The pair have returned to the national team after lengthy absences
U.S. women’s national team fans will get a taste of what could have been — and what still could be — during the 2024 SheBelieves Cup.
Catarina Macario and Mallory Swanson were both named to a USWNT roster for the first time since serious knee injuries. For Swanson, it’s been almost exactly a year since her last USWNT appearance. For Macario, almost exactly two years.
Those absences knocked the forwards out of the 2023 World Cup, a tournament in which an anemic offense helped doom the USWNT to a round-of-16 exit — easily the program’s worst finish at a World Cup.
It’s hard not to wonder how things could have been different with Macario and Swanson on the roster. Swanson, in particular, was in scintillating form prior to her injury, as she managed to lead the USWNT in goals in 2023 despite not playing after April.
But the duo has now returned simultaneously, a milestone that wasn’t lost on Macario when she spoke to the media on Wednesday.
“There are no words to describe how good Mal is, honestly,” Macario said.
“She makes us so much better. She’s the type of player that you always want to play with.
“Though I got injured a little bit before her, I was just absolutely gutted for her because she was really in the form of her life leading up to the World Cup. And I have no doubt that she’ll get there again.
“I’m just super happy to see her back. She’s a a great person too. It’s emotional for us to be both back together after so long.”
Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-USA TODAY Sports
Both players have returned to their club sides in strong form. Macario has hit the ground running at Chelsea despite being sidelined for the better part of two years, while Swanson has started all three NWSL games for the Chicago Red Stars this season, scoring her first goal in year last weekend.
For Swanson, the time away from the game gave her a new perspective on the game, and life in general.
“You can’t ever take life for granted, you can’t take your health for granted,” she said. “And so ever since then, I’ve kind of had a new perspective on that. When something’s taken away from you, you always have a new perspective on it. So I’m just grateful to be back in this environment, back with this team and wearing the crest because it means so much.”
The USWNT may have been able to have a more successful World Cup with Swanson and Macario in the fold, but the team’s future outlook is looking much rosier now with both returning to the picture.
“Both Mal and I wish that we could have been there,” Macario said. “I think sometimes you kind of need to take things into perspective. And I feel like everything works out for a reason.”
One of the USWNT’s biggest names is back scoring goals
Mallory Swanson made her return from a major injury a few weeks ago, but on Friday she made sure to show that she is all the way back.
The U.S. women’s national team star scored her first goal in just over a year as the Chicago Red Stars and Orlando Pride battled to a 1-1 draw in the NWSL.
Swanson’s 64th-minute equalizer for Chicago was a classic example of the 25-year-old’s gifts, with her low-angle shot seeming to freeze Pride goalkeeper Anna Moorhouse before nestling into the furthest depths of the bottom corner.
The goal was Swanson’s first in a competitive game in 370 days, with her last strike being a successful penalty kick for the Red Stars on March 25, 2023.
Swanson was in staggering form early in 2023 for the USWNT, scoring seven times in five matches across January and February, but a torn patellar tendon suffered in a friendly against the Republic of Ireland kept her out of contention for last summer’s World Cup.
Swanson told reporters after the match that what she had “learned the past three games, is, it takes time. I think I needed to give myself a little bit more grace with where I was.”
Still, as much as the goal was cathartic, Swanson couldn’t resist throwing in a deadpan bit of analysis. “That, and honestly just, take a deep breath and shoot the ball.”
Swanson said that her knee injury has given her a new perspective on life
Mallory Swanson is back on the field, and the Chicago Red Stars forward has returned with a new appreciation for being able to play the sport she loves.
Swanson missed nearly a full year after suffering a torn patella tendon in April with the U.S. women’s national team, knocking her out of the 2023 World Cup.
The forward’s recovery was complicated by an infection that required a second surgery less than two weeks after her first operation.
After returning for Chicago’s preseason, Swanson was back on the field in the Red Stars’ 2024 opener on Saturday as her side defeated the Utah Royals 2-0.
Swanson played 80 minutes in the win, looking like she is on her way to regaining the form that saw her lead the USWNT in goals last year despite not playing a game after April.
Following the match in Utah, Swanson posted her gratitude for the moment on Instagram.
