It’s a major blow for the USWNT and the 23-year-old star
U.S. women’s national team forward Catarina Macario has announced she’ll miss the 2023 World Cup amid an ongoing recovery from an ACL tear.
Macario suffered the injury in June 2022 during Lyon’s final match of the season, and she has not returned to the pitch since.
With just two months remaining until the World Cup, the 23-year-old posted on social media that she is not sufficiently recovered yet to take part in the tournament.
“While I’m excited and super optimistic about my future as a footballer, I’m sad to share that I won’t be physically ready for selection to our U.S. World Cup team,” she said on Tuesday.
— Catarina Macario (@catarinamacario) May 23, 2023
“The desire to return to play for my club and country has driven my training and fueled my everyday life. However, what’s most important right now is my health and getting fit and ready for my next club season.
“I am eternally grateful to Aspetar Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital for always supporting me and guiding me in my rehab, and to U.S. Soccer and [head coach] Vlatko Andonovski for prioritizing my long-term health over any individual and collective ambitions.
“I’ll be cheering hard for my teammates at the World Cup, and I look forward to dedicating myself to fight to earn a spot for what I hope will be a long future on the U.S. national team.”
A difficult recovery
Macario initially seemed like she’d have enough time to recover for the World Cup, with her injury coming 13 months before the tournament in Australia and New Zealand kicked off.
That idea was bolstered by Andonovski in February, as the USWNT boss said he was expecting to see Macario back on the field for Lyon in March.
But Macario’s recovery did not go according to plan from that point on, and Andonovski admitted in April that he wasn’t sure whether Macario would be fit for the World Cup.
Macario, who was born in Brazil and moved to the U.S. at age 12, debuted with the USWNT in 2021. She then starred for the team in 2022 playing as a false nine, scoring five goals in five appearances last year before her injury.
The USWNT forward is a few games away from missing the entire season with Lyon
Nobody has come out and explicitly said it yet, but things aren’t going to plan in Catarina Macario’s recovery from a torn ACL.
It’s been 11 months now since Macario suffered the injury during Lyon’s final match of the season. As Lyon nears the end of its following campaign, Macario is still nowhere to be found.
It’s an increasingly worrying development for club and country, as the clock continues to tick toward the World Cup this summer. Every day that goes by without Macario back on the pitch takes her closer to missing the chance to compete on the game’s biggest stage.
The recovery was supposed to be farther along for Macario, who debuted with the U.S. women’s national team in 2021 and really hit her stride in early 2022, scoring five goals in five appearances before her injury.
Macario played in a variety of roles but was especially devastating as a false nine, where she could create for teammates and get into prime goalscoring positions herself.
The injury halted Macario’s momentum but with more than a year to go before the World Cup, it seemed like she’d have plenty of time recover before Australia-New Zealand.
“She’s going back to Lyon to start team training [in the] middle of February,” said the USWNT coach. “Hopefully we can see her starting playing for her club team sometime in the second half of March.”
Andonovski added that he expected Macario back for April camp.
When April camp arrived and Macario still wasn’t back, Andonovski offered a more cautious update.
“We have to see her on the field,” the coach said when asked about Macario’s chances of making the World Cup roster. “Cat has to get back in a professional environment, play professional games, competitive games, games that matter.”
One month after those comments, Macario has yet to make a matchday squad for Lyon, which now only has three games left of the season.
Even if Macario returns for Lyon before the season ends, taking her to the World Cup would be something of a risk. At the most she’d only have a couple “games that matter” under her belt in more than a year, none of which would have come with the USWNT since April 2022.
Macario is the kind of talent that’s worth taking a risk for, but at this point it’s unclear if she’ll be healthy enough for Andonovski to even consider. That would be a devastating blow for a player who looked certain to be a cornerstone for the USWNT’s title defense.
Catarina Macario’s U.S. women’s national team return is down to one last step, but it’s a big step indeed.
Speaking to reporters ahead of the USWNT’s first of two friendlies against the Republic of Ireland, head coach Vlatko Andonovski said it comes down to whether her recovery from a torn ACL last year is far enough along that she can play in games.
“First, we need to see performance,” said Andonovski when asked about whether her missing this last pre-World Cup camp could cost her a place on his roster this summer. “We have to see her on the field… Cat has to get back in a professional environment, play professional games, competitive games, games that matter.”
However, as of their most recent game (a 7-0 win over Le Havre this past Sunday), Macario hasn’t yet returned for Lyon, even as an unused substitute.
Departure from past tournaments
For Andonovski, there seems to be a clear line at this point: players that go to the World Cup need to be able to play high-level minutes before they step onto the plane.
