The U.S. women’s national team has begun its most important camp of 2022, with friendlies Saturday and Tuesday against Colombia as their only prep before the CONCACAF W Championship.
For the USWNT, that tournament will have major reverberations, as it serves as the qualifying process for both the 2023 World Cup and the 2024 Olympics in Paris. The standard with the USWNT has always been “beat everybody,” but the W Championship format is unforgiving. One slip-up could cost them a place at a major international tournament.
An area of focus since Vlatko Andonovski announced his roster for the camp is the midfield, where Washington Spirit captain Andi Sullivan is the only full-time defensive midfielder in the final group of 23 the USWNT will take to Mexico for the W Championship. Andonovski has called Jaelin Howell (Racing Louisville) and Sam Coffey (Portland Thorns), both of whom play the No. 6 role with their clubs, but they are at this point only available for the Colombia friendlies.
While Sullivan was indispensable as the Spirit won the NWSL championship last season, her campaign this year has been interrupted by injury. While her form has not been a problem—the Spirit are demonstrably better with her in games than on the sidelines—Sullivan has played around one-third of the available minutes in 2022 due to a calf injury.
Post-game, @KWardSpirit said he'd want to know what #OneSpirit's plus/minus is with & without Sullivan, which I'm too much of a nerd, so as soon as I heard the idea, I also had to know.
With Sullivan: 10 GF/4 GA, +6 (527 mins.)
Without Sullivan: 13 GF/17 GA, -4 (1,093 mins.)— Jason Anderson (@JasonDCsoccer) June 18, 2022
Heading into the break, Sullivan played 60 minutes against Louisville, with Washington making a planned substitution to make sure she could continue progressing in her comeback from that knock. She has not played a full 90 minutes since a 2-2 Challenge Cup draw against the North Carolina Courage on March 30.
Speaking from Colorado ahead of Saturday’s friendly at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, Andonovski said the USWNT has “a plan going forward” for the base of their midfield.
“We do have a player at (defensive midfield) that we’re very comfortable with, and we feel like is gonna be very good for us, now and in the future,” Andonovski said in endorsing Sullivan, who has been by and large his first-choice midfield anchor over the past eight months. “Andi has been tremendous in camp, performing very well and we’re excited about her.”
Still, between an exhausting NWSL schedule and a W Championship that will require finalists to play five games in 14 days at elevation, it stands to reason that Sullivan will not play 450 straight minutes as the USWNT looks to qualify.
The demands for any defensive midfielder playing solo in the USWNT’s system are very high. Andonovski’s USWNT has high-pressed teams with regularity, which for a holding midfielder means calculating risks while keeping the group connected as they pursue the ball.
That approach was emphasized in Andonovski’s remarks on Friday. “One thing that we say when we’re without the ball is, we want to minimize the opponent’s time on on the ball,” said the third-year USWNT boss when asked about the requirements his playing philosophy comes with. “We have this one saying or term that we use: we attack without the ball. So, we don’t defend for our lives. We don’t defend our goal, we attack and that’s the mentality that we have.”
A pressing style, from a physical perspective, is the most demanding and draining way to play, and with the W Championship taking place in Monterrey (average July high temperature: 94.6 degrees), multiple solutions will be needed no matter how the USWNT wants to slice it.
Andonovski was coy about exactly what his other steps would be, but did make it clear that his team has multiple ideas to deal with the situation.
“We also have players that have had chances to play that position in their club environment in the past,” said Andonovski. Of the players in this camp that are on the final 23-player squad list for the W Championship, players with professional appearances in a defensive midfield role include Lindsey Horan, Emily Sonnett, and uncapped newcomer Taylor Kornieck.
Simply plugging one of those players, all of whom are regular starters elsewhere on the field for their clubs, into the lone No. 6 spot in his customary 4-3-3 formation is not the only solution on Andonovski’s mind.
“It may not be a single six, like in the case when Andi’s playing there,” explained Andonovski. “We might have to play (with a) double six, or something of a hybrid between six and eight, where two players will take the responsibilities.”
That likely points to a 4-2-3-1 formation, which would open up the door to some more natural fits. Horan plays in that set-up with Lyon, while Gotham FC midfielder Kristie Mewis has also had plenty of success as the No. 8 in that formation in the recent past. Sullivan has seen plenty of time in a 4-2-3-1 with the Spirit, while Kornieck is also familiar with the roles involved as the more attack-oriented player in a double-pivot.
Andonovski has shifted his team into a 4-2-3-1 in friendlies this year against Uzbekistan and the Czech Republic, so the groundwork has been laid if that’s the direction he wants to take. While a full-on formation change isn’t expected, there are circumstances—the group stage finale against Mexico on July 11, for example—where an extra player in the engine room may help protect a lead and keep games manageable.
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