February 2025 – Women's Soccer Express

U-17 USWYNT: Draw Results and Match Schedule for 2025 Concacaf Women’s Under-17 Qualifiers

screenshot of Concacaf's PDF schedule for the Final Round of the 2025 Women's Under-17 Qualifiers

In order to qualify for the 2025 FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup, the USA only needs to top a four-team group that also includes El Salvador, Honduras, and Trinidad & Tobago.

The United States Under-17 Women’s Youth National Team’s shorter qualifying path compared to previous cycles is due to a new qualification format introduced by Concacaf this year. That format now involves a final stage which only consists of three concurrent round-robin groups. In previous cycles, when the FIFA U-17 WWC was held every two years, qualifying included a traditional tournament with a group stage and a knockout stage.

Additionally, with the expansion of the FIFA U-17 WWC from 16 to 24 teams, Concacaf now has an additional slot, so four teams — the top team from each group plus the best overall second-place team — will qualify for the tournament, which will be hosted by Morocco and runs from October 17th to November 8th.

On Monday, February 24th, Concacaf conducted the draw for the Final Round of the 2025 Concacaf Women’s Under-17 Qualifiers.

The full draw results are as follow:

Group A: Mexico (host*), Haiti, Costa Rica, Bermuda
Group B: Canada, Puerto Rico, Panama (host*), Nicaragua
Group C: USA, El Salvador, Honduras, Trinidad & Tobago (host*)

The Final Round’s matches will be played from Monday, March 31st to Sunday, April 6th. Groups “A” and “C” will play its matches on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday, while Group B will play its matches on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday. Thus, teams will only have one off-day between their first two matches and two off-days between the second and third matches.

The Final Round will be played in three different nations:

Group A: Mexico, at the headquarters of the Federación Mexicana de Fútbol in Toluca
Group B: Panama, at Estadio Rommel Fernández in Panama City
Group C: Trinidad & Tobago, at Ato Boldon Stadium in Couva, Trinidad

February 2025 International Window: Roster Round-Up

Here are quick summaries of the rosters for the following women’s national teams:

For the rosters of the United States Women’s National Team (#1), Australia (#15), Colombia (#21), and Japan (#8), which are all participating in the SheBelieves Cup, see “2025 SheBelieves Cup: Roster Round-Up, Match Schedule, and TV/Streaming Details”.

U-14 Talent ID: First Regional Mini-Camp of 2025 announced — Players named include sisters of NWSL pros

Among the players called up by U.S. Soccer for the year’s first regional mini-camp of the Under-14 Talent Identification Program are younger sisters of current NWSL professionals. The 80-player roster also includes a granddaughter of the late San Diego Padres legend Tony Gwynn. All of the players selected for this camp, who hail from 36 youth clubs in U.S. Soccer’s West Region, were born in 2011.

At least three NWSL pros have sisters at this camp…

Alyssa Thompson and Gisele Thompson, both of Angel City FC, whose sister, Zoe, plays for Tudela FC in California¹
Olivia Moultrie of the Portland Thorns, whose sister, Bella, plays for Soccer Chance Academy in Oregon²

Additionally, Kyla McCammon, who plays for Eastside FC in Washington state, looks to be the sister of the Seattle Reign’s Ainsley McCammon.³

Both Alyssa Thompson and Olivia Moultrie have been capped by the senior United States Women’s National Team. Gisele Thompson is uncapped but has been named to this year’s USWNT’s SheBelieves Cup roster, along with her sister, Alyssa.

Leighton Gwynn of City SC in San Diego, California, is a daughter of former Major League Baseball player Tony Gwynn Jr.⁴ (MLB profile, Wikipedia bio) and a granddaughter of the late Tony Gwynn (MLB profile, Wikipedia bio), who played for the San Diego Padres from 1982 to 2001 and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007. A sister, Makayla Gwynn, also plays soccer and is a recent verbal commit for Grand Canyon University (Instagram, local news segment).

U-17 USWYNT: Second training camp of 2025 gets underway, just two weeks after the first

With Concacaf qualifying for the 2025 FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup less than six weeks away, the United States Under-17 Women’s National Team is holding its second camp of the year. The previous camp ended on Sunday, February 2nd, while this current camp began on Tuesday, February 18th, meaning that there were just 15 off days between the two camps.

From that last camp, only nine players return. Five of those players also attended the first camp of the cycle, back in September 2024. Additionally, none of the four veterans of last year’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup who attended the last camp were called in for this camp.