“After 343 days, 3 surgeries, and an infection that changed my whole perspective on life I realized many things,” she said. “Life is a beautiful blessing. Health is a blessing. This game that I love is a blessing. And at the end of it all I am more than thankful to be able to do what I love again.”
MLB first pitches can be hit and miss, but we dare you to find one as wholesome this season as U.S. women’s national team forward Mallory Swanson throwing out a first pitch to her husband, Chicago Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson.
Indeed, the Swansons took part in this awesome first pitch ahead of Chicago’s home tilt against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday night.
Mallory Swanson, who also plays for the NWSL’s Chicago Red Stars, pitched the ball right to Dansby Swanson, and it turned out to be as good of a first pitch as you could hope for. Plus, this is just so sweet.
How often do you get to see a married couple take part in a first pitch like this?
The Swansons are one of the most athletically gifted famous couples around, and it’s awesome to see them get to have a moment like this at Dansby Swanson’s place of work.
We can bet the Cubs will want to bring back Mallory Swanson next season for another first pitch after this successful attempt.
The USWNT has dealt with injuries. None bigger than this one.
When the U.S. women’s national team takes the field for its 2023 World Cup opener against Vietnam, it will be doing so without arguably the team’s best attacking player.
Mallory Swanson — formerly Mallory Pugh before her marriage with Chicago Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson — is among several key USWNT players to miss the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand due to injury.
Swanson suffered a torn patellar tendon in an April friendly against Ireland, effectively shutting down the USWNT’s most in-form player for a year. In her past 21 matches with the USWNT, Swanson had racked up 21 goal contributions (14 goals, 7 assists) and was coming off four goals in the 2023 SheBelieves Cup.
Despite the estimated 12-month recovery time, Swanson had hoped to make a stunning recovery in time for the World Cup. She said via The Sporting News:
“Honestly, there was a good time where I was like ‘I’m going to make it in time.
“Realistically, anyone can go on Google and look up the recovery time for my injury, and it didn’t really correlate [with my expectations], but I was like ‘I’m gonna do it.'”
But the seriousness of the injury was just too much to overcome in such a short timeframe.
However, there will be some key members of previous USWNT teams not present in New Zealand for this year’s World Cup. A lot of names you probably recognize if you’re a casual soccer fan.
A good number of the women on this list are struggling with various ailments, while one all-time talent retired in 2021.
Before you spend too much time wondering where somebody is, let’s run down some of athletes who won’t be competing in the World Cup this year for the United States.
The USWNT has admirable depth in its roster, but these are still some major losses
If the U.S. women’s national team wants to win a third straight World Cup, it will have to do so without several of its top players.
Like so many other teams at the 2023 World Cup, the USWNT has been forced to omit some big names from its roster due to injuries.
USWNT head coach Vlatko Andonovski has a team full of world-class talent to choose from, but the losses his team has suffered will undoubtedly hurt.
These aren’t depth players. They are the team’s top scorer this year, its captain and defensive anchor, and an up-and-coming global star, among others.
There was at least some good news when Andonovski revealed his squad on Wednesday, as Megan Rapinoe and Rose Lavelle — both questionable due to injury — were named to the 23-player roster.
Here are the biggest injury absences for the USWNT at this summer’s World Cup.
Vlatko Andonovski has plenty of options to solve a problem he never wanted to have
Mallory Swanson has been world-class for nearly two full years now. U.S. women’s national team fans have seen her go from a teenager blessed with rare field vision and speed, to a player whose ability to influence games with those gifts would come and go. Over the last two years though, she’s grown in consistency and control, becoming a player that could start for any team on the planet. The potential has been fulfilled.
Cruelly for her and the USWNT, she’s also being robbed of the chance to show that to the biggest audience possible. Swanson hasn’t been ruled out of the World Cup by U.S. Soccer, but a torn patellar tendon is generally a six-month recovery at best, and the World Cup is in July. The USWNT’s quest to become the first team to win three straight World Cups will almost certainly require doing it without the player who is currently their most potent goal threat.
Any dominant team — and that’s what the USWNT aspires to be, but only sometimes is these days — creates high expected goal (xG) opportunities at a higher rate than average or bad teams, but in truth those chances are rare for everyone. Winning sides create more chances, period, whether we’re talking 0.03 xG no-hopers or 0.83 tap-ins from five yards. Volume is the way forward.
