The third training camp of the 2024-25 cycle for the United States Under-15 Women’s Youth National Team camp will have just five players who attended both of the prior camps this cycle, which were in September 2024 and November 2024. Four additional players were called into the first camp.
Of the remaining fifteen players called in for this current camp, which runs from Tuesday, April 22, to Tuesday, April 29, most previously attended two Under-14 national identification camps in the first half of 2024 (March and June).
Four players are apparently attending their first national U.S. Soccer camp.
Leading this camp is the just-announced new head coach of the U-15 USWYNT, Vanessa Mann, who was briefly an assistant coach with the Utah Royals of the National Women’s Soccer League in 2024. The former coach, Ciara Crinion, is now the full-time head coach of the U-16 USWYNT, and will transition with the current U-16 players to the U-17 USWYNT later this year.
After conducting regional mini-camps in February and March, U.S. Soccer’s Under-14 Girls’ Talent Identification Program will hold a mini-camp for the Central Region, starting Thursday, April 17, in the Austin, Texas, area.
As with the previous camps, U.S. Soccer Director of Talent ID Nicole Lukic will lead the camp. Her primary assistants for this camp will be Central Talent ID Manager Lindsay Basalyga and South Talent ID Manager Illeana Moschos. Basalyga is a former head coach of the women’s soccer programs at Bowling Green State University and Eastern Kentucky University (LinkedIn profile). Moschos has significant experience as an assistant NCAA coach and competed in the 2004 Summer Olympics as a member of the Greece Women’s National Team (FSU profile).
One of the players called up, midfielder Alaia Harrington, is the daughter of a retired NBA player: Al Harrington (Wikipedia bio), who was drafted out of high school by the Indiana Pacers and played in over a 1,000 games from 1998 to 2014. He was named the national player of the year in his last high school season by both Gatorade and USA Today. (Instagram)
For its third camp of the current cycle, the Under-16 United States Women’s Youth National Team will play two friendlies in Spain against its Spanish counterpart.
From the last U-16 camp, which was held in late January and early February, 15 players return. Among the returning players is Utah Royals forward KK Ream, who is the only professional named to the roster.
Two players who attended the first camp of the cycle return after not being named to the last camp: Forward Deus Stanislaus and defender Anaiah Williams. In late January, Stanislaus verbally committed to play collegiate soccer for the University of North Carolina (Instagram). A few months earlier, she changed her expected high school graduation year to 2026 (Instagram).
Five of the 24 players are apparently attending their first proper youth national team camp. Among those five is defender Marin Kotschau, whose younger sister, Reagan Kotschau, was called into the recent “overage” U-20 USWYNT camp”. Their father, Ritchie Kotschau (Wikipedia bio), is a retired Major League Soccer player who had one cap for the senior United States Men’s National Team (2024 USMNT Media Guide, page 122).
Carolina Reyna, who is also the daughter of both a former USMNT player, Claudio Reyna, as well as a former United States Women’s National Team player, Danielle Reyna (née Egan), has attended both of the previous camps this cycle. For this camp, Reyna is listed as a midfielder, which is a change from all previous youth national team rosters, where she was solely listed as a forward.
For its first encounter with the United States Women’s National Team since last year’s gold medal match in the 2024 Summer Olympics, Brazil will have nine starters from that clash available, compared to just six for the USA. Overall, 12 of Brazil’s 22 players from last year’s Olympics have been named by head coach Arthur Elias to their roster for the upcoming friendlies against the USWNT.
Among the nine gold medal match starters are all three front line players: Gotham FC’s Gabi Portilho, who had the game-winner in the quarterfinals against France (NBC highlights) and also scored against Spain in their semifinal (NBC highlights). Ludmila, now of the Chicago Stars, was a dangerous presence in the gold medal match, where she could have had a goal in the second minute and later had a goal cancelled by the offside flag (NBC highlights). The 23-year-old Jheniffer, who joined Tigres of the Liga MX Femenil in January (Instagram), scored against Japan during the group stage, via an assist from Ludmila (NBC highlights).
Also on the present roster is Adriana, who won the double with Orlando Pride last season, but now plays in Saudi Arabia. During second-half stoppage time of the gold medal match, Adriana had a diving header saved by USWNT goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher (NBC highlights). However, Adriana was not denied in Brazil’s semifinal, where she headed home what would be the game-winner against Spain (NBC highlights).
After hiring a permanent head coach in February, the Mexico Under-23 Women’s National Team is holding its first-ever camp, which got underway on Monday, March 31, at its federation’s High Performance Center.
In charge of the Mexico U-23s is Vanessa Martínez Lagunas (LinkedIn profile), who played collegiate soccer at the University of Texas and was capped by the senior Mexico Women’s National Team. Prior to being hired by the Mexico Football Federation, she served as the head coach of the women’s soccer program at Canada’s University of Manitoba (coach bio). Martínez has a doctorate degree in sports science from Leipzig University in Germany.
The 26-player roster for this camp, which runs through Tuesday, April 8, includes six players currently based in the United States. The remaining 20 athletes all play professionally in Mexico’s Liga MX Femenil.
The only NWSL professional is Angel City FC goalkeeper Breanna Norris, who was signed by ACFC on a roster relief contract that runs through the end of June (ACFC press release). The 5’10” Norris played four seasons of NCAA soccer at the University of Portland (player profile) where she was the West Coast Conference Goalkeeper of the Year in her final two seasons.
Five players called up are currently on collegiate teams: Maribel Flores, USC Trojans; Isabella Gutiérrez, East Carolina Pirates; Xcaret Pineda, Oklahoma State Cowgirls; Giana Riley, Florida State Seminoles; and Val Vargas, UCLA Bruins.
Update (31-Mar-2025): As expected, center-back Tierna Davidson has been withdrawn due to her knee injury. Outside-back Gisele Thompson has been called from the U-23 USWYNT as a replacement. (U.S. Soccer press release)On 5-April-2025, the rest of this post was been updated accordingly.
Washington Spirit forward Trinity Rodman is back with the United States Women’s National Team for the first time since the 2024 Summer Olympics.
The addition of Rodman is just one of several changes from February’s SheBelieves Cup roster that USWNT head coach Emma Hayes has made for the squad that will face Brazil twice in early April. Defenders Jenna Nighswonger and Gisele Thompson; along with forwards Lynn Biyendolo, who has a minor lower leg injury, and Emma Sears have not been called up.
Meanwhile, goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce, defender Alana Cook, and forward Ashley Hatch also return to the official USWNT fold. Hatch most recently attended the January 2025 USWNT camp. Both Hatch and Cook have not appeared in a USWNT match since 2023.
The Houston Dash’s Avery Patterson is receiving her first call-up to the USWNT. Patterson attended the January 2025 U-23 USWYNT “Futures Camp”, where she was listed as a forward. Here, the versatile flank player is listed as a defender, so she will likely be trialed as an outside-back, a position she has played for the Dash, as well as her former NCAA team, the North Carolina Tar Heels.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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