The coming year will be crucial for a beleaguered Team US. With the biting disappointment of last summer’s World Cup still fresh, a team deep in transition has its sights set on redemption, and the Olympic Games in France (just five months to go) are the chosen stage.
The redemption begins now, with the first Concacaf W Gold Cup. 23 players have gathered in California to play their first games of 2024, filled with a litany of new names and under the tutelage of an interim coach. Over the course of three weeks (should they advance to the finals), the US will test their mettle against top teams from Concacaf (including reigning gold medalists Canada) and challengers from Conmebol, who have sent four teams to the inaugural affair (Brazil ). , Argentina, Colombia, Paraguay).
Interim boss Twila Kilgore – who will remain with the team as assistant to Emma Hayes once the decorated Chelsea boss lands in the United States in May – plans to use the Gold Cup as a testing ground for an Olympic run, to fine-tune their playing style improve and focus on “little wrinkles”:
“We know that in big tournaments two things really come to the fore: who you really are, and what your preparation has been like… A third thing would just be how you deal with it emotionally. Going into the Olympics, we know we want the right things to come out. It’s a great opportunity to make small course corrections.”
Related: Lindsey Horan says American soccer fans aren’t smart. That ignores their global vision
While the high expectations remain where they have always been for this USWNT (winning the entire tournament), the coming weeks will be a vital testing ground, with more important lessons to learn than just winning.
Perhaps most importantly, Kilgore has worked with Hayes from afar to select a roster full of emerging talent. Only 11 of the 23 players in the camp were part of last year’s World Cup squad. Only eight of them were part of the 2019 World Cup-winning squad. Keen observers may note that Alex Morgan, while available, is not among them.
Key veterans remain – Lindsey Horan, Rose Lavelle and Crystal Dunn aren’t going anywhere just yet – but Emma Hayes has worked with Kilgore to prioritize trying new names in this Gold Cup. Seven of the 23 arrive with less than 10 caps. Five of them debuted at the end of last year. These players will have the opportunity to gain experience, show what they can do and advocate for inclusion on the 18-player Olympic team. San Diego Wave’s Jaedyn Shaw and Chelsea’s Mia Fishel are some of those names to watch.
Emma Hayes’ handprint can be felt elsewhere too. The USWNT could evolve beyond their tried and tested 4-3-3, or perhaps transition more easily between games and within them, as Emma Hayes is known to do.
In addition to analyzing new players and developing the team’s identity, the Gold Cup is an exceptional test run for the Olympic format. As in the Olympics, teams play a maximum of six matches with two rest days between each test in the group stage.
Kilgore: “This tournament is really a great opportunity for us. Not every federation will have the opportunity to participate in a long-distance tournament in the run-up to the Olympic Games, and this tournament reflects the Olympic cadence…’
How players handle the tournament format, short turnaround times, adapting to each team’s different tests, or dealing with considerations such as goal difference or accumulating cautions could impact the Olympic selections: “…Part of the Olympic selection is know how players will behave and what their reaction will be under certain stress factors.
The three groups of four of the W Gold Cup will play each other once in the group stage. In the knockout round, the teams are then reseeded, ranked based on their performance in the group stage (first by points total, followed by various tie-breakers). The top two teams in each group progress alongside the top two third places. The number one seed meets the number eight seed in the quarterfinals, the number two seed meets the number seven, and so on.
While Group C (Canada, Costa Rica, Paraguay, El Salvador) opens the group stage in Texas, Group B (Brazil, Colombia, Panama, Puerto Rico) starts in San Diego. And Group A (USA, Mexico, Argentina, Dominican Republic) kicks off in Carson, California. The knockout rounds all take place in California (where the USWNT has an impeccable all-time record of 49 wins, four draws and no losses).
Related: Emma Hayes can lead USWNT to Olympic gold despite a delayed start
In addition to their unbeaten run in California, the US also has a dominant record in Concacaf. This is the first W Gold Cup – which increases competitive opportunities for growth in the region – but it is far from the first women’s Concacaf competition. Of the fifteen Concacaf championships the US has competed in, they have won fourteen.
But as the past few years have shown us, the global competitive landscape is rapidly changing. Especially with Conmebol’s participation, several teams in the 2024 W Gold Cup could challenge to hand the US their first-ever defeat in California. Canada, Brazil and Colombia (who also qualified for the ’24 Olympics) are immediately the most likely contenders.
But emerging programs like Mexico (which plays the US third in Group A and is coming off an undefeated year) could also pose challenges. This team expects to meet them. Arsenal right-back Emily Fox on growth in the region:
“… In my experience as a member of the national team, the growth of Caribbean teams and Latin American teams has been enormous… women’s football in general is getting bigger. There’s more funding, more resources, and I think a lot more people are watching. Overall, I think everyone is getting better overall. What we like to see. And I think you saw that during the European Championships, during the Concacaf (Olympic) qualifying for us, and also last year during the World Cup. So I think going into the Gold Cup we know that every match will be a challenge.”
Should the US suffer a loss in the group stage, or falter early in the knockouts, how they learn and recover from that will be critical to this learning opportunity. Emma Hayes will watch from afar and use the lessons of the coming weeks to hone their redemption run this summer.