Coach Jill Ellis unveiled her USWNT World Cup roster for the 2019 Women’s World Cup on Thursday, the 23 players who will attempt to defend their title and win a record fourth championship.
The 2019 USWNT World Cup roster includes few surprises. Half of the squad (12 of 23) returns from the 2015 team, including eight who started the final.
BACK FOR FOUR
There are few athletes in the world who have won as much as Kristine Lilly.
She’s got two Women’s World Cup trophies, two Olympic gold medals and four NCAA championships. She appeared in more international matches than anyone in the world — men or women — while playing for the most dominant team in the history of sport.
The seventh season of NWSL play kicked off on Saturday, and the 2019 campaign will attract more attention than ever since it falls in a World Cup year. With 52 days to go until the main event in France, international players remain with their club sides for the time being.
However, that’ll soon change, and USWNT call-ups will expect to miss around two months of the season (the Send-Off Series begins on May 12 vs. South Africa and the World Cup final takes place on July 7), although the NWSL will break for group stage play.
20,941 at Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles watched the USWNT put six past Belgium — five of them headers — on Sunday night in a celebratory World Cup warmup that included a tribute to the legendary ’99 squad.
It was the sort of match that Alexi Lalas will burn onto DVD, sharpie “Set Pieces” on and rewatch seven hundred times.
It all started in the 14th minute with Tierna Davidson lofting a direct ball into the box and there was Carli Lloyd, on her 271st appearance, to nod home.
Alex Morgan has been a consistent impact player for the U.S. women’s national team. In her 2019 campaign, she has started and played in four games totaling 349 minutes for a total of 159 caps, ranking her 17th all-time in games played. She continues to add to her accolades after just being named the 2018 U.S. Soccer Player of the Year.
She finally reached her 100th goal at age 29 in an international friendly against Australia on Thursday in Commerce City, Colorado.
The U.S. women’s national team have been nothing but busy thus far in 2019. From being one step closer to equal pay, to being ranked No. 1 heading into the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the USWNT is proving its worth through its dominance both on and off the field.
The red, white and blue will be shown off again on Thursday at 7 p.m. MT when Lindsey Horan and Mal Pugh get to represent their home state of Colorado versus No. 6 Australia.
The U.S. women’s national team just wants to be treated fairly and equally by the United States Soccer Federation. On Equal Pay Day — the date representing how far into the current year a woman must work to earn as much as a man earned the previous year — the USWNT received an unexpected boost toward equal pay.
Youth soccer in America is changing. Over the past few years, U.S. soccer has moved to profoundly address the exclusivity of high-level grass roots play. Talented footballers at the high school age can get offered to play for a program known as a Development Academy (DA). Both Major League Soccer and other youth clubs all over the U.S. have Development Academy teams, from the high school age all the way down to U-12.
Nike will provide the uniforms for 14 of the 24 competing nations at the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France, and the sportswear giant unveiled them all during an incredible innovation event in Paris.
Yesterday, on International Women’s Day, adidas announced that any sponsored players on the Women’s World Cup-winning team would receive the same bonus pay given to their male counterparts.
Equal pay for equal play.#WWC #WorldCup pic.twitter.com/F9UD7zvp6s