Off the 24 players selected by head coach Katie Schoepfer, none are professionals. One player, Claire Kessenger, who is originally from Colorado (Instagram post by her former youth club), relocated with her family to the Barcelona area of Spain several years ago and currently plays for the CE Europa U-19 team. Previously, she was in the youth setup of RCD Espanyol (www.fcf.cat).

All but four of the players on this camp’s roster have announced their NCAA commitments. Two players are official commits for the 2025 fall season: forward Nyanya Touray and defender Miya Alamares, who will play for Florida State And UC Davis, respectively.

2025 SheBelieves Cup: Roster Round-Up, Match Schedule, and TV/Streaming Details

With the 2025 SheBelieves Cup kicking off on Thursday, February 20th, here is a round-up of all four teams’ rosters and related articles, plus the tournament’s match schedule.

2025 SheBelieves Cup: Colombia roster announced — Three NWSL players called up, no Manuela Vanegas

Despite the Colombia Women’s National Team and the United States Women’s National Team playing each other seven times in the last five years, Chelsea forward Mayra Ramírez has not faced the USA. That streak should end on Thursday, February 20th, when the USWNT hosts Colombia on the first night of the 2025 SheBelieves Cup.

Not among the 23 players called up by head coach Ángelo Marsiglia are two core defensive players: Center-back Manuela Vanegas, who suffered an ACL injury in January (Real Sociedad news item) and had surgery earlier this month (Instagram), and goalkeeper Catalina Pérez, who is still recovering from a meniscus tear suffered during training at the 2024 Paris Olympics (Werder Bremen news item).

Another key absence is midfielder Ilana Izquierdo, whose senior season at Mississippi State (player profile) was cut short in October 2024 due to an apparent ankle injury (news article, Instagram). Izquierdo started two of Colombia’s four matches at the Paris 2024 Olympics and started all four of their matches at last year’s Concacaf W Gold Cup.

The only other players not called up from Colombia’s official squad for the 2024 Summer Olympics are 32-year-old midfielder Liana Salazar, who only played 35 minutes over two substitute appearances, and veteran goalkeeper Sandra Sepulveda, who was promoted from alternate to substitute following Pérez’s injury.

Among the 14 Olympians from 2024 that were called up are all five of Colombia’s goal-scorers from the tournament, including Washington Spirit midfielder Leicy Santos, who netted twice. The other four goals were scored by Mayra Ramírez, West Ham forward Manuela Pavi, Monterrey midfielder Marcela Restrepo, and Colombia’s most capped player, midfielder/forward Catalina Usme, who has 119 caps.

Real Madrid forward Linda Caicedo, the recipient of many deserved superlatives, did not score at the 2024 Olympics, but she did find the back of the net twice at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, where she had goals against Germany and the Korea Republic. Caicedo will turn 20 years-old during the SheBelieves Cup, on February 22nd.

In addition to Santos, the two other NWSL players called up are Racing Louisville center-back Ángela Barón, who was an unused substitute at last year’s Olympics, and Utah Royals outside-back Ana María Guzmán, who is on loan from Bayern Munich, who played in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, but missed the Olympics due to a knee injury.

U-19 USWYNT: 20 Players called up for friendly tournament in Spain

With just a few months to go until the Concacaf qualifying tournament for the 2026 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup, the United States Under-19 Women’s Youth National Team is holding its first camp of the calendar year and its second camp of the annual cycle, following one in October 2024.

Head coach Carrie Kveton has called up 20 players, all born in 2006, for a friendly tournament that will be hosted by Spain and that will also feature the U-19 WNTs of England and the Netherlands. (Links to each opponent’s roster and quick discussions of those rosters are included at the end of this post.)

The USA’s roster includes just one professional, Miri O’Donell, who plays for Sporting CP in Portugal. Age-eligible NWSL players such as Jordyn Bugg and Emeri Adames, both of the Seattle Reign, who played in last year’s U-20 WWC, were not called into the camp. The other 2006 player from that roster, Claire Hutton, has been called up to the full USWNT for this month’s SheBelieves Cup.

Of the remaining 19 players, 13 played NCAA Division I soccer last fall, including Notre Dame’s Izzy Engle, who scored 19 goals during her freshman season. Engle’s tally, which did not involve any penalty kick goals, was only one behind MAC Hermann trophy winner Kate Faase (UNC profile), who had 20 goals, including three penalty kicks conversions, and was tied with Ohio State’s Kailyn Dudukovich (OSU profile), who had two penalty kick conversions.

The other six players on the roster are now college students after enrolling in January. Among those six are two players from the USA’s squad for last year’s U-20 WWC: Goalkeeper Caroline Birkel, now of Stanford, and midfielder Addison Halpern, now of the University of Virginia. A third player, defender Reese Klein, now of Clemson, was a pre-tournament alternate for the 2024 U-20 WWC. Klein played for Fort Lauderdale United of the new USL Super League via an amateur contract during the fall of 2024.

