Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #507: The USWNT’s Olympic roster

Episode Date: June 30, 2024

Greg, Tara and Belz talk through the roster that Emma Hayes announced last week, plus key omissions. Friendlies coming up on July 13 and 16, and then it's off to the Olympics and a huge test of the USWNT and its new manager. Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus any bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show, plus all patrons get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedAlso, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.comAnd check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedhq.com/store Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the Scuff podcast where we talk about U.S. soccer. Hey, everybody. We've been very busy with the USA's so far fairly disastrous showing at the Copa America, but we have to get in and say a few things about the Olympic roster. Emma Hayes made the key decisions and announced them last week. We play Mexico two weeks from yesterday, and then we play Costa Rica on July 16th, and then it's off to Paris.

I have Greg here and Tara of Woso Wednesday. Fame. Are you doing, Tara? I'm doing great. I can't wait to get into this with you all. I feel, I feel great. How are you guys? I'm, first off, I'm enjoying that Bells on a podcast is giving dates by reference of yesterday. It's two weeks from yesterday, depending on when you're listening to this. And mainly, I'm doing good too. This is a incredible collection of talent that I continue to think we have on the women's roster. And there's such like an excitement and a curiosity about what the level this team is actually capable of. And whether it's better than what we saw in New Zealand two years ago or one year ago or not.

Yeah. It's better. I'm a little under halfway to Kansas City. I'm in Metropolis, Illinois. where they have a big statue of Superman in front of the county courthouse. That's where I am. Kansas City, home of Claire Hutton, who's going to be on this roster in a matter of time? Lucky you.

Lucky you. The next one. The next one, yep. So let me first give out the roster. It's goalkeepers are Casey Murphy and Alyssa Neyer. You know, Greg usually breaks this down in a more sort of thoughtful way, but here's the Here are the defenders. Tuna Davidson and Naomi Germa as the true blue pure centerbacks.

And then Casey Krueger kind of as a utility, Casey Krueger and Emily Sonnet, both can play centerback and other positions. And then the pure fullbacks would be Jenna and I Swanger and Emily Fox. And probably Krueger ends up playing mostly fullback in this tournament too, right? So those are the defenders. Any thoughts on the goalkeepers and defenders? I'm okay with Nair.

I know we've battled back and forth about Nair's shot stopping, whether she's washed or positioning. And we pointed out some flaws. But for me, like the penalties and the penalty taking are more than enough reason to put her on an Olympic roster where, I don't know, I feel like half of the knockout games went to shootouts in 2021. Yeah, I'm surprised. I can't lie. I'm surprised to see her. But I'm not upset about it. I feel like this roster is near perfect.

Okay. What about defenders? Is there any sort of notable omission here? It doesn't seem like it, really. A third centerback. I'm saying a third peer centerback feels like the one risk. And it's balanced a little bit because, you know, Sonnet has been playing centerback.

back for her club. But I feel like between Sonnet, I mean, when you put on Sonnet and Kruger and Crystal Dunn, who's listed as an attacker, uh, and, and you've got Fox and Nicewanger.

Like you are so covered now at fullback, uh, that it feels like you could have picked whoever you think is your actual third best centerback. And maybe, maybe Emma thinks Sonnet is her third best centerback or Kruger if she plays her is like, no, this is who I would play.

If, if I had my full centerback, like unlimited number of roster slots to use. This is who I'd pick. But if not, I feel like your third actual centerback pick on your depth chart, and my mind could have made this roster over one of the utility fullbacks. This is. Go ahead, sir.

So just going a little bit further into that, I think we could have had a centerback as an alternate. We have so much attacking depth on this roster. We're going to get into it. It's like I said, it's nearly perfect. Our alternates don't really make too much sense to me. I think the third centerback should have been there. Like I said, we're going to get into the alternates, but we have so many attackers there.

To me, that doesn't really make too much sense. I think a centerback easily could have been there and probably should have been there. And who would that centerback be, guys? Would it be Dalkemper? Abby Dalkemper? Is she healthy enough? To me, it should have been Stobb.

Okay. I think Abby just hasn't played well enough for club. And that's where you get into like, you wouldn't use that third centerback spot if you wouldn't trust her to play in a game anyway. Like you don't bring her just to be like, well, now that we're missing Tierna or Germa, I'm just going to use a makeshift center back over because I don't trust Sam Stop.