What Swanson has been doing for club and country is taking those far more common low-quality chances, and putting them into the furthest reaches of whatever corner of the goal she’s aiming for. Over the last 18 months or so, Swanson has been reliably improving the odds of her team getting a goal by turning the raw material that is their chances into higher-quality shots, as this piece from Kim McCauley for The Athletic breaks down in depth.
This matters a lot to the USWNT, who have seen their chance volume dip overall, and as a result seem to have to work harder or be more fortunate to get wins against top teams.
The SheBelieves Cup might be instructive. Facing three competitors that should all make the World Cup knockout round, a USWNT team missing Sophia Smith won all three games. That said, only one (their opener against an understandably distracted Canada) was remotely easy. The U.S. xG haul sat at 4.66, and they scored five goals. An average of over 1.55 on a per-game basis is pretty decent, but it’s not the kind of number that says this team is swaggering their way to a coronation Down Under. “Pretty decent” isn’t going to win this particular World Cup.
Swanson scored four of those goals, and at the time Pro Soccer Wire referred to her as “arguably the decisive player in women’s soccer right now.” This team has been working through some troubling faults: being too predictable in building from the back, struggling to recognize the shape and location of an opposing press until the game is already underway, a midfield shape that should have been readjusted to suit the starting group months before it actually was, and an attack that can at times go curiously stagnant. There are varying degrees of progress on all of these fronts, but Swanson conjuring up a goal has been the team’s “get out of jail free” card.
The USWNT was able to win the SheBelieves Cup without one dynamite attacker in Smith, so they know they can get the job done while not at full strength. This is the world’s deepest team, and by a wide margin.
However, we’re still talking about three games on home soil, and in truth there won’t be many bets on Canada, Japan, or Brazil to win the World Cup this summer. They’re not England, Germany, or Spain, and it stands to reason that the USWNT’s narrow wins get so narrow that we’re talking about a coin flip, or even a repeat of the 3-0 meltdown against Sweden back in 2021’s Olympic opener.
In other words, the USWNT had problems to solve with a cheat code in the form of Swanson, and now they have to solve those problems without her.
Change is a must, but how much change?
Speaking minutes after the USWNT’s win over Ireland on Tuesday, Vlatko Andonovski was understandably not ready to commit to whether the team would simply plug another player into Swanson’s spot, make a couple of tweaks and get on with it, or if the team would need to make more significant alterations.
“Losing Mal, obviously conceptually, we may look slightly different, right?” the coach said. “Because you’re looking at this team, the team was going to build around Mal and Soph [Smith] and their attacking power. Now with Mal not being there, we’re gonna have to make a decision. What are we going to go for? Like for like, and try the same way? Or, [Swanson’s production] is going to be replaced by a group of players? … It’s hard.”
It’s very tempting for the USWNT to avoid trying to rebuild their game model this close to the World Cup. That opens them up to even more risk: What if the new approach isn’t quite right? What if it takes too long to work out? There aren’t enough games to try it out in, and the grass is not always greener on the other side.
If continuity is the plan, it appears Andonovski is leaning towards deploying Trinity Rodman. She was the choice off the bench after Swanson’s injury, she got the start on Tuesday, and on raw talent she’s the best option available. She also just so happens to have scored the most Mallory Swanson-looking goal anyone has produced in this NWSL season:
Trinity Rodman really said, "Fine… I'll do it myself."
However, she’s not Swanson, and fitting her game into the USWNT system will require adjustment. Rodman has been less of the focal point of the Washington Spirit’s attacks than Swanson is with the Chicago Red Stars, and as such doesn’t pile up the same sort of sky-high xG on volume. Where Swanson wants to get into the left half-space to ping shots from the top of the box into various corners of the goal, Rodman may opt to go wide to find a cross to another player, or look to combine.
On the other hand, you gain some noteworthy positives with Rodman: a better aerial presence, and a player who was much more able to contribute progressive carries (per FBref, 87 to Swanson’s 58 in the 2022 NWSL season) and progressive receptions (160 to 127).
This might actually help the USWNT avoid that aforementioned sluggishness moving the ball forward. Swanson beats defenders in the attacking third to score, which is great. Rodman has been beating defenders closer to midfield, which is less flashy but may boost the USWNT’s ability to generate chance volume. If they’re better at progressing the ball, it stands to reason they’ll be closer to goal with the ball for more of the game, which generally speaking means more looks.