2025 SheBelieves Cup: USWNT roster announced — Still no “Triple Espresso”, Uncapped players include Michelle Cooper, Claire Hutton, Tara McKeown, and Gisele Thompson

With her first SheBelieves Cup roster, United States Women’s National Team head coach Emma Hayes has provided plenty of fodder for discussion, not only regarding the typical player selection and positional questions, but also some other matters, namely the misguided inclusion of just two goalkeepers.

For the second-straight international window the USWNT will be without its “Triple Espresso” trio of forwards: Trinity Rodman, Mallory Swanson, and Sophia Wilson (née Smith). While in the November-December window, the reasons for all three players’s absences were injury-related, this time only Rodman’s absence was explained in U.S. Soccer’s press release as due directly to injury:

For Rodman, the official reason given that she is “still regaining her fitness as she rehabs her back injury”.
Wilson’s absence could be related to her ankle injury, though the reason given by U.S. Soccer was that she is “not physically ready for National Team competition”. Additionally, Wilson got married at the end of January, so part of the rationale could be an excused absence.
Swanson has not yet reported to the Chicago Stars (Bluesky post) due to unspecified “personal reasons”, so her absence was expected. In the roster release, U.S. Soccer used the phrase “personal commitments”.

Also unavailable are some other key players, including center-back Naomi Girma, who is recovering from a minor calf injury, midfielder Rose Lavelle, who had ankle surgery during the off-season, and midfielder Croix Bethune, who is returning to fitness after suffering a torn meniscus.

As this year’s SheBelieves Cup comes at an early stage in the cycle for the next Women’s World Cup, there is the opportunity for experimenting with different players and line-ups. With the unavailability of the above players, that opportunity is both expanded and necessary.

Thus, it is not really a surprise that Hayes has selected a relatively inexperienced squad, especially after her rosters for the last two international windows. The USWNT’s 23-player roster has just six players with 60 or more USWNT caps while the remaining 17 all have 30 or less caps, with 10 of those 17 players having four or less caps.

NWSL News of Note: Houston Dash sign midfielder Evelina Duljan, Utah Royals reveal two more invitees, Jaime Frias hired as Dash assistant coach

Here are the notables for Monday, February 10th, and Tuesday, February 11th:

The Houston Dash have signed free agent Evelina Duljan to a one-year contract. Duljan was with the Orlando Pride in 2024.
The Utah Royals have at least two more unannounced invitees, based on a preseason match line-up posted via their x.com account. One of those players looks to be defender/forward Itala Gemelli, who finished up her NCAA career last fall with the Alabama Crimson Tide.
The Dash have also added an assistant coach to Fabrice Gautrat’s staff: Jaime Frias, who was the head coach of the women’s soccer team for the University of Houston since 2022.
Also, the Boston 2026 franchise has placed $25 million in escrow, which is a preliminary financial requirement for the renovation of White Stadium.

NWSL Week in Review: Savy King traded from Bay FC to Angel City, Abuse scandal settlement announced

Topping last week’s notables is the news that the National Women’s Soccer League has agreed to a settlement agreement with the Attorneys General of New York, Illinois, and the District of Columbia. The settlement agreement was a result of a joint investigation into the NWSL in the wake of the player abuse scandal. That scandal eventually led to the Yates Report (PDF) and a separate report produced by the NWSL and the NWSL Players Association (PDF).

In player transactions…

The lead story is the trade of defender Savy King from Bay FC to Angel City for a $300,000 transfer fee that will be paid over two seasons.
Meanwhile, the top story from the East Coast is Gotham FC re-signing free agent forward Midge Purce.
Bay FC signed rookie midfielder Hannah Bebar, who will not immediately join the club as she is finishing a master’s degree at Duke University.
Down in SoCal, Angel City goalkeeper Angelina Anderson is now under contract through the 2028 season.
South African international Linda Motlhalo‘s second stint in the NWSL has ended after she and Racing Louisville agreed to a mutual contract termination.
The Washington Spirit are loaning rookie midfielder Deborah Abiodun and Brazilian forward Tamara Bolt to the USL Super League’s Dallas Trinity for the 2025 calendar year.
Olympique Lyonnais center-back Kysha Sylla is being sent on loan to the Spirit for one year.

In team news, the Portland Thorns have announced a shared performance center with the new WNBA franchise.

Also, the Utah Royals have added two unannounced non-roster invitees.