Can USWNT qualify for World Cup, Olympics? Top questions ahead of CONCACAF W Championship – Ghana Latest Football News, Live Scores, Results

For the U.S. ladies’s nationwide staff, all roads to the 2023 Ladies’s World Cup and the 2024 Olympics run by means of Monterrey, Mexico, the place the squad will start its qualification marketing campaign Monday.

In case you’ve by no means heard of the CONCACAF W Championship, which runs July 4-18, there is a good motive for that: it is a model new competitors. But it surely’s a reasonably vital one, particularly due to its new format: it’ll function the qualification event for each these aforementioned occasions, the primary time CONCACAF has opted for a double-qualification format. The stakes have by no means been increased.

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The event must be fairly forgiving for the People. The highest 4 groups within the eight-team event qualify robotically for the 2023 Ladies’s World Cup co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, which means the USWNT solely must survive the group stage. However qualifying for the Olympics is the place it will get trickier: solely the winner of the event will instantly qualify for Paris 2024. The second- and third-placed groups will not be out of it — they may compete in a playoff to be held in September 2023 for the second and ultimate CONCACAF spot — however the U.S. would absolutely prefer to get qualifying over with, if attainable.

Here’s a take a look at the important thing questions going through the U.S. heading into the event:

Who will lead the USWNT into the long run?

Coach Vlatko Andonovski has not been shy to solid veterans apart in favor of youthful expertise that is tearing up the Nationwide Ladies’s Soccer League in 2022. Tobin Heath was not known as in for these qualifiers and though Christen Press tore an ACL shortly earlier than the roster was introduced, Andonovski stated he wasn’t planning to name her in anyway.

As a substitute, newer gamers like Sophia Smith, Ashley Sanchez and Trinity Rodman are being requested to steer the assault, they usually’ve appeared a lot succesful. (Mallory Pugh is not new, however after years on the outs with the nationwide staff, she is again and searching like a brand new participant, too.)

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It was a serious blow to Andonovski’s deliberate youth motion when Catarina Macario tore an ACL final month, however the USWNT confirmed off loads of threats when it gained the SheBelieves Cup in February with a roster principally devoid of veteran attackers. Nevertheless, when it got here time to pick out this qualifying roster, Andonovski could not transfer on from Alex Morgan, who has been off to her greatest membership begin in her complete profession at age 33, scoring 11 in 10 video games. Megan Rapinoe, at 36 (turning 37 on Tuesday), could not be a 90-minute starter, however Andonovski was clear that he felt she brings one thing particular and unpredictable to the desk. That veteran presence continues to be wanted, it appears.

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So who’s going to prepared the ground to the following World Cup and Olympics? The U.S. had the oldest squads on the previous two World Cups (and gained each of them) however Andonovski appears decided to go a special route. For the primary time since they joined the staff, veterans equivalent to Morgan will not be assured minutes, not to mention roster spots, however it’ll come all the way down to who scores, who leads, and who makes probably the most affect.

Alex Morgan is on this squad however kids equivalent to Sophia Smith will lead the USWNT for years to return. Omar Vega/Getty ImagesIs the USWNT prepared for its subsequent goalkeeper transition?

Alyssa Naeher has been the USWNT’s beginning goalkeeper since late 2016, the successor to a job held by Hope Solo for the higher a part of a decade. So when the 34-year-old was injured in the course of the Olympics final yr, the protected assumption was that she’d be the starter as soon as she was wholesome once more. Nevertheless, that is nonetheless solely an assumption because the USWNT’s latest matches, and Andonovski’s personal phrases, have supplied little readability.

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Not too long ago, in every single place Andonovski has been capable of finding a youthful participant to take over a job, he has taken that probability. Defenders Naomi Girma and Alana Prepare dinner, who every had single-digit caps once they made this qualification roster, will most likely get vital minutes in Mexico. Morgan was on fireplace within the NWSL however Andonovski nonetheless resisted calling her up for friendlies, opting to provide new gamers an opportunity. So why ought to goalkeeper be any totally different?

Casey Murphy, the 26-year-old North Carolina Braveness keeper, has made a robust case within the NWSL, and she or he bought the nod to begin for the U.S. in a pre-qualification warm-up in opposition to Colombia.

Can Mexico or Canada spoil the USWNT’s possibilities?

Let’s be clear: the U.S. ought to completely qualify for the World Cup by the point they depart Mexico. The People have by no means did not qualify for a Ladies’s World Cup since FIFA began the occasion, and because the No. 1-ranked staff on the earth, it is actually not an excessive amount of to ask for the U.S. to complete within the prime 4 in Monterrey both.

Qualifying for the Olympics is nicely inside attain as nicely. Of the 9 earlier CONCACAF tournaments the USWNT has competed in, they gained eight of them. However that one they did not win in 2010 is the place it will get attention-grabbing. The U.S. suffered a shock loss to Mexico and couldn’t qualify instantly for the World Cup: that point round, the People needed to face Italy in a home-and-away playoff to clinch their spot.

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Whereas Mexico are thought-about prone to qualify for the World Cup themselves at house and are poised to ultimately see the advantage of their home league, Liga MX Femenil, Mexico is drawn into the identical group because the U.S., so the People will not even see them within the knockout spherical.

As a substitute the staff to concentrate on right here is Canada. After successful gold on the Olympics final yr, there isn’t any longer any dispute that Canada must be thought-about a dominant staff in ladies’s soccer. Their type of play could also be a extra a gritty and defensive strategy than their American counterparts — their highway to gold in Japan wasn’t paved in lots of objectives by means of the knockout rounds — however it may be terribly efficient nonetheless, particularly in opposition to groups that prefer to assault, just like the USWNT. The U.S., keep in mind, needed to accept a bronze medal in the identical Olympics after repeated stumbles.

It is simple to examine a Canada-U.S. ultimate with an computerized Olympic qualifying spot on the road and at that time, it might go both manner.

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