U-23 USWNT – Women's Soccer Express

USWYNTs: Vanessa Mann hired as U-15 head coach; U-18, U-20, and U-23 positions expected to be “filled in the coming weeks”

On Monday, U.S. Soccer announced that former Utah Royals assistant coach Vanessa Mann is the new full-time head coach of the Under-15 Women’s Youth National Team.

In the same press release, U.S. Soccer also provided details about other women’s youth national team head coaching positions.

Most notably, the federation will switch to alternating head-coaching cycles for the Under-17 WYNT. After this year’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup, Katie Schoepfer, who is the current head coach of the U-17s, will switch to the Under-16 WYNT and stay with that age group (2010 birth year) through the 2027 FIFA U-17 WWC. Meanwhile, Ciara Crinion, who is now the head coach for the U-16s, will move up with the 2009 birth years in the second half of this year to the Under-17 WYNT.

U.S. Soccer also announced that “full-time head coaching positions for the U.S. U-18 WNT, U.S. U-20 WNT and U.S. U-23 WNT [will] likely being filled in the coming weeks”. The other current youth head coach is Carrie Kveton, who is in charge of the Under-19 WYNT. The U-19s are preparing to qualify for the 2026 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup.

U-23 USWYNT: 24 Players called up for the second Under-23 camp of 2025

Update (31-Mar-2025): Outside-back Gisele Thompson has been called up to the full USWNT as a replacement for the withdrawn Tierna Davidson. Portland Thorns midfielder Olivia Moultrie will take Thompson’s spot in the U-23 camp. The rest of this post has not yet been updated.

For its second camp of 2025, the United States Under-23 Women’s Youth National Team will have a significantly different roster compared to the earlier “Futures Camp” that was held in January. From that camp, three players will be with the United States Women’s National Team for this current window: Midfielder Claire Hutton, forward Michelle Cooper, and defender/forward Avery Patterson. Meanwhile, thirteen players will be attending their first U-23 camp of the year, including five players who have apparently received their first proper call-up to a U.S. national team camp.

Three of the 24 players called-up have previous trained with the full USWNT:

Paris Saint-Germain center-back Eva Gaetino, who has one USWNT cap and attended a few camps in 2024,
Angel City outside-back Savy King, who was a training player during the 2025 SheBelieves Cup, and
Angel City outside-back Gisele Thompson, who was capped twice during the 2025 SheBelieves Cup.

U-23 USWYNT: Roster for 2025 “Futures Camp” Announced — 2024 MAC Hermann winner Kate Faasse gets first call-up since 2018

“A ros[t]e[r] by any other name…”

(Although U.S. Soccer does not publicly classify the January 2025 Futures Camp as an Under-23 Women’s Youth National Team camp, for all intents and purposes, it is.)

Update #2 (10-Jan-2025): Due to the Los Angeles wildfires, both the USWNT camp and the Futures camp will be moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Those camps will now run from January 17 to 23, which is a day shorter than the originally announced dates of January 14 to 21.

Update (9-Jan-2025): Midfielder Taylor Huff has signed with Bay FC (press release). The text below has been updated accordingly.

The “Futures” roster selected by USWNT head coach Emma Hayes features an intriguing mix of professional and collegiate players with numerous expected names and some unexpected selections as well as some head-scratching non-selections.

None of the players have senior USWNT caps, and only one player, Angel City outside-back Gisele Thompson, has previously trained with the senior USWNT.

Of the 25 players named, 12 played professionally in 2024. All but one of the 12, goalkeeper Neeku Purcell of USL Super League side Brooklyn FC, plied their trade in the National Women’s Soccer League.

Among the 2024 collegiate players, at least six have turned professional for the 2025 NWSL season. Those six include 2024 U-20 USWYNT forwards Maddie Dahlien of UNC and Pietra Tordin of Princeton, who both went pro with a year of NCAA eligibility left.

The Futures Camp is scheduled to take place from January 14th to the 21st at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California, which is about 16 miles south of the Los Angeles wildfires. The camp will be concurrent with a USWNT camp that will feature seven uncapped players. All current USWYNT head coaches will be helping to run this camp, along with USWNT head coach Emma Hayes and her staff.

Washington Spirit owner Michele Kang pledges to give $30 million over five years to U.S. Soccer in support of women’s soccer development

On November 19th, in a joint press conference with U.S. Soccer, Michele Kang, majority owner of the NWSL’s Washington Spirit, announced that she has pledged to give a total of $30 million over the next five years to U.S. Soccer. Kang’s pledged gift has three stated purposes:

First, to double the number of youth women’s national team camps.
Second, to ramp up women’s youth talent identification by expanding U.S. Soccer’s digital talent identification platform.
Third, to double the number of licensed female coaches and female referees.

Beyond the stated purposes of the pledged gift, there were not much details about how the $30 million will be spent.

The first stated purpose of “doubl[ing] the number of” women’s youth “national team camps” from their current level is noteworthy because the number of WYNT camps held in 2024 is about half the number of camps compared to several years ago.

Youth USWNTs: 2020 Calendar Update – Camps, Trips, and Tournaments

Updates:

05-Feb-2020: U-17 USWNT – Added details for CONCACAF Women’s Under-17 Championship
11-Feb-2020: U-23 USWNT – Added details for Portland Thorns Spring Invitational
17-Feb-2020: Minor updates/clarifications
02-Mar-2020: Added March U-15 USGNT camp entry
13-MAR-2020: U.S. SOCCER HAS CANCELLED MOST YNT CAMPS THROUGH THE END OF APRIL, DUE TO COVID-19 CONCERNS. (U.S. SOCCER)
- NO NEWS ABOUT THE CONCACAF WOMEN’S UNDER-17 CHAMPIONSHIP, WHICH IS SCHEDULED TO START ON APRIL 18TH IN MEXICO.

