They say having too many worthy players is a “good problem” for a coach, and that is one of the top challenges for any U.S. women’s national team boss.
The USWNT’s World Cup roster dropped on Wednesday, and Vlatko Andonovski had a task that managers both envy and loathe. The national team has so many good players that some big names were bound to miss out on one of the 23 spots on the team.
Even with the USWNT missing stars like Catarina Macario, Sam Mewis, Christen Press, Becky Sauerbrunn, and Mallory Swanson to injury, there’s such a glut of top players that the list of snubs is a long one. Former USWNT standout Ali Krieger once said that if the U.S. could send a second team, that group would be their biggest threat at the World Cup. Those days may be gone as the rest of the world has improved, but a USWNT B side would be a reasonable pick to go to at least the quarterfinals.
For a wide range of reasons, Andonovski ended up having to deliver some bad news to players who did everything in their power, and who all had a really strong case to be on the plane to New Zealand.
In alphabetical order, these are the five biggest USWNT World Cup snubs.