After a disappointing Round of 16 exit at the 2023 World Cup, the U.S. women’s national team will regroup and turn its attention to coming back with a vengeance at the 2024 Paris Olympics. It’s unclear if head coach Vlatko Andonovski will be the one leading that charge. His contract expires at the end of 2023, and his performance will be the subject of an internal review following the team’s failure to make the semifinals of a World Cup for the first time in program history.

From there, roster decisions will be of utmost importance with less than a year to right the USWNT ship. Those decisions are also not as linear as they might seem, with the U.S. likely to continue some of the roster changes they started going into 2023. The talent pool is as deep as ever, with a new generation of young players with professional experience eager for a chance to play at the international level.

The group will also have a number of key contributors hopefully returning from injury, longtime veterans making decisions about their careers and players’ form naturally fluctuating over the next year.

The two-time winners considering their futures

We already know that two of the two-time World Champions who made their return for the 2023 World Cup will not be back for the Olympics. Megan Rapinoe announced prior to the tournament that she would retire at the end of 2023, and Julie Ertz revealed her own intention to retire from the national team after the USWNT’s Round of 16 exit.

Rapinoe served as a substitute in 2023, but Ertz quickly proved herself indispensable in a center-back partnership with young stalwart Naomi Girma. Her absence will usher in further change, and her contributions will be greatly missed.

Other two-time champions have decisions of their own to make. Kelley O’Hara’s desire to galvanize a young team and lead them through high-pressure situations has never waned, but her fitness this summer also never allowed her to make those contributions on the field. Becky Sauerbrunn, whose lingering injury left her off the World Cup roster, is even one degree further removed from a return to the U.S.

Alex Morgan and Alyssa Naeher both played significant minutes for the USWNT in 2023, stepping up in different moments to lead the squad. Both go back to their NWSL teams with questions of form lingering. With Naeher 35 years old and Morgan 34, where they fit in the USWNT’s future likely depends on who is coaching the team going forward.

The 2019 connectors

Lindsey Horan becoming USWNT co-captain in 2023 felt like the U.S. coaching staff’s way of forging a clear connection between the 2015 veterans and 2023 rookies. Horan headlines a somewhat small group of players who won the World Cup for the first time in 2019 and returned to the tournament in 2023.

Horan, Rose Lavelle, Crystal Dunn and Emily Sonnett are the only players now tasked with carrying that legacy forward, indicating a down period in U.S. talent identification during those players’ formative years. Good news, the USWNT has a number of very talented young players under the age of 25 who will continue the high standards the team has become known for. But if there is one specific failure of the U.S. development system, it’s how many players were relied upon to carry the team from 2015 to 2023, and how few of the players who got caps in that period stuck with the team in major tournaments.

Two other players who should rejoin their 2019 World Cup teammates are Mallory Swanson and Tierna Davidson. The NWSL teammates missed the 2023 tournament due to varying injury return timelines, and though they are in a tumultuous club situation in Chicago, having more time to regain their form could make all the difference.

The young 2023ers

While they didn’t get as much time to develop through the World Cup as they would have liked, the young players making their major tournament debuts in 2023 will be better in the future for their experience. Sophia Smith, Trinity Rodman, Naomi Girma and Emily Fox all learned what it takes to start in a World Cup game, how to process the highs and lows of the tournament, and how to manage their fitness while carrying heavy minutes.

Ashley Sanchez and Alana Cook were surprisingly held off the field for the four games the U.S. played in Australia and New Zealand, while Savannah DeMelo — a surprising roster inclusion — got an incredible amount of experience in the group stage. Those coaching decisions will have ramifications in the future, though they shouldn’t affect any players’ standing going into the next international cycle.

Alyssa Thompson gained World Cup experience likely a cycle early due to the injury to Swanson, making appearances as a substitute as she continues to add elements to her game. And the one player who deserves to hold space in this group despite her absence is Catarina Macario, who would have been right alongside her teammates if not for setbacks in her ACL recovery. Back in training with new club Chelsea, Macario has to be in any future USWNT plans that include the other players in this group.

League veterans competing for another shot

If the U.S. has few players who can carry the memories of 2019 into 2024, they do have a number of players who worked their way onto the squad later in their careers. Kristie Mewis and Lynn Williams both made the last Olympic roster (though Williams was an alternate), and Williams has been effective in her minutes in both major tournaments.

The assets Sofia Huerta brings to the U.S. as a crossing specialist are clear despite few minutes played at the 2023 World Cup. Naeher’s heirs at the goalkeeping position also likely come from this group: Casey Murphy and Aubrey Kingsbury will have the advantage of their camp experiences, while other keepers push for consideration based on league play.

