Tag: Alyssa Thompson

Thompson opens up on ‘sad’ and ‘lonely’ World Cup experience

The teenager admitted her first World Cup wasn’t always an enjoyable experience

Alyssa Thompson has opened up on her first World Cup experience, admitting she felt sad and lonely at times during the tournament.

Thompson was the youngest player on the U.S. women’s national team roster, making her first World Cup squad at age 18.

The forward played in two of the USWNT’s four matches at the World Cup, making two appearances off the bench for a total of just over 15 minutes. The U.S. crashed out of the tournament in the last 16, falling to Sweden to seal the team’s worst-ever finish at a World Cup.

In an appearance on The RE-CAP Show with Tobin Heath and Christen Press, Thompson’s teammate with Angel City FC, the teenager admitted she felt low on confidence at times during the World Cup.

“Once we went to Auckland, I feel like I wasn’t performing as well as I could have,” Thompson said. “I feel like I was in my head a little after my first mistake. I was just like, ‘OK I’m so bad.’ I had a lot of negative talk in my head and I felt like I wasn’t doing as well as I should be doing.”

Thompson said that a few of her younger teammates on the USWNT helped her through some of the tough times.

“A lot of my teammates, like the younger girls, they saw that I was upset and they helped me a lot because they’ve been in my position before, being young on the team and coming up and knowing that you can be hard on yourself a lot. So yeah, they helped a lot.”

Even with the support of her teammates, Thompson admitted that she experienced some isolation during the World Cup.

“Throughout the tournament, there were some days when I was just sad,” Thompson said. “I felt really lonely some days, too. I feel like it’s a lot, that tournament. Playing or not, there’s different things too, and I wasn’t playing that much.

“I was happy for game day. I wasn’t as nervous as most people. I was more excited. I felt a lot like a fan watching the games.”

Thompson has now returned to Angel City, making her first post-World Cup appearance for the club by starting Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Racing Louisville.

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USWNT player ratings: Lack of ideas as U.S. barely survives Portugal

Lots of not-great, and some quite bad!

The U.S. women’s national team, by a margin of about three inches, survived a feisty Portugal side to get through to the knockout round of the World Cup.

That’s about all the good news there is to discuss. The USWNT were totally unable to solve the Portuguese midfield diamond throughout a troubling 0-0 draw, struggling for possession and also lacking chances to break out in transition.

The stats may show the USWNT holding a 17-6 shot advantage, and this is another game in which a U.S. opponent were held without a shot on goal. However, anyone that watched the match would be able to tell you that the Portuguese troubled the U.S. from start to finish, seeing the game’s best chance end with Ana Capeta hitting the post deep in stoppage time.

It was a dispiriting and disappointing showing in which no player really looked like they’d been given a platform to be their best. If the USWNT is to go on and make history as the first team to win three consecutive World Cups, this has to be by far their worst performance of the tournament.

Here’s a breakdown from a game in which no one looked particularly good.

As a reminder, here’s the Pro Soccer Wire player rating scale:

Our scale:

  • 1: Abysmal. Literally any member of our staff would have been been able to play at this level.
  • 6: Adequate. This is our base score.
  • 10: Transcendent, era-defining performance. This is Carli Lloyd vs. Japan in the 2015 final.

USWNT player ratings: Smith stands out as U.S. eases past Vietnam in World Cup opener

Smith was at the center of most of the USWNT’s best in their win

It may not have been the blowout some expected, but the U.S. women’s national team started the World Cup off with a 3-0 win over Vietnam.

A first-half brace from Sophia Smith — one goal was clinical, the other needed a fairly hefty slice of luck — set the USWNT on their way. After some missed chances, including an Alex Morgan penalty kick that was saved by Vietnam’s Tran Thi Kim Thanh, Lindsey Horan added the third on an assist from Smith.

In the context of Vietnam’s recent results, including only falling to Germany 2-1, it’s a decent result. It’s also not the rout that fans may have thought was coming, though on another day the goals may have been flowing with just a touch more sharpness from the attacking players.

