New USWNT roster drops as NWSL free agency kicks off

First off, a bit of breaking news. The final USWNT roster of 2023 dropped Monday morning for the two friendlies against China next month, here it is:

U.S. Women’s National Team Roster by Position (Club; Caps/Goals) – December Friendlies vs. China PR

GOALKEEPERS (3): Jane Campbell (Houston Dash; 7), Aubrey Kingsbury (Washington Spirit; 1), Casey Murphy (North Carolina Courage; 16)

DEFENDERS (7): Alana Cook (OL Reign; 29/1), Abby Dahlkemper (San Diego Wave FC; 79/0), Tierna Davidson (Chicago Red Stars; 50/1), Emily Fox (North Carolina Courage; 37/1), Naomi Girma (San Diego Wave FC; 24/0), Casey Krueger (Chicago Red Stars; 41/0), M.A. Vignola (Angel City FC; 1/0).

MIDFIELDERS (8): Korbin Albert (Paris Saint-Germain, FRA; 0/0), Sam Coffey (Portland Thorns FC; 5/0), Savannah DeMelo (Racing Louisville FC; 6/0), Lindsey Horan (Olympique Lyon, FRA; 137/30), Rose Lavelle (OL Reign; 91/24), Olivia Moultrie (Portland Thorns FC; 0/0), Jenna Nighswonger (NJ/NY Gotham FC; 0/0), Emily Sonnett (OL Reign; 81/2).

FORWARDS (8): Mia Fishel (Chelsea FC, ENG; 2/1), Ashley Hatch (Washington Spirit; 21/5), Midge Purce (NJ/NY Gotham FC; 24/4), Trinity Rodman (Washington Spirit; 26/6), Jaedyn Shaw (San Diego Wave FC; 2/1), Sophia Smith (Portland Thorns FC; 36/14), Alyssa Thompson (Angel City FC; 8/0), Lynn Williams (NJ/NY Gotham FC; 58/17).

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There’s a lot to like about this. Interim coach Twila Kilgore left a couple of big names off, notably Alex Morgan, Crystal Dunn, Alyssa Naeher and Becky Sauerbrunn. But don’t take that as a sign they’ve fallen out of favor by any means. I appreciate that some new players are getting a look, and Kilgore said as much in the release announcing the roster:

“We value these players who have recently been in camps or played in World Cup and were not chosen for this roster, and they are of course still a part of our pool, but we know what they bring on and off the field. At the same time, we also need to continue to evaluate and bring along players in the right ways to give the team the best chance for success.”

Interesting tidbit form the release: Kilgore “chose the roster as part of the overall strategy and plan that U.S. Soccer Sporting Director Matt Crocker has put together with Kilgore and Emma Hayes, the newly named USWNT head coach who will officially join the USWNT in May after the conclusion of the season with her current club, Chelsea.”

On Sunday evening, the trade window in the National Women’s Soccer League closed. But the action won’t stop now, as Monday marked the opening of the free agency window.

Here is a handy list of the free agents, provided by the NWSL.

Crystal Dunn has already announced she’s moving on. As for the rest of the Thorns, Christine Sinclair has asked for one more year with the team.

On Sunday, Nadia Nadim posted that her time at Racing Louisville was over.

As previously announced, Merritt Mathias is staying with Angel City and Kelley O’Hara will remain with Gotham. The teams had to announce trades before 3 p.m. ET today, but another trade window ropens on Wednesday. Confusing!

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Look what you made me do: Gotham (finally) responded to the outrage over the lack of championship celebrations back home.

The posted details Friday night on X, formerly known as Twitter (which I’m not using anymore for obvious reasons and not posting here). Suffice to say there will be a “Trophy Homecoming Celebration” on Monday night at Red Bull Arena for season ticket holders and supporters groups.

BTW, for the time being I’m using Threads at anniempeterson. I’m still checking into Twitter on occasion to check DMs, so don’t be dismayed when I don’t answer right away. I’m just not posting my stuff there because I don’t want my tweets to appear on timelines next to hate speech.

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LINKS

Before Friday’s announcement, The Athletic’s Meg Linehan wrote about Gotham missing an opportunity.

The Equalizer’s Jeff Kassouf looks at predetermined sites for the NWSL championship game going forward.

Jayda Evans at the The Seattle Times looks at what’s next for OL Reign.

Recap of the NWSL’s big growth this year, from Forbes.

Kassouf writes for ESPN that the big-time title game shows where the league can go.

Just Women’s Sports looks at how Gotham went from worst to first and how it can stay there.

Midge Purce reflected on Gotham’s win.

The San Francisco Chronicle’s Marisa Ingemi speculates about who Bay FC might pursue in free agency.

The Equalizer’s Taylor Vincent with 7 free agents to watch.

Sam Mewis gave an update on her knee on the Snacks podcast, from Just Women’s Sports.

Bad news about Catarina Macario, from The Athletic.

The USWNT made it official with Emma Hayes. Here’s my story. Clicks please!

Five at The IX: Bay FC’s first player Alex Loera and GM Lucy Rushton

Bay FC general manager Lucy Rushton and first player Alex Loera spoke to the media last week. Here’s a bit of what they said:

RUSHTON: I have to say that in Alex, we really could not have found a better player and a better person to become the first player in this franchise’s history. On and off the field, Alex really does epitomize everything that we want and stand for at Bay FC. So I’m sure that anyone who has probably read an article or heard an interview with me or Albertin over the last four or five months, has probably heard the brand of football that we want to play, the identity that we want to create here as a club, and what we want to be known for, and signing Alex really is the very first sign of our commitment to that.
At 24 years old, I think Alex is become widely regarded as probably one of the best midfielders in the league. Probably one of the best and most technically gifted ball playing midfielders in the league, as well. … She has every asset to be a fantastic central midfielder in this league. She breaks lines and she creates chances. And when I watch Alex play, I see every attribute that we want in a Bay FC midfielder and a Bay FC player in terms of a composure on the ball, her want to be on the ball and really an ability to allow us as a team to control play and dictate possession, or to dictate the game through our possession. It’s a skill that as a midfielder and as a player, you either have or you don’t, that want to be on the ball and a desire to have it. And it’s so critical to everything that we’re trying to build here at Bay FC and Alex has it in abundance.