While U.S. Soccer’s dysfunctional website* does not often include much information about future youth team camps and/or matches, that is not the case with a number of other associations’ websites. In addition, youth USWNTs regular participate in annual friendly tournaments at the La Manga Club in Spain, which regularly publishes online its upcoming schedule of hosted matches.

*A subject for a future post. Or three…

So, after much browsing and searching…

…Here are some things that were news to me:

Confirmation that a USA team is scheduled to participate in the April U-23 WNT friendly tournament at La Manga Club in Spain.
News that the USA will be sending a GNT to the annual soccer tournament in Montaigu, France. The USA will be in a four-team U-16 GNT mini-tournament with France, Japan, and Norway.
A June U-15 USGNT camp or trip involving the U-15 GNTs of Germany and the Netherlands.
The host and dates of this year’s U-23 WNT Nordic Tournament: Norway, September 14th to the 22nd. (USA participation not confirmed.)
Also, the CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship, which was originally scheduled to start on Saturday, February 15th, was quietly pushed back to February 22nd.

(Update 02-Feb-2020): Clarified the descriptions of the U-14 events.

In addition, a U-14 Girls identification regional mini-camp roster with dates for two more regional mini-camps plus a ~~normal~~ national U-14 USGNT identification camp was published on Thursday, which gives a good picture of what that age group is doing up through late May.

Continue reading “Youth USWNTs: 2020 Calendar Update – Camps, Trips, and Tournaments”

U-23 USWNT: Matt Potter Named Head Coach; B.J. Snow Leaves U.S. Soccer

On Thursday, January 9th, U.S. Soccer announced a pair of related staffing changes:

The hiring of former University of Oklahoma women’s soccer head coach Matt Potter as the new head coach of the Under-23 United States Women’s National Team, and
The departure of B.J. Snow, who most recently helmed the U-23 USWNT while also serving as the Director of Talent Identification for the USWNT.

These changes follow the recent hiring of Laura Harvey as the new head coach of the U-20 USWNT after December’s surprise departure of Mark Carr, coincidentally, for the vacancy created by Potter back in November (SoonerSports.com).

Continue reading “U-23 USWNT: Matt Potter Named Head Coach; B.J. Snow Leaves U.S. Soccer”

U-23 USWNT: 2019 Nordic Cup Summary

Updated 30-Sep-2019: U.S. Soccer has quietly published back-dated match reports for the U-23 USWNT’s Nordic Cup matches.

Between August 28th and September 2nd, the United States Under-23 Women’s National Team participated in the 2019 edition of the Nordic Cup, which was hosted by England. The roster of players featured mostly professional players, with UNC junior Emily Fox the only collegiate player. Youth team standout Sophia Smith (Stanford) was in the original roster, but had to be replaced due to a “minor quad injury” (Twitter). Also, NWSL-standout Kristen Hamilton was on the original roster, but was called up to the senior USWNT for its Victory Tour friendlies against Portugal.

Under coach B.J. Snow, who took over from Mark Carr earlier this year, the U-23 USWNT won its first two matches against Norway and England, then drew with Sweden. Jordan DiBiasi scored the game-winner against Norway and had a penalty kick equalizer against Sweden, while Imani Dorsey scored the game-winner against England. Goalkeeper Casey Murphy played all 270 minutes in the three games, only allowing one goal, which came in the final match, against Sweden.

Continue reading “U-23 USWNT: 2019 Nordic Cup Summary”

U-23 USWNT: Quick Recap of Their Trip to Norway

The United States Under-23 Women’s National Team recently finished a series of three friendlies in Norway, drawing 1:1 versus Sweden, winning 4:1 over Norway and losing 2:4 to Norway. In the second friendly versus Norway, which was played in cool and rainy conditions, the USA allowed four goals in fifteen minutes. Continue reading “U-23 USWNT: Quick Recap of Their Trip to Norway”

U-23 USWNT: Roster For Friendlies Versus Sweden’s and Norway’s U23 WNTs

Under-23 United States Women’s National Team head coach Randy Waldrum has called up seventeen players, plus one to be confirmed, for three friendlies with Sweden’s U-23 WNT and Norway’s U-23 WNT. These matches will be held in Norway from June 15th to the 19th. The roster includes several players who have been in senior USWNT camps, including already capped midfielder Christine Nairn, midfielder Ingrid Wells, forward Melissa Henderson, and goalkeeper Adrianna Franch. Also on the roster is Bayern Munich’s Sarah Hagen, who scored the game-winner in this year’s Women’s German Cup final against FFC Frankfurt. Continue reading “U-23 USWNT: Roster For Friendlies Versus Sweden’s and Norway’s U23 WNTs”

US Soccer To Make U-17 and U-20 WNT Head Coach Positions Full-Time

Somewhat out of the blue, US Soccer announced last weekend that the head coach positions for the two main youth women’s national teams, the Under-17s and the Under-20s will be full-time, starting after the two youth Women’s World Cups later this year.

Also, a “development coach” will be hired to focus “on enhancing the player development environment for young players” across the USA and to oversee the Under-15 Girls’ National Team program. In other words, this sounds as if the U-15 GNT head coach position will also be made a full-time job, but with broader duties.

Continue reading “US Soccer To Make U-17 and U-20 WNT Head Coach Positions Full-Time”