U-20 WYNT: Roster Announced for the 2024 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup

On Thursday, August 8th, U.S. Soccer announced its roster for the upcoming FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup, which will be hosted by Colombia.

Update (15-Aug-2024): Midfielder Sam Courtwright suffered an ACL injury while training with Texas Tech. She will be replaced by alternate midfielder Addison Halpern.

For the first time, a significant number of the players, who range in age from 18 to 20 years old, will be professionals, as eight out of the twenty-one players will represent NWSL teams at the tournament.

Up through the 2012 cycle, the USA’s final roster for the U-20 WWC consisted exclusively of collegiate and pre-collegiate players. Until this year, only two professionals have played for the USA at the U-20 WWC: Lindsey Horan (Wikipedia) in 2014 and Olivia Moultrie (Wikipedia) in 2022.

This year’s roster is also unusual in another respect, as multiple age-eligible professional players have not been included: Jaedyn Shaw, who is currently with the USWNT at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Olivia Moultrie, and Alyssa Thompson. All three have full senior caps with the USWNT and have essentially ‘graduated’ from the U-20 WYNT after competing for the USA at the last U-20 WWC in 2022.

U-20 USWYNT Roster for the 2024 FIFA U-2o Women’s World Cup, By Position

Team hyperlinks go to the player’s roster profile. For NWSL players, the “NWSL” link goes to the player’s stats on NWSLSoccer.com.

Goalkeepers:

  • Birkel, Caroline (St. Louis Scott Gallagher; St. Louis, Mo.)
  • Gress, Mackenzie (Penn State; Lyndhurst, N.J.)
  • Wy, Teagan (California; Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.)

Defenders:

Midfielders:

Forwards:

Three alternates will train in Colombia with the team before the tournament begins: defender Reese Klein (Fort Lauderdale United), midfielder Addison Halpern (PDA; Virginia verbal commit) and forward Katie Shea Collins (South Carolina).

U-20 USWYNT Detailed Roster for the 2024 FIFA U-2o Women’s World Cup

Note (29-Aug-2024): Three of the players (Gilchrist, Sentnor, and Tordin) have official heights that are an inch taller than those listed below. Adames’s official tournament height is only 160 cm (5’3″). Curiously, Birkel is listed as only 170 cm (5’10”), even though the U.S. Soccer press release stated her height is 5’11”. See the official squad lists (converted to Google Sheets, here) for the players’ official tournament heights.

Caps and goals are for the U-20 WYNT. The player’s age is calculated as of the first day of the U-20 WWC (31-Aug-2024).

NAME               POS.   HEIGHT   D.O.B.      AGE    CAPS   GOALS  TEAM
Birkel, Caroline     GK     5'11"    08/25/2006   18.02   0      -       St. Louis Scott Gallagher
Gress, Mackenzie     GK     5'9"     06/03/2004   20.25   5      -       Penn State
Wy, Teagan           GK     5'10"    07/30/2004   20.09   8      -       California
Bugg, Jordyn         DF     5'7"     08/11/2006   18.06   12     0       Seattle Reign (NWSL)
Evans, Elise         DF     5'7"     12/16/2004   19.71   12     0       Stanford
Gilchrist, Heather   DF     5'7"     03/04/2004   20.50   6      0       Florida State
King, Savy           DF     5'5"     02/02/2005   19.58   12     0       Bay FC (NWSL)
Klenke, Leah         DF     5'10"    06/21/2004   20.20   11     0       Notre Dame
Thompson, Gisele     DF     5'4"     12/02/2005   18.75   7      1       Angel City FC (NWSL)
Halpern, Addison*    MF     5'5"     12/05/2006   17.74   0      0       PDA
Hutton, Claire       MF     5'6"     01/11/2006   18.64   5      0       Kansas City Current (NWSL)
Jackson, Riley       MF     5'8"     12/02/2005   18.75   8      1       North Carolina Courage (NWSL)
Lemos, Ally          MF     5'7"     03/04/2004   20.50   13     1       Orlando Pride (NWSL)
McCormack, Yuna      MF     5'9"     11/03/2004   19.83   0      0       Virginia
Suarez, Taylor       MF     5'5"     07/27/2005   19.10   8      1       Florida State
Adames, Emeri        FW     5'5"     04/03/2006   18.41   6      1       Seattle Reign (NWSL)
Dahlien, Maddie      FW     5'9"     07/25/2004   20.10   8      4       North Carolina
Dudley, Jordynn      FW     5'11"    11/21/2004   19.78   9      3       Florida State
Riley, Giana         FW     5'8"     04/13/2004   20.39   8      1       Florida State
Sentnor, Ally        FW     5'3"     02/18/2004   20.54   16     9       Utah Royals (NWSL)
Tordin, Pietra       FW     5'5"     03/30/2004   20.42   7      2       Princeton
--- WITHDRAWN -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Courtwright, Sam     MF     5'8"     10/23/2004   19.86   8      0       Texas Tech