As a reminder, here’s the Pro Soccer Wire player rating scale:

Our scale:

  • 1: Abysmal. Literally any member of our staff would have been been able to play at this level.
  • 6: Adequate. This is our base score.
  • 10: Transcendent, era-defining performance. This is Carli Lloyd vs. Japan in the 2015 final.

Take it from Michelle Cooper and Alyssa Thompson: Hotshot is disgusting

This looks like some vile stuff

Hotshot better be effective, because it sure seems like a horrific thing to drink.

That was a key takeaway from the weekend in the NWSL, which saw the top two picks in this year’s draft fall victim to the miracle cramp cure/vile concoction made by Satan himself known as Hotshot.

On Saturday night, Kansas City Current forward Michelle Cooper went down with a cramp late in her team’s 2-1 win over the Orlando Pride.

On came the training staff with a little pick-me-up in the form of a Hotshot, which bills itself as a scientifically proven way to “relieve muscle soreness before it starts and stop muscle cramps in their tracks.”

On the sports nutrition website The Feed, the full Hotshot process is broken down in detail:

  • You feel a cramp coming on or starting.
  • You drink HOTSHOT which is a super spicy shot.
  • HOTSHOT overwhelms the nerves in your mouth and throat
  • Within 30 seconds your newly stimulated nerves stop the signal from going to your muscle to tell it to cramp and starts sending out a calming signal.
  • Cramps cease for up to 8 hours.

The night after Cooper’s first and last Hotshot, the first pick in the 2023 draft, Angel City star Alyssa Thompson, had her own encounter with the devil’s juice.

Cooper, who has played with Thompson with U.S. youth national teams, made sure to notify her friend about the dangers of Hotshot, which Thompson then experienced firsthand the following evening.

Thompson was asked after the game if she saw the video of Cooper from the night before, to which she replied: “Yes! That is why I did not want the Hotshot.”

She continued: “I watched that video today and I texted [Cooper] and I was like, ‘Oh, I’ve never had one of those. Thank God I won’t have one.’

“And then today I cramped and my trainer was like, ‘You want one?’ and I was like no. And they were like, ‘You need to have it.’ So then I had it and it was really gross. I did not like it at all.”

As NWSL players trashed the taste of its product, Hotshot responded on Twitter, saying “30 seconds of heat is worth 90 minutes of pain free game time.”

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Angel City’s wonderteen Alyssa Thompson only scores bangers

Will the 18-year-old ever just score a tap-in?

Will Alyssa Thompson ever just score a tap-in?

The law of averages would posit that eventually she will but for now, the Angel City and U.S. national team wonderteen is getting by with Bangers Only™.

The latest salvo in Thompson’s ever-more impressive rookie campaign came against the Kansas City Current on Sunday night.

Thompson was played in behind the Current’s defense before chopping defender Addisyn Merrick to the turf. An acute angle was staring Thompson in the face but no matter: the 18-year-old simply lifted a shot over Cassie Miller that found the net after touching the far post.

The forward’s opener kicked off a three-goal blitz for Angel City right before halftime. Kansas City hit back with two second-half goals but the home side hung on for a 3-2 win.

Thompson’s opener was absurd, but also very much in character for a player who scored a banger on her preseason debut, pro debut, and also during last week’s wild 3-3 draw at the Portland Thorns.

After making her U.S. national team debut last season as a 17-year-old, Thompson looked to be just outside the picture for the World Cup squad after she wasn’t called in for any of the team’s first three sets of matches in 2023.

But things have changed dramatically in recent months.

Mallory Swanson’s serious knee injury was a devastating blow for player and country, but it also handed Thompson an opportunity. The teenager was called into the USWNT roster last month to replace Swanson and started the team’s second of two friendlies against Ireland.

The U.S. doesn’t lack for attacking options but Thompson is clearly in pole position to replace Swanson on the World Cup roster. If she keeps scoring ridiculous goals in the NWSL, she’ll move herself away from the bubble and closer to lock status.

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USWNT gives minutes to veterans, Thompson as World Cup roster deadline looms

It’s crunch time for the USWNT coaching staff

With the games out of the way, it’s officially decision time for the U.S. women’s national team.