“We all know that Cat has the potential to be one of the best players in the world. We could all see that a year ago, but we don’t know good she is right now. Nobody does,” explained Andonovski. “Until we get a chance to evaluate that, we can’t make any decisions about her. If she proves that she can be in this environment, and we believe she can help us win a World Cup, then she can [be considered].”
That stands in contrast to how Andonovski handled the Olympics in 2021, with Julie Ertz arriving in Tokyo while still in the recovery phase from a sprained MCL. Ertz was initially left out of their shock opening loss to Sweden, but came on at halftime and then played the remaining minutes as the USWNT went on to claim a bronze medal.
However, she hasn’t played since, and while the bulk of that time away was due to her pregnancy, she was also unable to return to the Chicago Red Stars in the more immediate aftermath of the Olympics.
Andonovski has, over recent months, noted a willingness to possibly bring one player whose recovery timeline overlaps the very start of the World Cup. It’s just that there’s a big difference between someone overcoming, say, the three- or four-week rehab process for an ankle sprain when compared to Macario’s recovery from a far more serious and long-term injury.
The Ertz situation is therefore not a direct comparison, as her MCL sprain was suffered roughly two months before the Olympics began. That’s hardly ideal, but a player out for a few weeks will be closer to USWNT-ready than one who has been out for much longer.
Macario has five more chances to meet Andonovski’s requirement and play in competitive matches before the World Cup roster is finalized. Lyon has four more D1F matches left to play:
April 16 – vs. Paris FC
May 6 – at Dijon FCO
May 20 – at Paris Saint-Germain
May 27 – vs. Stade de Reims
They also play PSG in the Coupe de France final on May 13. However, Macario’s path to more minutes may be complicated by the needs of the team. Chelsea knocked Lyon out of the Champions League in an unreal spectacle, which means the team has at least two fewer games to navigate.
Manager Sonia Bompastor would have likely opted for at least some rotation, but now she has at least one week between every single remaining match for players to recover. On top of that, Lyon leads D1F by just one point over PSG, meaning Bompastor will have less freedom to dole minutes out to players who may not be at their very best.
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.
Three USWNT players made France Football’s list of Ballon d’Or nominees
The 2022 Ballon d’Or nominees are out, and with three USWNT players making France Football’s 20-player shortlist.
Catarina Macario, Alex Morgan, and Trinity Rodman were all nominated for the award, which was inaugurated in 2018 after existing for over 60 years on the men’s side. The Ballon d’Or focuses on the 2021-22 season, rather than a calendar year body of work.
The USWNT has been somewhat curiously overlooked by the Ballon d’Or, with only the 2019 World Cup-winning team really registering with voters. That year, Megan Rapinoe won the Ballon d’Or, with Alex Morgan coming in third, but in 2018 and 2021 (there was no 2020 award due to the Covid-19 pandemic), no USWNT players or NWSL-based players made the top three.
Macario may be injured at the moment, but she emerged as a locked-in starter essentially from the moment she arrived at Lyon. She capped off a spectacular season in France by scoring in the Champions League final as Lyon defeated a Barcelona side that had lost just once all year coming into the match.
What a tremendous honor to be nominated for such a prestigious award among such incredible athletes 🙌 This one is for you grandma ❤️ All glory to God! https://t.co/ufggMExoCx
Morgan’s return from giving birth has included a change of club, but she’s also had arguably the best club season of her entire career with the San Diego Wave. Morgan has 15 goals in 18 competitive games for San Diego this season, and then won the Golden Ball at the CONCACAF W Championship after helping the USWNT qualify for both the 2023 World Cup and 2024 Olympics.
Rodman was one of the stories of the 2021 NWSL season, winning the Rookie of the Year award and being a crucial factor for the Washington Spirit’s run to their first-ever league championship. Since the start of August 2021, Rodman has posted 12 goals and 8 assists, including an equalizer in last year’s semifinal and the assist on the Kelley O’Hara goal that gave the Spirit their first trophy.
The USWNT trio are joined on the list by a familiar group of players who all happen to call Europe’s biggest clubs their home. Macario is one of five Lyon players nominated, while Barcelona matched that total, meaning that two clubs employ half of the list of nominees.
Arsenal, Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain, and Wolfsburg had two players on the shortlist each, with the entirety of the NWSL being represented by Morgan and Rodman.
The full list of 2022 Women’s Ballon d’Or nominees
Vlatko Andonovski and the USWNT have a lot to sort out
Catarina Macario’s torn ACL could scarcely have come at a worse time for her or for the U.S. women’s national team. Macario’s outstanding form with Lyon and the USWNT—where she had become central to Vlatko Andonovski’s approach in recent months—will now be put on hold, just as serious competition returns for the first time since last summer’s Olympics.