They can’t replace Swanson’s finishing, but the USWNT can be better at creating chances and hoping the math works out from there. Rodman seems to be the option that requires the least disruption to a team that frankly doesn’t need any more uncertainty.
Pressing machine?
Andonovski’s best periods as a coach, whether with the USWNT or in NWSL, have involved a withering high press. The USWNT hasn’t been as overwhelming on that front as they were in the past, but that’s by design: Swanson deserves all the flowers you can give her, but she’s not a pressing monster.
Swanson’s numbers with the ball are outrageous, but as a pressing force, she’s more in the category of denying passing lanes and funneling play towards someone else to force the turnover. If you build an attack around her, as Andonovski did, you accept that being a buzzsaw-style high press isn’t your forte.
Losing its ace finisher means the USWNT needs to bump its chance volume up and hope that the goals arrive, and in the last decade, it’s been reliably proven that you can create more chances by pressing than other methods. A beautiful, intricate build-up is the platonic ideal for soccer, but getting vertical after a turnover, with your opponent in disarray, is a lot easier than connecting 25 passes in a row.
That brings us to pressing champion Lynn Williams. The NJ/NY Gotham FC forward lost virtually all of 2022 to injury, but in 2021 her NWSL per-90 xG was a virtual dead heat with Swanson’s in 2022 (Williams was at 0.56, Swanson at 0.59). She’d also be completing a front line featuring two other forwards who are very used to a high press: Smith and the Portland Thorns are experts at disrupting opposition build patterns, while Alex Morgan and the San Diego Wave are extraordinarily well-drilled as a pressing unit.
Going this route — which may also leave Rodman in the frame, given both her excellent pressing numbers as well as the Spirit’s move towards centering a high press in 2023 — requires changes elsewhere. Pressing isn’t just about effort; it takes so much work to get 11 players to do it perfectly as a group, and one error in a press can undo the whole thing.
Andonovski would need to consider the make-up of his entire team, rather than just his front line. Given the need to push up high as a unit, can you afford a slower player on the back line? One-on-one defending becomes far more important, as does winning headers and (in the midfield) quickness to get to second balls. Stamina, physical durability, and an unyielding focus all matter more for pressing teams than they do for mid-block sides.
On top of that, Williams is a) just barely back to playing after a torn hamstring tendon kept her out for months, and b) dealing with an elbow injury of unclear severity. She played through it with Gotham FC and was present and in uniform for the USWNT in this camp, but didn’t play. Maybe it’s nothing, or maybe not.
At her best, though, Williams changes the center of gravity in games through her pressing instincts. She makes the right choice about when to take the risk of pursuing the ball, and due to her speed and tough tackling, teams have to plan around avoiding her or risk a series of turnovers. Williams breaks other team’s schemes in a way that makes the rest of the team more dangerous, and a high-pressing USWNT could take advantage of a non-summer World Cup (average highs around 58-59 degrees in the cities the USWNT would play in) to grind opponents into pulp.
Get weird with it
Andonovski has other options here as well. Alyssa Thompson is legitimately in the mix rather than getting call-ups to help her down the road. A healthy Megan Rapinoe was unstoppable for OL Reign late last season, and over the last year has been Swanson’s only peer as a set piece taker in the U.S. player pool. Given the fine margins and the USWNT’s laundry list of potential targets, a dead ball expert on her level will get serious consideration.
However, there’s one option that feels like a longshot even though it shouldn’t be. The USWNT has a series of fullbacks vying to be second-choice, while one of their starters is known to prefer playing further up the field.
Crystal Dunn’s return to an attacking role might read as fan service, but she’s also been so good as an attacker that it deserves to be thought about extensively. The USWNT would lose something at the back — Andonovski starts Dunn at left back not out of cruelty, but because she is the best left back on the team — but it could also gain something with her restored to a more free, attack-first role that she clearly desires. The talent as a Swanson-style goals/assists double threat, the invention, the balance on the dribble, is all there.
(Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images)
Realistically, for Andonovski to take that step, he’d need a fullback to also step up in a big way. Casey Krueger was the most impressive of the group given minutes on Tuesday, but that’s a very small sample size, and she has a vanishingly small number of games to make the case that she is even going to make the 23-player roster, much less become a starter. Sofia Huerta and Kelley O’Hara seem to be the other candidates here, but it feels like they’ve fallen on Andonovski’s depth chart.
But since we’re getting out there, what if a 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 lifer like Andonovski concludes that he has to change his formation? If Andonovski’s solution to losing a starting forward is to simply pair Smith and Morgan and use the extra player somewhere else, the option to deploy a diamond 4-4-2 jumps out as a real possibility.
In a diamond, Andonovski has options. He could bring Julie Ertz into a midfield with Andi Sullivan and Lindsey Horan rather than having an either/or decision to make. He’s also looked at ways to get Rose Lavelle and Ashley Sanchez into games at the same time, and a diamond (with Lavelle deeper) makes that far easier. It also opens the door for Kristie Mewis to play in her best position, which in turn means another high-quality set piece taker is on the field more regularly.
“It’s hard for me to answer this question right at this moment, but once this camp is over and we review it, we hope to have a little better answer, or at least clearer understanding, of the direction that we want to take,” was how Andonovski closed his remarks on the team’s Swanson-less near-term future.
The coach has had a difficult tenure: the Covid-19 pandemic wiped away the perfect moment to institute a generational switch within the squad, the Olympics went worse than the bronze medal finish indicates, and Swanson is hardly the first locked-in starter to become unavailable or be majorly hampered this close to a big tournament since he took the job.
Sorting out how to adjust to the loss of such a crucial player while still improving a team that needs to get better will be his biggest challenge yet.
“Realistically I felt like my body was just kind of done”
Dansby Swanson said his “body was just kind of done” after being forced to exit a Chicago Cubs game following a day in which he accompanied his wife Mallory Swanson to surgery at 4 a.m.
While warming up in the top of the 6th inning against the Seattle Mariners, Swanson motioned to the bench that he needed to exit the game.
Though there were initially fears of an injury, Dansby instead appeared to simply be drained after an emotional few days that saw Mallory suffer a torn patella tendon that likely ended her World Cup dream.
“Realistically I felt like my body was just kind of done,” the Cubs shortstop told reporters after the game. “I felt like doing anything more probably would have put me in harm’s way.
“It felt like the night was over for me, pretty simple. I probably haven’t eaten or slept or drank enough water the past few days, so already getting fluids in me and taking care of myself.”
Cubs manager David Ross added: “The doctors, they’re pretty confident it was just some cramping — which makes some sense with the day he’s had.”
Before the top of the 6th inning, Dansby Swanson threw one ball, motioned to the dugout and came out of the game. pic.twitter.com/iGHRUINaPJ
“Glad we can be here together — I can’t imagine being apart right now,” Swanson said. “Everybody knows it’s a pretty tough and heartbreaking situation for her. I’m heartbroken for her. Just a lot of tears and sadness.
“Two things can be true at the same time: It can stink, and we can be sad and upset. We can also understand God’s bigger picture and plans and everything. … It’s just a sad time and we’ll get through it together.”
Neither Swanson nor U.S. Soccer has provided a recovery timeline just yet. Patellar tendon tears tend to come with a roughly six-month rehab course, which would rule Swanson out of the 2023 World Cup.
In a post on her Instagram account, Swanson gave the latest update on her condition.
“This is hard. I’m in shock and don’t have much to say other than, thank you to everyone for the messages,” wrote Swanson. “I feel the love and prayers, and holding them close to my heart.
“Surgery this morning was a success. I’m thankful for my trainers, doctors, coaches, and teammates for their help throughout this process. The beauty out of all of this, is that God is always good. He’s got me and always has.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cq6C4XHu57I/?hl=en
A successful surgical procedure was the best news Swanson, the USWNT, and the Chicago Red Stars could have hoped for given the difficult circumstances.
However, as USWNT head coach Vlatko Andonovski told reporters on Monday, there is no direct way to replace a player who had stepped on the pitch at Austin’s Q2 Stadium as the team’s most in-form goalscorer. Swanson scored at least one goal in each of the previous six USWNT matches, a spell which included a match-winner against Germany and braces against both New Zealand and Canada.
