CHICAGO (March 23, 2021) – U.S. Women’s National Team head coach Vlatko Andonovski has named 23 players for the trip to Europe during the April FIFA international match window that will feature friendly games against Sweden in Stockholm (April 10 at 1 p.m. ET on FOX) and France in Le Havre (April 13 at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN2).
The roster includes 17 NWSL players and six currently playing in Europe. Twenty-one of the players were on the U.S. roster for the 2021 SheBelieves Cup tournament which the USA won at the end of February in Orlando, Fla. Andonovski will name 18 players to suit up for each match. There will be no fans in the stands for either game.
“I give our larger pool of players credit for always making selections difficult, but this group going to Europe has shown consistent quality in their performances as well as in their abilities to contribute to the overall chemistry of the team,” said Andonovski. “We still have much evaluation to do from trainings, international matches, NWSL matches and overseas club matches before selecting the Olympic Team, but I’m really looking forward to these two games for what adversity they will bring. The exciting thing is that I know our players have the talent and mentality to meet those adversities with a great energy and overcome them.”
GOALKEEPERS (3): Jane Campbell (Houston Dash; 5), Casey Murphy (North Carolina Courage; 0), Alyssa Naeher (Chicago Red Stars; 67)
DEFENDERS (8): Alana Cook (Paris Saint-Germain, FRA; 2/0), Abby Dahlkemper (Manchester City, ENG; 65/0), Tierna Davidson (Chicago Red Stars; 28/1), Crystal Dunn (Portland Thorns FC; 109/24), Kelley O’Hara (Washington Spirit; 134/2), Margaret Purce (Sky Blue FC; 6/1), Becky Sauerbrunn (Portland Thorns FC; 182/0), Emily Sonnett (Washington Spirit; 51/0)
MIDFIELDERS (6): Julie Ertz (Chicago Red Stars; 108/20), Lindsey Horan (Portland Thorns FC; 91/20), Rose Lavelle (Manchester City, ENG; 51/14), Catarina Macario (Olympique Lyonnais, FRA; 3/1), Kristie Mewis (Houston Dash; 21/4), Samantha Mewis (Manchester City, ENG; 70/21)
FORWARDS (6): Carli Lloyd (Sky Blue FC; 299/124), Alex Morgan (Orlando Pride; 173/108), Christen Press (Manchester United, ENG; 142/60), Megan Rapinoe (OL Reign; 173/57), Sophia Smith (Portland Thorns FC; 3/0), Lynn Williams (North Carolina Courage; 33/10)
Forward Carli Lloyd currently has 299 caps and if she earns her historic 300th during this trip, will become one of just three players in international soccer history – women's or men’s - to play 300 times for their country, joining former teammates Kristine Lilly (354) and Christie Pearce Rampone (311).
As was the case during all U.S. Soccer activity during the pandemic, the U.S. players and staff will operate inside highly controlled environments at the team hotels in Sweden and France. The staging of the training and the matches will fall under the comprehensive U.S. Soccer Return to Play Protocols and Guidelines and in accordance with the UEFA Return to Play Protocols, with stringent collaboration with the Sweden Football Association and the France Football Federation. The U.S. delegation has received an exemption from quarantine provided to professional sports organizations. Everyone entering the environment will be tested for COVID-19 before traveling, upon arrival and every two days thereafter. The USA will not begin full team training in Europe until the results of all arrival tests are confirmed.
This will mark the fifth trip to Europe for friendly matches that the USWNT has undertaken in as many years, with four of those being two-game sets. In 2017, the USA played at Sweden and Norway in June. In 2018, the USA finished the year with games at Portugal and Scotland. In 2019, the USA started the year at France and Spain, and in 2020 the USA played at the Netherlands in November.
During those previous seven friendly matches in Europe, the USA went 6-1-0, but five of those wins were by 1-0 scores, and one, against the Dutch, was 2-0.
The most recent meeting between the USA and Sweden came in Vlatko Andonovski’s first match as USWNT head coach on Nov. 7, 2019, a 3-2 U.S. victory. The USA also faced Sweden in group play at the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, a 2-0 U.S. win in Le Havre in the final group stage match.
The USA has played Sweden 40 times in its history, but only three of those matches have been in Sweden. The USA last played in Sweden on June 8, 2017, in Gothenburg, a 1-0 win on a goal from Rose Lavelle.