And then there is Andi Sullivan, a player who seemed to have just missed a number of major international tournaments before making her World Cup debut in 2023. Despite being let down by Andonovski’s system, Sullivan was steady while carrying heavy minutes in the U.S. midfield and catering well to Horan and Lavelle’s tendencies. She’ll be battling for position against the next generation, but will have experience on her side.

The next generation of talent

While the U.S. has been undergoing many roster changes in recent years, they have room to get even younger still. Players like Jaedyn Shaw, Sam Coffey, Olivia Moultrie, Mia Fishel, Jaelin Howell and Jenna Nighswonger are all getting experience and contributing in professional systems, with some of them forgoing the old pipeline pathways of the NCAA system.

Beyond young American players already proving their worth at the professional level, youth internationals at the collegiate level are also rising through the ranks. Alyssa Thompson’s little sister, Gisele Thompson, trains with NWSL club Angel City, as have other standouts like Simone Jackson. USC standout Croix Bethune was listed on Andonovski’s provisional roster for Concacaf World Cup qualifying, and other talents like Trinity Byars, Lexi Missimo and Lilly Reale will be eager to step up and fill the positional gaps left by the exits of longtime veterans.

That this is not even the exhaustive list of players available to refresh a USWNT project that didn’t get the balance right in 2023 should be exciting for fans of the team. It also represents just how daunting the year ahead might be for the coaching staff. After big wins, there is always an impulse to run it back with the players you know. In the face of failure, the future might look a little different.

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

The Chicago Sky showed up in a big way on Tuesday night, taking down 2023 WNBA Finals runners-up New York Liberty by an impressively wide margin. 

The Sky walked away with a 101-53 win, boasting a 48 point swing that still looms large despite the fact that it's only preseason. Perhaps the team felt extra pressure to perform — not only did WNBA League Pass follow through on their promise to stream the game for free, but Chicago Bears rookies Caleb Williams and Rome Odunze also happened to be watching on from the stands.

“I’m gonna just say — it’s about time," said Sky guard Dana Evans in response to the star-studded turnout at Wintrust Arena. "Everybody wants to watch women’s basketball. I feel like we’ve been doing a really good job of doing stuff on the court and off the court. So just having them support us is great — but keep bringing them out."

Chicago's Marina Mabrey was lights out with four threes and 20 points on the night, while training camp addition Chennedy Carter racked up 11 points and two steals. 

Sky rookie Angel Reese proved that she can do it all, putting up 13 points, five rebounds, and two steals in 19 minutes — all less than 24 hours after she walked the Met Gala red carpet in New York. The 6-foot-3 top draft pick out of LSU even knocked down a layup over 2023 WNBA MVP Breanna Stewart in one of the night's many highlights.

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"So now yall can delete them drafts & tweets saying i shouldn’t have gone to the met gala & i can’t do both," she later wrote on social media. 

While some may chalk it up to preseason coaching choices and the fact that it was the Liberty’s first real game outside of training camp scrimmages, New York head coach Sandy Brondello still voiced disappointed in her team’s result.

"We just got our butts kicked, everywhere. I mean everything. It’s an embarrassing effort, I don’t care that it’s preseason," she said in a postgame press conference. "Our starters didn't get us off to a good start. We missed a lot of layups early, but they just took us out of everything."

On a lighter note, the third-year Liberty coach had some kind words for undrafted rookie Jaylyn Sherrod, who showed real effort on defense.

"She has speed," remarked Brondello. "She could guard Dana Evans. No one else could."

As the WNBA plans to implement league-wide charter flights, the NWSL is struggling with some travel issues of its own. 

Missed flights, inclement weather, and a stretch of midweek games have spurred workload and logistical concerns for a number of NWSL teams. Last week, three games were played Wednesday night, while another three games are set to be played tonight. 

"You can't play your best XI right now because of the amount of games you have," said Red Stars head coach Lorne Donaldson after last Wednesday's 4-2 loss to Washington. Donaldson emphasized the importance of rotating through the team’s depth so as to avoid injury.

"You have to get to about 16 deep where you can," he continued. "Or else your best XI is going to be injured or walk off the field and they can’t finish the season."

Kansas City has faced some of the league's most extreme turnaround times this season. On Sunday, the Current missed an evening flight to Seattle due to a multi-hour rain delay in Houston, throwing off their training schedule ahead of their midweek match against the Reign. The NWSL eventually gave them the green light to charter a plane, but not before frustration spread throughout the team.

"We lost the whole day of the opportunity to recover," said Current head coach Vlatko Andonovski after the Current's weekend draw against the Dash. "So the schedule, it's already challenging to begin with. We have by far the worst schedule in the league, and this just made it even worse.

"We don't have a hotel, we got to figure out a hotel. We don't have flights for tomorrow, we got to figure out flights. We had trainings for some players that we believe needed training time to be able to perform on Wednesday.”