For the USWNT, there is no “Almost Macario” player to plug in up front and get similar results. Andonovski will have to adapt his tactics fairly significantly, as while there is still tremendous talent available for this summer’s CONCACAF W Championship (which will serve as both World Cup and Olympic qualifying), there are no forwards that are as comfortable with the false No. 9 role Andonovski often tasked Macario with playing.
The three biggest questions that come to mind for Andonovski now are as follows:
Who’s the No. 9 now?
Andonovski’s rosters this year have been very consistent:
Right forward: Sophia Smith, Margaret Purce
Center forward: Catarina Macario, Ashley Hatch
Left forward: Mallory Pugh, Trinity Rodman
The only other forward to get a call-up in 2022 is Lynn Williams, who is out for the year due to a hamstring tendon tear.
This would point to Hatch getting the next shot. What has she done lately? Score four goals in 248 minutes of USWNT playing time, win the NWSL Golden Boot, lead the 2022 Challenge Cup in goals, and score three regular season goals in eight appearances. There’s a perception that Hatch is merely a poacher, but anyone that’s watched the Washington Spirit closely over the past year can see that she’s evolved as a player, getting better at creating her own chances, checking off the front line to combine, and improving her efficacy as a pressing forward.
May 7, 2022; Cary, NC, USA; Washington Spirit forward Ashley Hatch (33) celebrates her goal against the NC Courage in the first half at WakeMed Soccer Park. Credit: Lewis Gettier-USA TODAY Sports
However, the player that’s going to garner the most fan and media attention is Alex Morgan. The NWSL Player of the Month for May has missed a few camps between injuries and building her fitness back up after giving birth in 2020, but even amid having to negotiate that during the San Diego Wave’s Challenge Cup, she’s been on fire. Morgan has 12 goals in 13 games for San Diego, and while five of those have come from the penalty spot, she’s clearly been massively influential whether it’s been slashing in from the left for Casey Stoney, or leading the line in the more familiar center forward position.
Andonovski has another intriguing option, though:
How does Christen Press factor in?
Like Morgan, Press is back after some time away from the game, and she’s been carrying Angel City FC’s attack in a lot of ways. While USWNT fans are largely familiar with Press as a wide forward, in LA she’s been used on both flanks and even as a lone forward this season, and she’s spent plenty of time centrally in the past.
It may seem like eons ago but before the pandemic, Press was arguably the most effective attacker for Vlatko Andonovski, and the iconic “Christen Press, what have you done!” goal came in February 2021. Now that she’s playing regular club soccer, the reasons for her not getting called in are gone, and it stands to reason that her return is dovetailing with Macario’s unfortunate injury.
Jun 3, 2022; Portland, Oregon, USA; Angel City FC forward Christen Press (23) smiles in the first half against the Portland Thorns FC at Providence Park. Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports
Press is not going to step in and play center forward just like Macario did, but of the candidates, she’s possibly the closest in terms of the comfort to drop off the front line and create for others. It’s an adaptation for sure, but Andonovski has chosen an adaptation over plugging in a more natural option before (see: Lindsey Horan playing the No. 6 heading into the Olympics).
However, there’s the rub: Horan was better further forward, and the best moments of Press’ USWNT career have involved her drifting into the half-space from the left wing and bury those right-footed curlers that are her trademark. You want Press in her best spot, and there’s reason to question whether playing her centrally is doing that.
What else needs to change?
Losing Macario means losing creativity on the front line. She’s a scorer, obviously, but she’s also been able to create plenty of chances, especially for Sophia Smith on the right and Rose Lavelle coming up from midfield.
Replacing Macario’s goals may actually be the easier task here, as the center forward candidates are all in very good form in front of goal. It’s the creativity and the fluency that the USWNT has with Macario as its fulcrum that will be trickier to sort out.
Andonovski has given plenty of time to a trio of Macario flanked by Smith and Pugh, which is a very complimentary group. Macario drops off the front line, Pugh tends to move into the half-spaces, and Smith uses her vision to get open with runs that stretch the field vertically. There’s always an option, a window opens for Rose Lavelle or Ashley Sanchez to join the attack, and the opposition finds themselves flooded with numbers once the fullbacks get forward and add width.
With a more traditional No. 9, that balance will be thrown off, and the lost chance creation will have to be made up elsewhere. It is very much possible that Smith and Pugh, who have both been top notch in NWSL this season, can simply adjust their games a bit and get similar or better results, and it stands to reason that Andonovski will stick with them at least in the near term to see if they can carry on with a more traditional center forward between them.