Sources for heights and dates of birth: U.S. Soccer media guides, NWSL and NCAA team websites. Birkel’s height was mentioned in the roster announcement. Halpern’s height and date of birth are from the official FIFA squad lists for this tournament.

Roster Notes

In this section, changes since this article were originally published are italicized.

  • Only two players, forward Ally Sentnor and goalkeeper Teagan Wy, returns from the USA’s roster for the 2022 U-20 WWC. (corrected, originally had Wy as only player)
  • Six players were members of the USA’s 2022 U-17 WWC squad: Savy King, Riley Jackson, Taylor Suarez, Emeri Adames, Jordynn Bugg, and Gisele Thompson.
  • Only 10 players from the USA’s squad for last year’s qualification tournament, the Concacaf Women’s Under-20 Championship, were named to this roster: Goalkeepers Mackenzie Gress and Teagan Wy; defenders Elise Evans, Savy King, Leake Klenke, and Gisele Thompson; midfielders Ally Lemos; plus forwards Madeline Dahlien, Jordynn Dudley, and Ally Sentnor.
  • Birth year breakdown: 12 players were born in 2004, 4 were born in 2005, and 5 were born in 2006.
  • Florida State is the best represented NCAA team, with 4 players. Every other school represented has just one current player on the roster.
  • Of the 21 players named to the roster, just two still play for a youth club team: Goalkeeper Caroline Birkel, who is a Stanford verbal commit, and Addison Halpern, who is a Virginia verbal commit.
  • With the addition of midfielder Addison Halpern, she becomes the youngest player on the roster, with an age of 17.74. On the original roster, Birkel was the youngest.
  • Ally Sentnor is the most senior player, in terms of both age and U-20 caps.
  • California is the most represented states, with 8 players hailing from within its borders. Texas and Georgia, both with 2, are the only other state with multiple players. (Texas originally had 3 players until the withdraw of Courtwright, who hails from Dallas.)
  • The USA should be one of the taller teams at the tournament, having a median and average height of 5’7″.
  • Notable injury absences, in addition to midfielder Sam Courtwright, who was a last minute scratch, include midfielder Lauren Martinho (ACL, May 2024) and forward Onyeka Gamero (ACL and meniscus, December 2023).

USA’s Tournament Schedule

The USA is in Group C with Spain, who are the defending champions, Morocco, and Paraguay.

The USA’s group stage schedule:

  • Sunday, September 1st, 4:00 p.m. EDT: USA vs. Spain
  • Wednesday, September 4th, 9:00 p.m. EDT: USA vs. Morocco
  • Saturday, September 7th, 7:00 p.m. EDT: USA vs. Paraguay

For more information on how to watch the tournament, see “Full Schedule with USA TV and Streaming Details for the 2024 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup”.

The tournament was unexpectedly expanded to 24 teams last year, which means that 4 of the 6 teams third-place teams will also advance to the quarterfinals, instead of just the top 2 teams when the tournament only had 16 teams.

In the Round of Sixteen…

  • The top team in the group will play a third-place team, from either Group A, B, or F
  • The second-place team will play the second-place team of Group A
  • The third-place team, should they advance, will play the first-place team from either Group A or B

For more details, including the full schedule, see the tournament mini-site on FIFA.com and the Wikipedia entry for the tournament.