Tuesday’s 1-0 win over Ireland marked the USWNT’s final friendly before the team announces its 23-player roster for the 2023 World Cup, with the team’s next match — a July 9 clash with Wales in San Jose — coming after their tournament squad has been announced.

Head coach Vlatko Andonovski said before and after Tuesday’s game that this second match against Ireland had been earmarked as a chance for several players to bolster their resumes.

“It wasn’t about the team concept [tonight]. It wasn’t about us as a team. It was more about the individual players and obviously getting minutes to certain players,” Andonovski told reporters following a gritty win settled by Alana Cook’s long-range delivery into the box gliding all the way into the goal just before halftime.

“The things that were missing is not something that worries me. Like I said, it was missing cohesion,” said Andonovski after deploying a significantly less familiar starting eleven than the starter-heavy group that won 2-0 in Austin on Saturday. “It was missing understanding between the players, and we’re not surprised by that, because we knew the miscommunication will happen, or missed pass[es] happen, or a player makes a run and doesn’t get the ball, or makes a run to the left and gets the ball to the right. It’s something that we expect to happen, and it did make the game go a little bit wild at times, because we gave up the ball too quick after we won it.”

Andonovski said that if he had to, he could pick his list of 23 players for the World Cup right now, but added that there’s still time for players to use their club play to change the equation.

That said, spots are apparently extremely limited.

“I feel pretty comfortable [with] where we’re at as a team, and from the decision-making standpoint, there’s a group of players that we’re very comfortable with,” said Andonovski. “We can make [a] decision tonight, but also there’s a group of players that we’re comfortable where they’re at, but they’re still gonna have to fight, and not necessarily fight for [one] spot. It’s now a ‘game on.’ We have about maybe 10-to-12 players that are fighting for six, seven spots.”

Returning vets, plus Thompson’s moment

In St. Louis, Andonovski’s selection included Cook, Casey Murphy, Sofia Huerta, Kelley O’Hara, and Alyssa Thompson from the start. A planned substitution saw Tierna Davidson replace Becky Sauerbrunn in the 29th minute, while Casey Krueger split the 90 minutes with O’Hara evenly at left back.

“We wanted to see the players that haven’t been in the environment for a long time. It’s not just we wanted to see them, but we also wanted to give them minutes so, if and when some of them make the World Cup, their first minutes [back] are not in the World Cup, but they have a chance to compete before they go there,” reasoned Andonovski before naming Tierna Davidson, Casey Kruger, Julie Ertz, and O’Hara as players that specifically applied to.

“There are several players that that we wanted to evaluate, but also we wanted to give them minutes to get some of that rust off,” said the fourth-year USWNT manager. “That’s why it was hard to evaluate the team and team performance in a setting like that, when there are a lot of changes, players that haven’t played together in over a year, year and a half, and players that haven’t even played at all in a year and a half.”

On the other hand, Thompson was a late addition to the squad after Mallory Swanson’s knee injury, and was making just her second international appearance. For Andonovski, there was an element of fairness at play, as the other candidates for the wide attacking roles in the USWNT pool have all had at least one start to work with in recent times.

“We wanted to explore every possible option before we make the final decision and one of those was Alyssa Thompson,” Andonovski said of sorting out his front line after losing an undisputed key part of it. “Before [Swanson’s injury], our forwards have had a chance to start in different games, from Trinity [Rodman] to Lynn [Williams], Midge [Purce], [Megan Rapinone], every wide forward had an opportunity to start a game. We felt like we needed to see Alyssa start a game and give her a chance to showcase her abilities as well.”

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The top young USWNT players and prospects in 2023

The USWNT’s future is promising as tomorrow’s stars are already emerging

The U.S. women’s national team has its focus firmly on this summer’s World Cup, but the team’s future is looking good.

While several veterans may be looking at their last tournament this summer in Australia and New Zealand, the USWNT should be able to go from strength to strength based on the depth of young talent coming through.

In particular, NWSL’s recent rule changes allowing players under the age of 18 to sign pro deals will mean better development environments than the U.S. youth scene has ever offered girls before.

Below are some of the USWNT’s best young players. For the purposes of this list, the player must be born in 2002 or later.