The USA first faced Sweden in 1987, but the first match between the teams in Sweden came 22 years later in the 24th meeting on July 5, 2008 in Skellefteå, a 1-0 U.S. win on a goal from Carli Lloyd. The teams also played in Halmstad on June 16, 2012, a 3-1 U.S. victory, as Abby Wambach, Alex Morgan and Tobin Heath scored.
The USA has played France 24 times, but only five times in France, and one of those games was in 1991 and another was in 1995.
The three most recent meetings in France produced two France wins, 2-0 in Lorient in February of 2015 and 3-1 in Le Havre in January of 2019, and one U.S. victory, that coming in Paris at the World Cup.
The USA is 18-3-3 all-time vs. France, but the most recent 10 games between the teams dating back to 2014 have seen the USA compile a 5-2-3 record.
This will be the first meeting with France since the epic quarterfinal clash at the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Paris, a 2-1 triumph for USA on two Megan Rapinoe goals before advancing on to win the tournament.
Stade Océane is a familiar venue for the U.S. women as the team played there in January of 2019 against France, a 3-1 loss, and in its third match of group play in June of 2019 at the World Cup, a 2-0 win against Sweden.
Forward Carli Lloyd is the most experienced player on the roster with 299 caps. The next most experienced player -- defender Becky Sauerbrunn – is 117 caps behind her with 182. The other players on the roster with over 100 caps are forwards Alex Morgan (173), Christen Press (142), midfielder Julie Ertz (108) and defenders Kelley O’Hara (134) and Crystal Dunn (109).
Nine players on the roster have 33 or fewer caps.
The average caps per player on this roster is 79.
The average age of the roster is 28.
Megan Rapinoe leads the USA in scoring so far in 2021 with five goals. Ten other players have scored, led by Samantha Mewis with three.
Lloyd and Lindsey Horan are tied for the most assists so far with four each.
The youngest player on the roster is 20-year-old forward Sophia Smith who was four years old when Lloyd made her USWNT debut. When Smith debuted against the Netherlands last November, she became the first player born in the aughts to earn a senior team cap.
Defender Abby Dahlkemper, midfielder Samantha Mewis and midfielder Rose Lavelle come into camp in the midst of a fine run of form for Manchester City, which is currently in second place in the FA Women’s Super League behind only Chelsea and in the quarterfinals of the UEFA Women’s Champions League with the matches against Barcelona upcoming on March 24 and 31, prior to their travel to Stockholm.
Forward Christen Press will also travel to Stockholm from England where she has helped Manchester United into third place in the WSL and fighting for the third and final UEFA Women’s Champions League spot for next season.
This is the fourth call-up under Andonovski for former Stanford star Alana Cook who is playing in France with Paris Saint-Germain. The central defender has two caps, the first earned last year vs. Costa Rica in Vlatko Andonovski’s second match at the helm of the USA and the second in January 2021 against Colombia. PSG currently sits first in the Division 1 Féminine standings ahead of arch-rival Lyon. PSG will face Lyon in an epic UEFA Women’s Champions League quarterfinal clash with matches on March 24 and 31.
Midfielder Catarina Macario will also join the U.S. team from France where she has played in three games so far, including both of Lyon’s UEFA Women’s Champions League Round of 16 legs against Denmark’s Brøndby.
The Sweden match will be a homecoming of sorts for Press, who blossomed as a professional in Sweden in 2012 for Kopparbergs/Goteborg, for whom she won the league scoring title, while also doing stints with Tyreso FF (2013-2014) and another with Kopparbergs/Goteborg (2018), and for Emily Sonnett, who last fall helped Kopparbergs/Goteborg win its first league title during a brief loan stint.
Press led the Damallsvenskan – Sweden's top flight – in scoring during the 2013-14 campaign, becoming the first American to do so, and helped Tyreso reach the Champions League Final.
A total of six players on the U.S. roster either currently play in France (Cook and Macario) or have played in France, as Lindsey Horan (PSG from 2012-2016), Megan Rapinoe (Lyon in 2013-2014), Alex Morgan (Lyon in 2017) and Casey Murphy (Montpellier in 2018-2019) have also plied their trade in France’s top division.
With both Kristie (30 years-old) and Samantha Mewis (28) named to the roster, the Mewis sisters will once again have the possibility to play together for the USA. They already hold the USWNT record for most games played together with sisters with three games. The most recent time they shared the field came on Nov. 27 against the Netherlands.