So if you don't trust Sam Stop, then I get it. But if you were like, if something happens to Germa, my actual preference would be Stob over Sonnet. Then I would have brought Stob over somebody. It doesn't have to be Sonnet, but it could have been, I mean, it could have been one of the attackers. Because like, like Ther said, we have a boatload of attackers and they're all versatile. It's like all utility players. So obviously we're going to start Germa and Davidson

in probably every game unless one of them gets hurt Who and who are your guys starting fullbacks? I mean it's going to be just generally speaking It's going to be probably somewhat game dependent and performance dependent But right now who do you start at fullback?

I actually think I actually think there's a chance that Casey gets a run out. I don't think this is, I don't think this is the group stage where you just, just run out your starters and sub them out every single time. Because Casey's probably one of our best 1V1 defenders. And I just, I just think our first group stage, they're going to be, they're going to be really, really fast. They're going to be attacking us. Barbara Banda is a goal scorer like no other.

I could see Casey getting some meaningful minutes, but, you know, nine times out of ten, it's going to be Fox and Jenna. I feel like Fox and Jenna are the favorites to be the starters, but I really don't know, just because we have rotated in meaningful games at the end of the Twyla runout when it was clear. Twyla was sort of getting instructions. from Emma and then even Emma has done some rotation. So I really don't know. And I'm sort of just, I'm pretty okay with all of them.

I do think I prefer Kruger in that matchup against Banda because I also am like, I'm pretty worried about Banda stealing, stealing points from us. Well, also, Fox hasn't been very good lately for, at least for the national team. And she's not playing for a club at the moment because they're taking the summer off. as they do. Okay. Midfielders. This is where things start to get really interesting.

Corbin Albert, Sam Coffee, Lindsay Horan, Rose Lavelle, and Caterina Macario are the midfielders. So let's do a little update on coffee because she is the only one who's been hurt as of late. She got hurt last time you and I spoke on Wausau Wednesday. Since then, she's played two games. She got a 30-minute run-out, and then this past weekend, or this weekend, she got about 75 minutes. So things are looking up for Sam Coffey. We're going into a long camp here.

I feel good that Emma's going to get her up to 90 minutes. Good. That's good news because she's absolutely critical. Yeah. At the basement midfield. And we basically assume Horan and coffee are Emma's first choice midfielder, right? That's one of the most confident things I feel in regards to an Emma Hayes lineup, coffee and Horan. And then some kind of an attacking midfielder ahead of them.

And do we think it is going to be ahead of them and Horan will be kind of sitting back or do we think Emma's going to mix up Horan's position on the field, starting position? I think it's her in coffee for life at this stage. Sitting a little deeper in the initial buildup. And then McCar, probably Macario. That's my guess. I don't know if it's going to be every single time, but I think, I think cats got to be the first choice. Yeah, and I do think it's probably meaningful that cats listed as a midfieler.

Like, it could be Cat. It could be Lavelle or it could be Jaden Shaw in any. in any game. And can we talk about the midfield omissions? Are we ready for that? Yeah. Because, again, while, you know, we all know that this roster has an incredible amount of talent contained on it, it was also for me, like, sort of the least exciting

roster you could announce based on what the bubble options were and who got left off because the bubble was Lily and Croy in my mind of, like, who could be the super exciting inclusions. beyond the known superstar inclusions, right? So like the unknowns would have been, for me, Croy and Lily, and both of them didn't quite make the full roster. So it sort of ended up being the safe fringe options for the overall roster. In midfield, I feel like it's where that really comes into play.

And again, it can also be just a little ridiculous to be calling Roselle, like a safe, unexciting option. Corbin Albert, from a footballing perspective, certainly a safe option because she's the defensive-minded option. I guess we should say, we should mention now, Cory Bethune is one of the alternates, one of the four alternates, you know, having a sensational season for the Washington Spirit. And then Lily, when asked about her, when asked about Lily, Emma said she hasn't decided. it on her national team future. The strong implication being she was offered an alternate position

a spot as an alternate and declined it in that sort of uncertainty about her future. You know, to lose her to the Dutch would be very, very painful for me personally. But apparently that's still possible. So uncertainty, uncertainty around her decision in the sense that an

alternate position wasn't enough to make it certain. I mean, basically, yeah, yeah. And that alternate position was housed then, which out of the alternates... That's how Herschfeldt. How Herschfeltz. Out of the alternates, that's the one I wasn't quibbling with. I think a defensive-minded midfielder was needed.

an attacking midfielder probably wasn't really needed, although Kroybuthun is having a sensational season, and she is going to be incredible whenever she does make a national team roster. I mean, am I wrong? If something were to happen, do we need an attacking midfielder? If somebody were to go down. Right. So even if Lavelle goes down somehow in this camp, then... Mal is a 10, Kat's a 10, Jaden's a 10,

Horan would jump at the opportunity to play 10. Corbin's played in that advanced line in several matches. So I'm curious about that, so not that I certainly am not wishing injury on any player in this camp, but I am curious if Croy would actually get bumped up if something were to happen to one of our attacking mids or if we would actually like add a little more steel.

