U.S. Women’s National Team Will Hold Annual January Training Camp in Austin, Texas

CHICAGO (Jan. 12, 2022) – U.S. Women’s National Team head coach Vlatko Andonovski has named a 25-player roster for the USA’s annual January training camp that this year will take place in Austin, Texas from Jan. 19-28.

 

This BioSteel training camp marks the first action of 2022 for the USWNT, but it will not include any international matches. The USA’s first matches of the year will take place at the 2022 SheBelieves Cup, Presented by Visa, against the Czech Republic (Feb. 17) and New Zealand (Feb. 20) at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, Calif., and Iceland (Feb. 23) at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas.

 

U.S. WOMEN’S NATIONAL TEAM – JANUARY TRAINING CAMP ROSTER BY POSITION:

 

GOALKEEPERS (3): Aubrey Kingsbury (Washington Spirit), Casey Murphy (North Carolina Courage), Alyssa Naeher (Chicago Red Stars)

DEFENDERS (9): Alana Cook (OL Reign), Abby Dahlkemper (San Diego Wave FC), Tierna Davidson (Chicago Red Stars), Imani Dorsey (NJ/NY Gotham FC), Emily Fox (Racing Louisville FC), Naomi Girma (San Diego Wave FC), Sofia Huerta (OL Reign), Kelley O’Hara (Washington Spirit), Emily Sonnett (Washington Spirit)

MIDFIELDERS (7): Lindsey Horan (Portland Thorns FC), Jaelin Howell (Racing Louisville FC), Rose Lavelle (OL Reign), Kristie Mewis (NJ/NY Gotham FC), Samantha Mewis (Kansas City Current), Ashley Sanchez (Washington Spirit), Andi Sullivan (Washington Spirit)

FORWARDS (6): Ashley Hatch (Washington Spirit), Mallory Pugh (Chicago Red Stars), Margaret Purce (NJ/NY Gotham FC), Trinity Rodman (Washington Spirit), Sophia Smith (Portland Thorns FC), Lynn Williams (Kansas City Current)

 

“Without any matches that we need to taper for, we can get in some more intense trainings and full-field scrimmages, which is great as we need to give this group as many chances as possible to play together in a National Team environment,” said Andonovski. “We understand that some of the players are coming off a break, so we’ll keep that in mind as we hit the ground running in 2022 for what will be a very important year for these players and our team.”

 

As they have throughout the entire pandemic, the U.S. players and staff will operate inside a highly controlled environment at the team hotel. The staging of the camp will fall under the comprehensive U.S. Soccer Return to Play Protocols and Guidelines. Everyone entering the environment will be tested for COVID-19 before traveling, upon arrival and periodically thereafter. The team will not begin full team training until the results of all arrival tests are confirmed.

 

Additional Notes:

• Seventeen players on this training camp roster were with the USA in Australia last November for the final two matches of 2021.

• Washington Spirit forward Trinity Rodman, the 2021 NWSL Rookie of the Year and 2021 U.S. Soccer Young Female Player of the Year, is the only player on the roster who is earning her first senior WNT call-up with this camp. The 19-year-old Rodman, who is still age-eligible for the 2022 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup, has nine career U-20 international goals in just seven caps, and likely would have played in the 2020 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup had it not been cancelled due to the global pandemic.

• Defender Naomi Girma, the #1 pick in the 2022 NWSL Draft to San Diego Wave FC, gets her second full WNT call-up after attending the October 2020 training camp in Denver. Girma was the U.S. Soccer Young Female Player of the Year in 2020 and was also the 2021 Pac-12 Defender of the Year for Stanford.

• Girma is one of seven NWSL No. 1 draft picks called into this camp, joining Emily Fox (2021), Sophia Smith (2020), Tierna Davidson (2019), Andi Sullivan (2018), Rose Lavelle (2017) and Emily Sonnett (2016).

• Goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury (formerly Bledsoe) of the Washington Spirit will now be playing under her married name. She got married in early December of last year.

• Kingsbury, who impressively backstopped the Washington Spirit to the 2021 NWSL title and earned MVP honors in the championship game, earns her first call-up since January training camp in 2021.

• Kingsbury, Rodman and Girma are the only uncapped players on the training camp roster.

• The camp marks the return of several World Cup and Olympic veterans who did not go on the trip to Australia last November in goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher, defender Kelley O’Hara, midfielder Samantha Mewis and forward Mallory Pugh. Naeher has been out since injuring her knee in the Olympic semifinal.

• Samantha’s return to the roster as a newly minted member of the Kansas City Current reunites her once again with her sister, Kristie, who recently moved from the Houston Dash to San Diego (briefly) in the NWSL Expansion Draft and then to NJ/NY Gotham FC. The Mewis sisters are one of only two pairs of sisters ever to represent the USWNT and are the most capped sisters in team history.

• There are three players on this roster who are twins as Naeher, Emily Sonnett and Kingsbury all have twin sisters, all of whom played college soccer.

• Midfielder Jaelin Howell, the two-time MAC Hermann Trophy winner from Florida State, gets her first call-up since the 2021 SheBelieves Cup, where she earned her second cap.

• On January 7 of this year, Howell won the 2021 MAC Hermann Trophy, becoming just one of six players in college soccer history to win the award back-to-back, joining Mia Hamm (1992-1993), current U.S. Soccer President Cindy Parlow (1997-1998), Christine Sinclair (2004-2005), Morgan Brian (2013-2014) and Catarina Macario (2018-2019).

• Howell is also the ACC Midfielder of the Year in 2021.

• While Rodman is the youngest player on the roster, Howell (22), Girma (21) and Smith (21) are the next youngest. Howell and Smith earned their first senior team caps on Nov. 27, 2021, against the Netherlands, becoming the first players born after the historic 1999 Women’s World Cup to be capped by the USA. Smith became the first player born in the 00s to earn a cap.

• Ten members of the 2020 Olympic Team are on this training camp roster.

• Nine of the 25 players on this training camp roster are under the age of 25.

• Thirteen players in this training camp have 12 caps or fewer with the senior national team.

• Nine of the 12 NWSL clubs are represented in this training camp, led by seven players from the 2021 champions Washington Spirit, which is 28% of the roster.

• While there are no official matches associated with this camp, the USWNT has a special connection to Austin as the USA played the first-ever match at the spectacular Q2 Stadium, home to Austin FC in Major League Soccer. The U.S. Women christened the new stadium on June 16, 2021, in a 2-0 victory against Nigeria in front of a sold-out crowd. U.S. forward Christen Press scored the first-ever goal at the venue. The game marked the first U.S. Soccer international match in Austin and the first-ever trip to Austin for the USWNT. This camp will be the second.