut.

“I think the feelings you get of, ‘Am I going to make the team, are they going to cut me tomorrow, are they gonna trade me tomorrow?’ That can really affect how you play,” Roccaro said.

With the expansion team, there aren’t players who had starting positions with the group last year or coaches already familiar with players’ roles. Roccaro, 27, describes a collective feeling of nerves among the players, both on the field and off of it as they create new lives in Los Angeles. Having a tight-knit team and the security of being part of a small roster helps ease the transition.

Gilles, 25, especially appreciates Angel City’s atmosphere. Playing in her first NWSL season, she’s never been in a situation where it’s possible to get cut during preseason.

“When you’re secure in your position, you obviously play with more confidence and you trust your teammates more and you want to get to bond with your teammates more, so I think the small roster that we’ve had during this preseason has been great,” Gilles said.

On the field, Roccaro and Gilles have appreciated Coombe’s calm, detail-oriented coaching style. She’s been suggesting small technical and tactical changes to their individual games that neither of the defenders had thought about before.

“She is an amazing person,” said Roccaro. “She totally fits the mold of what the first Angel City coach should be, and I mean that wholeheartedly. I think she’s the perfect fit on the field, off the field, her goals, who she is as a person, how she’s going to push us, how she’s going to hold the standard high. I think it’s going to be really, really fun to play for her.”

Angel City’s first test comes in their Challenge Cup opener against San Diego on March 19.

Jessa Braun is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports covering the NWSL and USWNT. Follow her on Twitter @jessabraun.