Crystal Dunn would be phenomenal there. I just, in terms of like Olympic puzzle pieces, that's something I resent myself for even having to bring up because I would love a fun new player on this roster. I feel like that's 50% of my personality. It just, I think, I think a defender made way more sense. Even Lynn's position,

I think a defender made way more sense here. But, you know, that's just a little nitpick. And just to dry the blanket a little bit, because I hate to be the wet blanket again on this collection of players. Mal and Kat, who weren't part of the World Cup squad, and then Jaden Shaw, who's a new player too. Like, it's crazy that we don't even necessarily think of them as, like,

new attacking players because it seems like they have been, in our minds, big parts of this team forever. Mal obviously has been a big part of this team forever, but getting Mal back, getting Kat in, I mean, Cat barely played in Tokyo. Like, we do have a bunch of exciting talent that hasn't made their mark yet in the international tournaments. Something I forgot about.

Mal didn't make the last Olympics, and it was, big, big time controversy. But she did make the Olympics before that in Brazil. So this is technically Mal's second Olympics. She was 18 the first time she went. So, you know, she's one of our hardened veterans at this point, which I thought was a little silly. Mal's going to her second Olympics.

Let me just read off the alternates just to be clear about that. They are goalkeeper Jane Campbell, midfielder, Hal Hersch felt. midfielder, Croy Bethune and forward Lynn Williams. You mentioned Williams as another one that doesn't really make sense in the context of the small roster

and what we need. I think that totally tracks, Tara. But I guess maybe the question is who is the actually helpful midfielder that we can bring in or centerback, back to Greg's point about the centerbacks.

Don't bring in somebody if they're not going to play anyway, you know, just because they have the right position letters next to their name. And I mean, definitely, we've talked about this on the podcast a lot. Definitely that's true of the midfield. What's true of the midfield is that there's just not a lot of depth in that 6-8 position. I mean, Corbin is, I, you know, not, has not looked great for the national team.

And she's on the roster. So, I mean, the fall off after her is pretty, I think, maybe the fall off even before her is kind of steep. But, yeah. The uncertainty. I mean, there's just so much uncertainty around any of those players because they are so untested for the national team. Yeah. We're going to come back and talk about the forwards after this break.

If you want to skip the ads, join the Patreon. Okay, let's do the forwards, kind of a dream team here. Crystal Dunn, Trinity Rodman, Jaden Shaw, Sophia Smith, and Mallory Swanson. and that's really four-winger and a striker in Sophia. I guess presumably Kat could deputize as a nine, and so could Jaden. Yeah, and Malice played centrally for club plenty of times as well. And Trin's played up there for the U.S.

I mean, like, it really is just like they're just such, they're incredibly badass attacking corps. I think if deployed in a reasonable way, in a coherent way, that you can make due. So to get to the big sort of media omission in Alex Morgan, I think we're just fine without a second, like, very true striker. Yeah, it was interesting to see. I mean, obviously, this is not our audience, but to the sort of general public, Morgan's omission was. the big news of this roster drop. It was the headline of the LA Times story

and the Washington Post story. I got a CNN alert on it. Did you? My phone blew up. Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, for us, for me at least, yeah, it makes perfect sense that she's not on the roster.

She's a, you know, she's a legend, but all good things must come to an end. Yeah. She's done incredible work for this team, but it makes perfect sense, absolutely. I am curious if, again, just on pure soccer merits or terms, Emma would have brought Morgan as an alternate if that was even discussed or offered.

You know, I don't know. Alex doesn't strike me as somebody who would necessarily turn it down due to like egos. I mean, she jumped at the chance to come back into the gold cup after being initially left off. That was thrown around a lot with, the Lynn position. Like, Lynn hasn't been involved at all with Emma camps.

And she's heard. Now she's here. And isn't Lynn hurt? Hasn't she not played in like a month? She just is, she's just on the roster, like on Gotham's roster now. Like this past game. Okay. So Lynn, Lynn was on my list, even as an alternate, on my like wish list,

Lynn was one of my alternates ahead of Morgan because I think Lynn is more versatile. And I think she's can be more effective in these, uh, the games with quick turnarounds where you need, you need some players with, like, that ridiculous energy, and she's just a, she's a pressing monster. Lynn plays great defense. Yeah.