Andonovski expects Thompson to make a case for USWNT World Cup spot

The USWNT boss won’t rule out a late charge from the talented teenager

U.S. women’s national team head coach Vlatko Andonovski is not ready to rule out the possibility of bringing Alyssa Thompson to the World Cup.

The 18-year-old is off to a flying start to her pro career, scoring a fantastic goal for Angel City FC in her first pro game after also netting a tremendous solo effort in preseason.

Thompson made her USWNT debut last fall at age 17 in a friendly against England at Wembley, but has not been called up this year and again missed the cut for the USWNT’s roster on Tuesday.

That would appear to leave Thompson on the outside looking in for a World Cup berth, especially in a crowded group of attacking players. But speaking to reporters after naming his roster on Tuesday, Andonovski said he’s expecting the teenager to still push for a spot in Australia and New Zealand.

“If there’s a coach that believes in Alyssa Thompson, it would probably be me,” Andonovski said. “Not long ago when she was 17 years old, her first cap was against one of the best teams in the world in front of 80,000 people, and that was a decision that I made. So that speaks of how much I value Alyssa and how much I believe in her.

“I think that she has a lot of potential and I do believe that she will make a case for a [World Cup] roster spot. Part of the reason why she was in those [fall] camps was that if it happens that she has a good season and earns a roster spot for the World Cup, that it’s not her first camp. She already has experience being in the environment, understands the dynamics in the environment. She has already played in big matches against good opponents, so the transition is not as hard for her.”

Andonovski did sound a note of caution over a player who is only one game into her professional career.

“I do want to point out one thing about Alyssa,” he added. “At this point the most important thing is that she enjoys the game, that she enjoys her club environment because we don’t want to put too much pressure on her. She’s a young player, a talented player, a good player and all she needs to do is just to enjoy the game.”

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Alyssa Thompson might just be hype-proof

It took just 11 minutes for the teenager to deliver on her pro debut

The anticipation around Alyssa Thompson’s pro debut was massive and, just as she’s done at every point in her young career so far, Thompson delivered.

Thompson started for Angel City FC in their season opener against NJ/NY Gotham FC on Sunday night, with 22,000 fans packing BMO Stadium to see the teenager’s first official pro game.

The first overall pick in the draft had already shown what she could do in a preseason friendly against Club América, but Sunday was the first chance a NWSL defense had to show whether it could slow down the 18-year-old.

It took just 11 minutes for the answer: it could not.

Thompson got past her marker with a dip of her shoulder and unleashed a strike from the top of the box that goalkeeper Abby Smith could only get a palm on before it nestled into the back of the net.

“Dani [Weatherholt] got it on the side and I saw that there was space inside to get it back,” Thompson told Angel City’s website after the game. “So I got in that space, I looked up, and the goal was pretty open.”

“It felt amazing [to score],” she added. “I was super excited just to be at the home opener and score and get our team on the right foot.”

Though Thompson shined on her debut, her team would go on to demonstrate how they could struggle this season even with the standout rookie in their ranks.

Angel City had a second goal questionably chalked off after a VAR review, then watched Gotham strike back with second-half goals from Midge Purce and Lynn Williams in a 2-1 comeback win.

With Christen Press and Sydney Leroux still injured, Angel City’s attack will suffer, and will also be even more reliant on Thompson.

The teenager showed once again on Sunday that she can deliver the goods. Now it’s up to the rest of her teammates to keep the team afloat until reinforcements can arrive.

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The NWSL newcomers you need to know for 2023

The NWSL’s crop of newcomers is a really intriguing mix for 2023

NWSL’s 11th season is just about here, and the league’s newcomers are an intriguing bunch.

The draft system still creates a bit of an awkward situation: a mix of players who have probably been ready to play pro soccer for years now coming in alongside long-term projects, all finding out their fate during one chaotic night in January. As the salary cap rises, the league remains an option for players from leagues across the world as well, particularly those looking to add some physical and mental toughness to their game.

While several teams opted for stability this winter over wholesale changes, every club has at least one new player in a position to play right away, or that will indicate a potential path forward for the long-term vision in a league where teams frankly haven’t always been able to plan further than a year or two down the road.

These are the most intriguing newcomers joining the NWSL in 2023: