The USA additionally certified for an eighth consecutive Summer time Olympics by advantage of its 1-0 win over Canada within the Concacaf W Championship Ultimate. The USA, Sweden and Brazil are the one nations to look in each version of the Olympic Girls’s Soccer Event since its inception in 1996.
HOME, SWEET HOME
The USA heads to D.C. on a 70-game residence unbeaten streak, which incorporates 63 wins and 7 attracts and has now spanned greater than 5 years. Throughout this residence unbeaten streak, the USA has outscored its opponents 264-28, together with a 131-2 margin throughout its final 31 matches at residence, all of which have been wins save for the 0-0 attracts with Czech Republic on Feb. 17 and with Korea Republic on Oct. 21, 2021. That is the second-longest residence unbeaten streak in USWNT historical past, the longest enduring 104 video games from December of 2004 to December of 2015.
The USA additionally enters the two-game sequence in opposition to Nigeria on a 12-game win streak, courting again to its second match of the yr in opposition to New Zealand. In the course of the 12-game successful streak, which it the workforce’s second-longest within the Andonovksi period, the USA has outscored its opposition 50-1 and has saved 9 consecutive clear sheets. The present nine-game shutout streak is tied for the third-longest in workforce historical past, final recording 9 straight shutouts from August to November of 2018. The U.S. saved 14 straight clear sheets from July 1990 to Might 1991 and had a 10-game shutout streak from December 2004 to October 2005.
LONDON CALLING
With lower than a yr till the beginning of the 2023 World Cup in New Zealand and Australia, the September sequence in opposition to the Tremendous Falcons kicks off a fall of high-profile matches for the USA. Following the video games in opposition to Nigeria, who has additionally certified for the World Cup 2023, the top-ranked People will journey throughout the pond for an October 7 assembly in opposition to lately topped European Champions England at historic Wembley Stadium.
England gained the 2022 UEFA Girls’s EURO in historic trend at Wembley Stadium on July 31, defeating Germany, 2-1, in additional time on a aim from ahead Chloe Kelly in entrance of a record-setting crowd of 87,192 followers. Tickets for USA-England, as many as 80,000 of them, offered out in lower than a day and the gang would be the largest to ever watch the USWNT in a pleasant match. The USA-England was 100% confirmed on Sept. 3 as England beat Austria, 2-0, in a World Cup qualifier to earn a berth to the 2023 FIFA Girls’s World Cup and thus keep away from a playoff sequence through the October FIFA window. This would be the USWNT’s first go to to Wembley Stadium for the reason that gold medal match on the 2012 Olympic Video games, a 2-1 victory for the USA over Japan, and the first-ever assembly between the USA and England Girls’s Nationwide Groups at London’s inexperienced cathedral of soccer
USA ROSTER NOTES
- Essentially the most capped participant on this roster is Becky Sauerbrunn at 208, adopted by Alex Morgan (197), Megan Rapinoe (193) and Lindsey Horan (117) whereas the least capped gamers are Casey Murphy (8), Naomi Girma (6), Taylor Kornieck (5), Hailie Mace (4), Aubrey Kingsbury (1) and Sam Coffey and Savannah DeMelo, each of whom have but to make their USWNT debuts.
- Fourteen gamers on the USA roster for the Nigeria friendlies have 22 caps or fewer: Sophia Smith, Midge Purce, Sofia Huerta, Emily Fox, Alana Cook dinner, Ashley Sanchez, Murphy, Rodman, Girma, Kornieck, Mace, Kingsbury, Coffey and DeMelo.
- Becky Sauerbrunn is the oldest participant on the roster (37 years outdated) whereas Sophia Smith is the youngest (22 years outdated).
- By 12 video games in 2022, the USWNT has had 26 targets scored by gamers beneath the age of 24. Over the course of 2019, 2020 and 2021 – a complete of 57 video games – the USWNT had a mixed complete of 10 targets scored by gamers beneath the age of 24.
- Morgan is the highest scorer on the roster with 119 profession targets. Rapinoe has 62 and Lindsey Horan has 26. Pugh has 24 targets for the USWNT whereas Rose Lavelle has 21.
- Sixteen totally different gamers have scored for the USWNT up to now in 2022 – Sophia Smith (9), Mallory Pugh (6), Catarina Macario (5), Alex Morgan (4), Rose Lavelle (3), Kristie Mewis (3), Ashley Sanchez (3), Ashley Hatch (2), Trinity Rodman (2), Midge Purce (2), Kelley O’Hara (1), Jaelin Howell (1), Andi Sullivan (1), Taylor Kornieck (1), Emily Sonnett (1) and Lindsey Horan (1).
- The USA’s different 5 targets this yr got here by way of personal targets, probably the most ever in a calendar yr in program historical past with three on Feb. 20 vs. New Zealand, and one every on April 12 vs. Uzbekistan and June 28 vs. Colombia.
- 13 totally different gamers have registered an help for the USWNT up to now in 2022, led by Pugh with seven. Lavelle (6 assists), Sanchez (3), Huerta (2), O’Hara (2) and Alana Cook dinner (2) even have a number of assists on the yr whereas Purce, Hatch, Naomi Girma, Macario, Sullivan, Megan Rapinoe and Emily Fox have one every.
- In complete, 21 totally different gamers have been straight concerned in targets for the USWNT this yr, tallying both a aim or an help.
- Defender Alana Cook dinner leads the USA in complete minutes performed up to now in 2022 with 926 minutes of motion, adopted by midfielder Andi Sullivan (859) and forwards Sophia Smith (786) and Mallory Pugh (778).
- Smith has began a team-high 12 video games in 2022 and is one among 4 gamers to have appeared in 12 of the USA’s 13 video games up to now in 2022. Pugh, Sanchez and Kristie Mewis are the others.
- Andonovski is 40-2-6 in 48 video games and went unbeaten (22-0-1) in his first 23 matches in command of the USWNT, setting a file for the perfect begin for a head coach in USWNT historical past. The USA opened the Andonovski period on a 16-game successful streak.
- Fifteen totally different gamers have earned their first cap beneath Andonovski, eight of whom are on this roster.
- 9 of the 12 NWSL golf equipment are represented on this roster, together with 2021-22 UEFA Girls’s Champions League winners Olympique Lyon. 4 gamers are from the Washington Spirit and 4 are from OL Reign.
IN FOCUS: NIGERIA | FIVE THINGS TO KNOW
Present FIFA World Rating: 46
CAF Rating: 1
FIFA Nation Code: NGA
2023 World Cup Qualifying: Certified by WAFCON (4th-place end)
World Cup appearances: 8 (1991, 1995, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015, 2019)
Finest World Cup End: Quarterfinals (1999)
Report vs. USA: 0-7-0
Final Assembly vs. USA: September 3, 2022 (USA gained, 4-0 in Kansas Metropolis, Kan.)
Coach: Randy Waldrum (USA)
NIGERIA WOMEN’S NATIONAL SOCCER TEAM ROSTER BY POSITION
Goalkeepers (2): 16-Chiamaka Nnadozie (Paris F.C, FRA), 1-Christy Ohiaeriaku (Edo Queens F.C.)
Defenders (7): 3-Osinachi Ohale (Deportivo Alaves, ESP), 8-Rofiat Adenike Imuran (Rivers Angels F.C.), 11-Akudo Ogbonna (Rivers Angel F.C.), 17-Nicole Payne (Univ. of Southern California, USA), 4-Glory Ogbonna (ALG Spor, TUR), 12-Michelle Alozie (Houston Sprint, USA), 5-Blessing Demehin (Rivers Angel F.C.)
Midfielders (6): 7-Toni Payne (Sevilla F.C, ESP), 13-Christy Ucheibe (SL Benfica, POR), 10-Amanda Mbadi (Atasehir Belediyespor, TUR), 18-Onyi Echegini (Florida State College, USA), 19-Deborah Abiodun (Rivers Angel F.C.), 20-Esther Onyenezide (FC Robo Queens)
Forwards (5): 6-Uchenna Kanu (Tigres UANL, MEX), 15-Rasheedat Ajibade (Atletico Madrid, ESP), 14-Vivian Ikechukwu (FC Gintra, LTU), 2-Reward Monday (FC Robo Queens F.C), 9-Ifeoma Onumonu (NJ/NY Gotham FC, USA)
NIGERIA ROSTER NOTES
- Nigeria has gamers taking part in eight totally different nations around the globe and has 12 gamers taking part in professionally outdoors of Nigeria and two in faculty within the USA. Simply six gamers on the roster are at the moment taking part in in Nigeria.
- Nigeria has known as up three gamers who have been part of its workforce on the lately accomplished FIFA U-20 Girls’s World Cup in Costa Rica in defenders Deborah Abiodun and Blessing Demehin, and midfielder Esther Onyenezide. Nigeria gained Group C in Costa Rica however fell to the Netherlands, 2-0, within the quarterfinals. Nigeria beat France, South Korea and Canada in group play. In opposition to Canada, Onyenezide scored twice from the penalty spot and in opposition to South Korea she bagged the sport winner.
- Nigeria earned its berth to the 2023 FIFA Girls’s World Cup by advancing to the semifinals of the 2022 Girls’s Africa Cup of Nations that was held in Morocco. Within the semifinal, Nigeria fell in penalty kicks to the hosts in entrance of 45,562 followers in Rabat after a 1-1 tie throughout regulation and additional time. Nigeria completed that recreation with 9 gamers after receiving two crimson playing cards.
- The Tremendous Falcons then fell within the Third-Place Match, 1-0, to Zambia to complete an uncharacteristic fourth within the WAFCON, however that can be indicative of the expansion of the ladies’s recreation on the African continent. Zambia’s aim was truly a Nigeria personal aim by Chiamaka Nnadozie.
- Nigeria is by far probably the most profitable Girls’s Nationwide Crew in Africa, having gained the continental title 11 instances and appeared in each Girls’s World Cup ever contested in addition to three Olympic Video games, however lately their supremacy has been challenged as a number of African nations have made nice strides on the sphere, most notably South Africa, Ghana and Cameroon, however now by fellow World Cup qualifiers Morocco and Zambia.
- Tremendous Falcons’ head coach Randy Waldrum can be at the moment the top coach on the College of Pittsburgh, which has gotten off to a tremendous begin to the 2022 faculty season. He was additionally the top coach for the Houston Sprint within the NWSL from 2014-2017 and for the Trinidad & Tobago Girls’s Nationwide Crew from 2014-2016. He acquired the job in Might of 2020 after turning it down a number of years earlier than. Waldrum additionally led the College of Notre Dame to 2 NCAA titles throughout his stint in South Bend, Indiana from 1999-2013 and did a brief sting on the U.S. Below-23 WNT head coach.
- One among Waldrum’s assistant coaches is Lauren Gregg, who was one among Tony DiCicco’s two assistant coaches through the 1999 FIFA Girls’s World Cup and was the interim head coach for the USWNT for 3 video games in 2000. She was additionally an assistant coach for the USA on the inaugural Girls’s World Cup in 1991.
- Midfielder Toni Payne, a local of Alabama, performed at Duke at represented the USA on the Youth nationwide Crew ranges. In actual fact, she was part of the U.S. workforce that gained the U.S. workforce that gained the 2012 CONCACAF U-17 Girls’s Championship, scoring two targets with two assists in that event after which performed in all three video games on the 2012 FIFA U-17 Girls’s World Cup, scoring in opposition to Gambia
- Payne’s youthful sister Nicole, who attends West Virginia, can be on the squad and in addition represented the USA at varied age ranges, though by no means in a CONCACAF or FIFA event.
- NJ/NY Gotham FC ahead Ifeoma Onumonu hails from Southern California and performed at UC Berkeley. She has additionally performed for the Boston Breakers, Portland Thorns and Reign FC within the NWSL. Onumonu beforehand performed for U.S. head coach Vlatko Andonovski after they have been each a part of the Seattle Reign group.
- Michelle Alozie hails from Apple Valley, Calif. and performed faculty soccer at Tennessee. She performs for the Houston Sprint and has performed in six NWSL video games up to now this season and scored her second aim on Aug. 27 in opposition to the Washington Spirit to equalizer in stoppage time.
- Midfielder Onyi Echegini, who hails from London, England, performs at perennial faculty energy Florida State after transferring from Mississippi State the place she performed 42 video games three seasons and scored 11 targets with six assists. She performed youth soccer within the Arsenal FC system.