Emma Hayes has named her roster for the U.S. Women’s National Team’s June friendlies against Brazil, and there’s one name that makes a welcome return: Mallory Swanson. The Chicago Stars forward last donned the USWNT crest in 2024, shortly after scoring the game-winning goal in the U.S.’s Olympic gold medal match against Brazil.
In May 2025, Swanson announced she was pregnant, and she gave birth to her daughter Josie in November. Prior to the Olympics, Swanson missed out on the 2023 World Cup after being injured in a tune-up friendly against Ireland.
Swanson has appeared for the Stars twice this year, and scored the team’s game-winner against Bay FC on Sunday. It was the team’s fifth goal of the season, a league low. Hayes said in a press conference on Wednesday that she thinks Swanson can play for at least 45 minutes in each game against Brazil.
“With Mal, definitely in the conversations we’ve had over the last week, two weeks, she really feels that she’s in a good place,” she said. “She’s been ready to play, ready to contribute to her team. She really feels she’s in a good rhythm now with Josie, and it’s all the things that sometimes we don’t really realize, like sleeping patterns, feeding patterns—you have to get all of those things right.”
Hayes emphasized that she has shifted her focus from widening the player pool to cohering relationships between the players most likely to contend for big rosters. “We’ve got this camp and October. They’re the last two camps before [World Cup] qualification, and I’m honing in on or making sure that the vast majority of players that will be in contention for that November roster are in this camp,” she said.
Also included on the USWNT roster are Sophia Wilson and Trinity Rodman, completing the ‘Triple Espresso’ front line that combined for 10 of the team’s 12 goals in the aforementioned Olympics. Wilson also missed 2025 on parental leave—she gave birth to Gigi in September—while Rodman struggled with multiple injuries in 2025. This season in the NWSL, Wilson has scored four times for the Portland Thorns and Rodman has scored thrice for the Washington Spirit.
“That front three haven’t been together since the Olympic gold medal match: that’s a long time, and we cannot waste a single minute,” Hayes said. “We absolutely have to put the very best players together with every opportunity that we have.”
Michelle Cooper, Emma Sears, Ally Sentnor, and Alyssa Thompson round out the forward line on Hayes’s roster. It is nearly the same group Hayes brought in to play three friendlies against Japan in April, with the exception of Jameese Joseph, who cedes way for her more experienced Stars teammate in Swanson. Catarina Macario remains unavailable for selection due to injury.
Hayes is excited about having Triple Espresso back. “We have been able to develop the depth, but those three players—they’ve developed credit in the bank. We won a gold medal with these players. They are top, top players,” she said. “Together, we have to start recreating their connections again.”
In the midfield, Croix Bethune and Riley Jackson have been rewarded for strong club play for the Kansas City Current and North Carolina Courage, respectively, after not having been a part of the roster for the April friendlies. Sam Coffey, who underwent knee surgery earlier in May, is not on the roster.
Hayes is high on Jackson. “Riley is a well-rounded player, there’s no doubt in that whatsoever. She can receive the ball with her back to goal under pressure and build up. For me, this is quality number one, right? If you want to have control over a football match, your number six must be able to do that, and she can do that,” she said. “…She is next in line because of the qualities in possession that I think she has above every other [no.] 6 that she’s competing [with] across the country.”
As for Bethune, Hayes said her standout quality is her “ability to find a pass inside the penalty area.” But she emphasizes that Bethune needs to prove her durability and defensive game. Still, she was chosen over Ashley Sanchez in part because they’ll have to manage Rose Lavelle’s minutes. Like Lavelle, Bethune is a true center midfielder.
Sanchez, who is second in the NWSL Golden Boot race with seven goals (Barbra Banda leads the race with nine), has been playing as a winger for North Carolina, which puts her in contention with different players. “Ashley Sanchez loses out to Mal Swanson and Alyssa Thompson. [Bethune and Sanchez] are two players that I think are top players, but if Ashley Sanchez continues with her form, then for sure she will continue to get a look in, and I think for this time we selected Croix over her, but there wasn’t much to separate,” Hayes said.
On defense, Spirit centerback Tara Rudd earns a callup after missing out on the Japan friendlies. Missing from that roster are Naomi Girma, who missed Chelsea’s FA Cup semifinal on May 10 with a calf injury, and Emily Sams.
“Do I think Sam Coffey and Naomi Girma and Cat Macario would be on this roster if they were fit and healthy? Yes, they would be. But you can’t think like that,” Hayes said. “I don’t think you’ll ever have your top, top players available [at the same] time.”
Utah Royals keeper Mandy McGlynn joins regular call-ups Claudia Dickey and Phallon Tullis-Joyce for the Brazil friendlies. In the Japan friendlies, Jane Campbell held the third-string spot.
Other healthy players who haven’t been called up to a USWNT roster recently include Kate Weisner, Hal Hershfelt, Yazmeen Ryan, and Mia Fishel.
There are as many players on this roster with 50 or more caps as there are players with 10 or fewer. There are no uncapped players on the roster, just the third time that has been the case in Hayes’s tenure.
Just five players on the roster play for European clubs; the other 21 play for NWSL teams. This summer, captain Lindsey Heaps will be moving from OL Lyonnes to the Denver Summit.
Listen now to The IX Sports Podcast and Women’s Sports Daily
We are excited to announce the launch of TWO new podcasts for all the women’s sports fans out there looking for a daily dose of women’s sports news and analysis. Stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or anywhere you listen to podcasts, and make sure to subscribe!
The upcoming matches will be taking place in São Paulo and Fortaleza, which will be two of the eight 2027 World Cup host cities. The U.S. and Brazil have played each other 43 times, and the U.S. has won 34 of those matches. However, just six of those matchups took place in Brazil, where winning is much more difficult. In those six matches—two each in 1996, 1997, and 2014—the U.S. holds a 2-2-2 record.
“This trip offers amazing opportunities for these players to experience Brazil, its culture, stadiums, and passionate fans, and especially playing the World Cup hosts,” Hayes said in a statement. “Few challenges in women’s international soccer compare to facing Brazil in Brazil, so we’re excited for the valuable lessons this experience will bring.”
At the presser on Wednesday, Hayes discussed how playing Brazil is different than playing against Japan, the USWNT’s most recent opponent. Japan, she said, is “a largely zonal team that involves lots of rotations to pull you apart. Brazil is not that. They will go one for 1v1 everywhere with you. They’ll follow you all over the pitch. It’ll be physical, be aggressive. It’s really hard to retain control in this type of game, because on average you get about three passes before there’s a defensive action [by] Brazil.”
She added, “There’ll be a big focus on how do we cope with the demands of playing a very, very, very aggressive Brazilian team that won’t let us play, that will happily run us deep in 1v1 situations? In fact, they’ll overcommit players—not afraid to do that. And they have a coach and a team that, no matter who puts that crest on, I think this is a Brazil team that’s the highest level it’s been at for a number of years, and they’re gaining experience.”
