Tag: Casey Krueger

USWNT, despite little time under new coach Hayes, ‘in a good place’ for Olympics

Olympic prep has been a sprint for the USWNT, but players report good progress under Emma Hayes

With a big-name coach arriving just weeks before the upcoming Olympics, the U.S. women’s national team has never prepared for a major tournament like this.

However, USWNT players report that new manager Emma Hayes has arrived with a plan in place. The onboarding period has been much more of a sprint than a jog, but despite that, the early returns are positive.

Speaking in a mixed zone at Audi Field on Monday, one day before the USWNT faces Costa Rica in what is forecast to be oppressive heat, multiple players discussed the challenge of trying to hit a gold medal-winning level so early in Hayes’ tenure.

“I don’t even know the time [that has gone by], it’s been quick,” defender Casey Krueger said with a mock sigh. “I think [in June] we were able to cram a lot in in a short amount of time. It was a little bit mentally exhausting, but I think the group is just hungry to continue to learn and just absorb everything that she’s wanting.”

Emily Fox pointed out that taking on a lot of information in a short timespan is just part of the job for the USWNT.

“I think no matter what, we have a short amount of time together,” explained the Virginia native, who is getting a bit of a homecoming by playing this last pre-Olympic match in D.C. “Normally, we have like 10 days. So I think in a way we’re kind of used to having to implement a lot of stuff in a small amount of time.

“I think really, we’ve had more of just an emphasis on [moving quickly], on having the final product and really listening to information and executing it. I really think there’s not that much of a difference other than we’re just really focusing on it.”

Fox, whose season with Arsenal ended back in May, also played down the possibility that she and the team’s other European-based players Korbin Albert and Lindsey Horan might be shedding some rust before the Paris games.

“Honestly, it hasn’t been that much time off,” said Fox. “Last camp, we had those games, and then I think for the most part, [I] had maybe 10 days off, and then we were back training.

“In terms of matches, it is a bigger break compared to all the girls that are in season, but in terms of training and just being in the momentum of things, I feel like it was great to have 10 days off to kind of get some rest after our [European] seasons.”

Trinity Rodman gave the credit to Hayes, saying that the English coach’s focus on “not dwelling on missed time” has paid dividends.

“I think she does a really good job of just building every day,” explained Rodman. “I think she’s always thinking in the present moment and what she can do.”

Rodman added that the team has gotten to know Hayes the person, and that those interactions are accelerating the team’s ability to take on the tactical and individual demands of this new USWNT era.

“We’re learning every day, we’re building our relationships, which has been good, and it’s come so naturally. We’re in a good place right now.”

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Hatch, Coffey and the biggest snubs from the USWNT World Cup roster

The USWNT roster remains the toughest one to crack

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.

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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USWNT injury updates: Andonovski speaks on 10 players including Macario and Mewis

The USWNT is missing a lot of key players, and the coach provided updates on almost all of them

The U.S. women’s national team is currently dealing with a lot of injuries.

Some are long term and others are more minor, but many of the USWNT’s most important players over the past several years are presently sidelined.

On Monday after announcing his roster for November friendlies against Germany, USWNT head coach Vlatko Andonovski offered updates on no less than 10 players who are currently out: eight who are injured and two coming back after giving birth.

Here is a list of the players Andonovski spoke about on a conference call.