Mia Fishel said her U.S. women’s national team debut saw her dreams become reality, with the forward promising that her first cap was “just the beginning.”
Fishel came on in the 65th minute of the USWNT’s 2-0 win over South Africa at Soldier Field, becoming the third player to earn their first USWNT cap this year after Savannah DeMelo and M.A. Vignola.
The 22-year-old also became only the third player since 2016 to debut for the USWNT while playing their club soccer in Europe, following Alana Cook (PSG) and Catarina Macario (Lyon).
After a prolific spell with Tigres in Liga MX, Fishel completed a move to Chelsea in the offseason.
The striker will look to make her Chelsea bow in its season opener against Tottenham on Sunday. After her USWNT debut, Fishel marked the occasion in a post on Instagram.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CxnnPAILeqT/?img_index=1
Fishel’s call-up this month was not the first time she’d been invited to a senior USWNT camp. The striker was first called up in October 2020 when she was still at UCLA, with that camp not featuring any games.
There were plenty of calls for her first cap to come much sooner than it did, but former USWNT head coach Vlatko Andonovski did not bring Fishel in after that 2020 camp.
After excluding Fishel from his January roster this year, Andonovski said that other players were simply ahead of her in his eyes, adding that playing in Mexico wasn’t harming her chances of a call-up.
[lawrence-related id=27827,24692,12502]