The U.S. women’s national team’s SheBelieves Cup squad is intentionally crafted to give more green players some experience, but that doesn’t mean the roles that have been essentially automatic to some of the program’s most storied players are guaranteed to be there after the competition.
That was the underlying message from manager Vlatko Andonovski on Thursday upon revealing his 23-player squad for games against Czech Republic, New Zealand and Iceland later this month. Andonovski wasn’t speaking in pointed or threatening terms by any means, but his matter-of-fact tone when addressing a squad that doesn’t include the likes of Alex Morgan, Christen Press, Tobin Heath and Megan Rapinoe is a bit of a departure from what has become customary for the USWNT.