Star USWNT goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher announced her retirement from international play on Monday, with the vet set to hang up her boots after the team's upcoming friendlies against England and the Netherlands. Naeher's final game will fall on December 3rd — 10 years to the month after her 2014 first cap.

"When I began this journey, I never could have imagined where it would take me," Naeher wrote. "This has been a special team to be a part of and I am beyond proud of what we have achieved both on and off the field."

Naeher will continue playing professionally in the NWSL, recently inking a contract to stay in Chicago for an upcoming 10th season.

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One of the best to ever do it

With two World Cup titles, a gold and bronze Olympic medal, and 88 wins and 68 shutouts across her 113 caps, the 36-year-old exits as one of the best goalkeepers in USWNT history.

Naeher is also unmatched on the world stage. The only goalie nominated for the 2024 Ballon d'Or is also the first and only to record shutouts in both a World Cup final and Olympic gold-medal match. Even more, Naeher didn't concede a single goal throughout the 2024 Olympics knockout round, shutting down the world's best to help the USWNT secure gold.

Amidst her many achievements and skills, Naeher will likely be remembered for her quiet, reserved demeanor, her intensity, and her unparalleled ability to play penalty hero in some of the USWNT's biggest moments.

The PK specialist made key stops to send the US to the 2019 World Cup final and to eventually earn bronze in the 2021 Olympics. To date, she's the only US goalkeeper to record three saves in a penalty shootout.

Most impressively, Naeher is one of few keepers at the international level who will step to the spot herself. Earlier this year, she strung together a shootout series of saving a shot, burying her own, and immediately making another save, and she did it twice, just five weeks apart — in March's Concacaf W Gold Cup and April's 2024 SheBelieves Cup.

USWNT goalkeepers Jane Campbell, Alyssa Naeher, and Casey Murphy pose at the 2024 Olympics.
2024 Olympians Jane Campbell and Casey Murphy are the likely frontrunners for Naeher's starting spot. (Brad Smith/ISI/Getty Images)

Future USWNT shotblockers

Naeher's retirement kicks off the hunt for a new starting keeper. Regulars Casey Murphy (NC Courage) and Jane Campbell (Houston Dash) are the likely frontrunners for the job, though neither will feature in the USWNT's final camp of 2024.

Currently in Europe alongside Naeher are Mandy Haught (Utah Royals), who earned her first cap in October, and first-time call-up Phallon Tullis-Joyce (Manchester United), who will both look to prove their worth to US boss Emma Hayes in Europe.

How to watch Alyssa Naeher's final USWNT matches

The goalkeeping great's last two matches in a USWNT kit begin with Saturday's battle against England at London's iconic Wembley Stadium at 12:20 PM ET.

After traveling to The Hague, Naeher's final US game will be against the Netherlands at 2:45 PM ET on December 3rd.

Both friendlies will air live on TNT.

Ali Krieger won her second World Cup title with the U.S. women’s national team in 2019. But the two years before that tournament were among the toughest of her career, she told Lynn Williams and Sam Mewis on the latest episode of Snacks.

An 11-year member of the USWNT, Krieger made 108 appearances for the squad. But she played sparingly for the USWNT in 2017 and not at all in 2018, as she went 18 months without a call-up.

“I lost two years with the team and I didn’t really understand why,” she said. “That was another moment in my life, in my career and my personal life, that was really difficult to overcome because you just didn’t have a reason.

“It was like breaking up with somebody and you never had closure because you didn’t really know the reasons why. I didn’t know really what to work on to improve in my game so that I can get back out there and practice and train and, and figure out how I can better myself to get back on the team. So that was a low moment I think for me.”

In April 2019, she returned to the USWNT and played a full 90 minutes in a friendly against Belgium almost exactly two years after her last appearance for the team. She went on to make three appearances during the World Cup, including in the championship match.

While Krieger has had a long and storied career, it hasn’t always been easy. She’s played professionally since 2006, including for the entirety of the NWSL’s existence. And for Krieger, staying in the game meant learning she could control — and what she couldn’t.

“There’s gonna be times where, you know, coaches might not like you. You might go through fights with adversity and injury and you might not be playing your best at some points during your career,” she said. “And you have to have that mental capacity and the positivity to really stay within the game and the level that you want to play at.”

Krieger has focused on her mental health, which has helped her remain steady through her career.

“Self-talk is really, I think, what has helped me stay here for so long because emotionally and physically, I could get on the line all day and run, right?” she said. “It’s like you don’t want to, but you’re able to physically do it. But mentally, through all the adversity and everything that kind of comes your way and is thrown at you, whether that be on the field, off the field, fans talking shit to you, fans supporting you, coaches might not like you that day, maybe they like you the next week?

“There’s so many different moments. There’s so much to unravel, and all the layers piled on to just being an athlete 24/7 for this amount of time, you really have to be strong mentally.”