She has a tool that some of our forwards don't have, aside from Trinity. I mean, Lynn has, Lynn brings something else, but it, it makes no sense why she's there. Oh, you don't,

you don't like Lynn there? I love Lynn being there. Because if something happens to sew, or cat, Lynn would be who I put on the roster next. Because I want to have some kind of a player that I would rely on to be like the, I don't know, maybe I'm like at a time. I know Lynn like thrives out wide, certainly for. No, no.

If you're taking out self and cat, then if something happens to one of them, you know, in the lead up to the first game, then I would, if either thing happens to one of them, then I'd want Lynn on the roster, like into the 18. Oh my goodness. So I like her as an alternate. Okay. Well, I just want to say I'm I'm sad that Lily's not even an alternate,

Lily Johannes. I know that there are all kinds of reasons to wet blanket it, but just on a spiritual, emotional level, that performance against South Korea for 20 minutes or whatever it was made a deep impression on me. And I'm sad. that she's not going to, that she's, you know, that she's still, you know,

thinking through her national team future. But hopefully that gets sorted out in the future. She's got plenty of time to pick on it. Yep. Still only, she's 17 now, right? Just had a birthday. Yeah. Yes.

This month. I don't think Emma was like, if she was offered an alternate spot, I don't think it was just like, you know, window dressing as a recruitment tool. I think the alternates are like people Emma sees as being, very likely pieces for, you know, the window immediately following the Olympics. Yeah. I think that makes a lot of sense.

She's a player who brings. Go ahead, Tara. Something that kind of ties into that, but, you know, significantly less important because they aren't alternates. But something I'm still excited about, because I think it shows Emma and her team are a wide net post-Olympics is the player pool that are coming in as training players. It is Alyssa Thompson, Emily Sams, and Kate Wisner. And I just think that was a really fun addition because Emma and her team only had two months coming into this tournament, taking over the team. What did she say? She's doing heart surgery. It's, it's quick, quick, quick turnaround. And we're starting to see some of the pieces

visualizing what's next. These alternates, Croy, Lily, Hal, now Emily Sam's is one of the best centerbacks. We got Collins of Sam Stobb. We got Ivagicay Tino. few camps before. Just more pieces of what it could look like post-Olympics when they have more time to settle in. We've only, we have had tunnel vision, rightfully so, in the Olympics. It's a huge tournament for the women. But I just think there's still so much to be excited about once they have some time to settle in and just cast a wider net, because there is still going to be a lot of turnover in this team.

afterwards and I'm excited to see what it looks like. Go ahead, Bill. I was just, I was just going to say, we really need, we really need some midfielders to emerge as like, as credible options behind coffee and Horan. And, you know, that's part of the reason Lily's so exciting. But, you know, Claire Hutton is also exciting as you referenced earlier. And we need centerback depth, probably.

I mean, at least from Emma's point of view, we do, because she's not bringing more than two. So nobody's made the grade. And over in Manchester United, they finally sold off Mary Earps, so we may get Fallon emerging as a playing goalie again. There's plenty to look forward to. Okay. Well, we play Zambia four weeks from last Thursday, Greg. Just say the date, say the month in the day of the game.

July 25th. July 25th, we play Zambia. That might be three days from now. I don't know, listener. You tell us. That's coming up quick. It is coming up quick. And then July 28th against Germany.

and then July 31st against Australia. That's our group stage, and it is nothing to sneeze at. So we're getting right into the fire. There's going to be a lot more to talk about with the women's national team over the next three weeks, four weeks from last Thursday. I mean, that Mexico game, that Mexico game is such like,

I feel like such a revenge match. Oh, yeah. Ridgible says that might sound and friendly. But like we got to, we have to let them know that they're not there yet. Yeah, definitely. And we'll get to see, you know, sort of the next step of the heart surgery

as it unfolds. What else, guys? Anything? Remain excited. Again, it's always the tendency to talk about sort of the bubble because that's where the decisions were made on rosters. But the top, this roster's top heavy

in just a remarkable way. And any level of, again, like putting these players in positions to do the things they're good at, I think is going to result in some outstanding, entertaining soccer to watch and enjoy. Yeah. Yeah. We talked a lot about the defenders and the midfielders, but these forwards look like gold medal. The forwards look like a gold medal.

I mean, it's really, it's a really important and obvious point that we didn't, when we had that horrible showing in New Zealand, we didn't have Kat Makari. we didn't have Mal Swanson. And particularly with all respect to Cat Macario, Mal Swanson, she is an X-Factor. I mean, she is outrageous. She just scored an incredible goal last night, too. She's on fire.

Yeah. Anything else, guys? No? No. Okay. All right. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.