Of course, to be a great defensive midfielder, a true six, you need to have that ability to defend and again, something that Alex has an abundance. As a group, I think something that we loved with Alex really was her tenacity and aggression in wanting to win the ball back, to work right and the physicality she has. And obviously, having played center back she understands the position incredibly well when her positioning and her defensive understanding, is fantastic. So for us, on both sides of the ball, Alex is a competitor, she’s a winner, and she’s a leader in how she plays. So as a founding piece of our team, she really does epitomize everything that we’re looking for.

I think that sometimes it’s easy to forget that Alex is 24 years old. She has nearly 4,000 minutes played professionally under her belt. And I think with that she brings a great combination of youth and that potential, but also really the league experience. She knows this league, she understands it. She understands the level, she understands the standards and she’s excelled in it. Yet at 24, we believe she still has so much room to grow and continue developing. And with the mentality she has, we know that she will only continue to get better with us.

I think followers of women’s soccer will also know Alex is really close ties to the Bay Area, having played collegiately at Santa Clara, obviously where she captained the team and was an NCAA champion. For us I think it’s always been to acquire players with Bay Area ties, has always been something which has been a real objective and is important to us. Alex joins the club knowing our community, understanding the type of football that that is so loved here. And she has a real strong affinity for the area, for our culture, and for that for the love of football that people have here. So for us it was a perfect fit in terms of being able to bring someone back to the Bay Area who really understands everything it’s about. In that, she’ll help us represent our community in a way that is so important to us. And I really truly believe that she will continue to inspire many young women and girls, who perhaps grew up watching her play at Santa Clara, and who probably still aspire to follow in her footsteps. So with all that said, we are delighted to welcome Alex to Bay FC. We’re so excited for her future with us and going forward. And with her acquisition we really start building the foundations of legacy that we’ve spoken about so often and that we want to create. So with that, massive Welcome to Alex to the club.

LOERA: Thank you, Lucy for that very warm welcome and thank you everyone for being here. I’m really excited to be on this call with you all. Like Lucy said, I have some pretty special ties to the Bay Area. As soon as I visited, when I was looking to go to college, I knew that the Bay Area would always have peace of my heart, and that exceeded my expectations when I was there through college. Just the people there, the atmosphere, I absolutely loved everything about Bay Area and as soon as I heard that Bay FC could be a potential team in the league, I was so excited. I was like Yeah, I’m gonna end up back here at some point hopefully, hopefully when I am still just loving the game. So I am so excited. I cannot wait. I know that I’m surrounded by such great people, Lucy Albertin, not only the people that they are, but just the plans that they have for this club. The plans that they have for me, I know it’s going to be amazing. They’re going to be tailored to each individual and just individual success as a whole. So I’m so excited. I can’t thank you Bay FC enough for this incredible honor. And yeah, I’m just I’m just ready to get started. So move me out there right now.

QUESTION: Lucy, where along the timeline with appointing Albertin and assembling your staff, when did you sort of collectively hone in on Alex as a target for the team to be not just a signing but you know a signing this early in the process?

RUSHTON: Alex came onto my radar almost immediately after joining the club, I’ll be honest, I really immersed myself in the game from the moment I was with the team and watched every NWSL team multiple times. And Alex just stood out from from day 1. And on our depth chart, and on my personal depth chart she she was on there immediately. We had we have a scout department and a group here who have been formed the last four or five months and everyone’s very aligned in terms of Alex’s potential and knowing her Bay ties as well also just pushed it that a little bit kind of made it feel even more right. So Albertin was part of those some of those early discussions. And obviously when he was named head coach, it was just an absolute perfect fit. And Alex was somebody who was was always kind of top of our list. With that in mind, you never know if the club are going to be open to negotiation because Alex is an asset and so I think when it gets to that stage where you start having to try and negotiate with the club and and we got a sense that it could happen, then it was all hands to deck … We really wanted that first signing to be one that just epitomizes everything that we stand for. And for a player to have been on our depth chart and in our thinking as a player that we feel we can build this team around, it was important that we were able to hit that ground running with that as our first signing. For me, all the stars aligned. I’m grateful to the guys at KC for how they kind of handled the process as well. And then we were able to execute and get it done quickly. And here we are today. So I’d say just from from day 1 really Alex stood out to me and all of our staff our scouting department and was a no brainer.

QUESTION: I want to ask you maybe a little bit of the flip side of that of, coming to expansion team. There’s, excitement and challenges. Obviously maybe you don’t have full control of this, but what was it about this opportunity, wWhat is it about this opportunity that excites you? What are kind of the unique challenges of of being the first for a team that doesn’t exist yet?

LOERA: Yeah, good question. I think there’s always going to be challenges and adversity when you’re an expansion team, and your first season you’re going to run into things that you weren’t expecting, but things are also going to go so great. So it goes both ways. I’m just excited. I think it just feels a little weird right now being the only person on the team. But I know that Lucy and her team and everyone involved has some great soccer IQ and so I can trust that they’re gonna have other players that will make this season go so well and so smoothly. So I’m just looking forward to overcoming whatever it is that’s thrown at us and just honestly trying to win a championship in our first year. That’s what I have planned. And I think Lucy’s on that same on the same page. So yeah, I’m looking forward to the season.