Still, Andonovski’s a planner, and he’ll have plans for a next step if things aren’t going as well. Trinity Rodman had seven assists last season, and given that she plays alongside Hatch with the Washington Spirit, that dynamic could tip the balance for both players. Margaret Purce has had to, at times, carry the creative load for Gotham FC, especially in 2021.
We could also see Andonovski decide that getting his No. 10 closer to a target forward is important, which could lead to a move from a 4-3-3 formation to a 4-2-3-1. The personnel might not change in that set-up, but it may allow for an attack built to generate chances for the center forward to a higher degree to flourish.
There are plenty of candidates that might be seeing this as their opening. The preliminary roster for the upcoming W Championship includes USWNT legends Megan Rapinoe and Tobin Heath, while Jessica McDonald (someone with plenty of experience racking up assists as a forward) has been critical for Racing Louisville this year.
All in all, it’s probably no accident that Andonovski has 18 forwards—more than any other position group—on that 59-player list.
The exasperated USWNT forward wondered what else she needed to do to make the UEFA squad
Catarina Macario had a pretty good Champions League campaign.
She scored nine goals, good for third in the competition. She scored in the final, becoming the first American to do so. And, oh yeah, she won the whole thing, with her first-half goal helping Lyon defeat Barcelona 3-1 in last weekend’s final.
So the U.S. women’s national team forward couldn’t help but notice when she was left out of UEFA’s Champions League Team of the Season. Upon seeing the selections, Macario took to Twitter to express her bemusement.
“Lol, nine goals, title winner … thanks for having me guys. I’ll try again next year,” an exasperated Macario tweeted.
— Catarina Macario (@catarinamacario) May 24, 2022
Who made the Champions League Team of the Season?
Macario’s Lyon side took up six of the 11 spots on the Team of the Season, with fellow finalist Barcelona occupying four places. Marie-Antoinette Katoto of PSG was the only player not from the two finalists to make the squad
Midfielders: Aitana Bonmatí (Barcelona), Patri Guijarro (Barcelona), Amandine Henry (Lyon), Alexia Putellas (Barcelona)
Forwards: Ada Hegerberg (Lyon), Marie-Antoinette Katoto (Paris Saint-Germain)
Lyon aiming for double
Following its Champions League win, Lyon will face its biggest domestic rival PSG in a league match on Sunday. A win or a draw against PSG would lock up a league title after PSG won the French top flight last season.
With two games remaining in the season Lyon has a five-point lead over PSG, meaning even with a defeat to PSG, Macario’s side would still clinch the title by defeating Issy on the season’s final day.
A league title would appear rather likely at this point: Lyon has 19 wins, one draw and no defeats in its 20 league games thus far.
Lyon blitzed Barça early to win yet another Champions League title
[lawrence-related id=920,1814,1786]Lyon have won their eighth UEFA Women’s Champions League, riding an overwhelming first half to a 3-1 victory over favored Barcelona.
USWNT star Catarina Macario scored a crucial third goal for Lyon, who had Amandine Henry and Ada Hegerberg on the scoresheet. Alexia Putellas had a response, but the favored Spanish champions were unable to come back from a three-goal deficit.
Lyon stunned Barça with a glorious strike from French international Henry, who sent a 30-yard rocket past Sandra Paños just six minutes into the match.
TAKE. A. BOW. 🔥
Amandine Henry with one of the goals of the season for @OLFeminin
Lyon lost Ellie Carpenter to a serious-looking knee injury a few minutes later, but increased their lead in the 23rd minute, with Ada Hegerberg nodding home a Selma Bacha cross.
Macario then bundled home a third after Lyon pressed Barça into a catastrophic giveaway inside their own area. Finally, the Spanish champions—who won all 30 of their league matches this year, and had only lost once in all competitions—showed some signs of life, with Alexia Putellas finishing an incisive 42nd minute attack.
Patri Guijarro’s audacious lob from the center circle hit the crossbar after halftime, but in truth Lyon held Barça off comfortably, and came close to a fourth as Hegerberg thumped the post deep in second-half stoppage time.
USWNT key to Lyon win
Macario and Lindsey Horan both played the full 90 for Lyon, with Horan the No. 8 and Macario in an attacking midfield in Sonia Bompastor’s 4231 formation.
Beyond the goal, which was the first for an American in any UEFA Champions League final, Macario was busy as Lyon’s selective pressure threw Barcelona out of their stride.
Horan, meanwhile, helped control the pace of play and combined well with Henry to keep a star-studded Barça from mounting a major comeback after halftime.