While the team was given permission to charter a plane, navigating such approvals has proven difficult in the past. This past July, the NWSL fined Kansas City $55,000 over the unauthorized use of a charter flight.

Recently retired WNBA superstar Candace Parker has her next gig lined up: president of women’s basketball at Adidas.

Parker announced her retirement at the end of April, bringing a close to a 16-year professional career spanning three WNBA championship titles with three different teams. And now, she’s stepping into a slightly different role — this time off the court — with longtime sponsor Adidas.

"The brand and I have grown together, and we’ve done some amazing things," she told Fast Company in an exclusive interview published Wednesday morning. "I’m excited about what the future holds on this side of things, because I’m so passionate about growing the game of basketball."

Parker initially signed with Adidas at the end of her first professional season in 2008, going on to spend the vast majority of her illustrious WNBA career linked to the German athletic brand. In 2010, she became the first woman to receive a signature Adidas shoe: the ACE Commander.

Her most recent Adidas collaborations include basketball sneakers Exhibit B (2022) and Exhibit Select (2023) in a variety of different colorways, as well as limited edition off-court apparel.

In 2022, Parker led a mentorship program for the brand’s first class of NIL-sponsored college athletes, a stacked roster that involved the likes of rising star Hailey Van Lith, among others. In her new position, she’ll be "overseeing pretty much everything" when it comes to the brand’s women’s basketball operations.

That "everything" includes weighing in on shoe and clothing design, navigating new and existing athlete partnerships, and taking control of Adidas' grassroots growth strategies. She’ll also help with "how we actually speak to the women’s basketball consumer," Eric Wise, who leads the brand’s global basketball business, told Fast Company.

According to Parker, the decision to accept the offer hinged on her desire to be more than just "the face" of Adidas women’s basketball.

"I said to [Adidas], 'I don’t want to be a mascot,'" Parker said. "'I really want to be in the meetings, and I want to be a part of making decisions.'"

Charter flights are on the horizon for the WNBA, with commissioner Cathy Engelbert saying on Tuesday that the league will provide teams with full-time private travel services beginning as soon as this season. 

The move is set to address years of player safety concerns, among other issues. Engelbert told AP Sports Editors that the league aims to launch the program "as soon as we can logistically get planes in place."

The initiative is projected to cost around $25 million per year over the next two seasons.

The WNBA has previously provided charter flights on a limited basis, including during the postseason and when teams were scheduled to play back-to-back regular season games. Individual owners seeking to independently provide their teams with private travel — such as the New York Liberty’s Joe and Clara Wu Tsai back in 2022 — faced significant fines for using unauthorized charters.

While players and team staff have been calling for league-wide charters even before Caitlin Clark and other high profile rookies joined the league, Engelbert has routinely cited steep year-to-year costs as the reasoning behind sticking to commercial flights. 

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However, the WNBA's surging popularity means increased visibility, and a subsequent uptick in security concerns — especially when it comes to big name newcomers like Clark — has Englebert reconsidering her previous decision. 

WNBA Players Association president Nneka Ogwumike called the move "transformational," and credited the WNBPA as well as the league for its implementation. 

"Our league is growing, the demand for women's basketball is growing," Ogwumike told ESPN. "That means more eyes on us, which is what we want, but that means more protection from the organization that we play for, the whole W that we play for.

"Chartering flights not only is a safety measure, the biggest thing, and then obviously what it means to be able to play a game and go home and rest and recover and be the elite athletes that we try to be every single night when we step out onto this court."

Aces coach Becky Hammon called the immediate response to the charter announcement "great" but noted that there are still kinks to be worked out. 

"What it all looks like, we’re still gathering information, we don’t know," she said Tuesday.

Several players emphasized the importance of safety, highlighting how last season the Phoenix Mercury’s Brittney Griner was harassed in an airport while traveling commercial.

"All these players and these faces are becoming so popular that it really is about that as much as it as about recovery," Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier said.

"Above everything else, I think it's the safety of our players," Mercury player Natasha Cloud added. "We have a prime example with BG on our team that needs to be safe. At airports, it's like a madhouse. You see Caitlin Clark walking through airports, people following her, people trying to touch her, get pictures with her. It's just a safety measure, through and through. You would never have an NBA team walk through an airport."

Prior to Tuesday's announcement, the league had said it would charter flights for the playoffs and back-to-back games via a program introduced last year. The latest news, however, promises that teams will also be provided charters to and from all regular season games.

"Our safety is being taken seriously now, finally. In no world should our security not be a priority," Griner told ESPN. "If we want to be the league that we want to be and have the respect that we have, it comes with some risks. Sometimes people want to get close to you and it's not people you want, so I'm just glad that we don't have to deal with that anymore."