USWNT Big Board: How the 2027 World Cup team is taking shape

It’s that time again: The USWNT Big Board is back!

U.S. women’s national team head coach Emma Hayes succinctly summarized the concept of our USWNT Big Board in her most recent news conference: She must work with who is available right now.

“The position I’m in is: I can only coach what’s in front of me, and I can only coach the players that are available,” Hayes said last week. “And we have been without five of some of the best players in the world, probably top 25 players in the world.”

She was referring to a group that includes forward Trinity Rodman, who returns to the USWNT fold for the first time since the Olympic gold-medal game, but the absences are aplenty.

If the 2027 Women’s World Cup started today, Hayes would need to navigate the tournament without several injured or otherwise unavailable players, including center backs Naomi Girma and Tierna Davidson, midfielder Rose Lavelle, and forwards Sophia Wilson (formerly Smith), Mallory Swanson and Lynn Biyendolo (formerly Williams).

Hayes is lucky that the World Cup does not start today, but those absences illustrate the purpose of this exercise: There are almost always important players missing at a major tournament. Swanson and Becky Sauerbrunn, two key starters, missed the 2023 World Cup due to injuries on short notice.

How the USWNT Big Board works

If you’ve followed ESPN’s previous editions of the USWNT Big Board before, you know that the list represents how things stand right now, as if the World Cup started today. It’s a difficult proposition considering how much uncertainty and experimentation surrounds the team.

Since the start of the year, Hayes has already called up 68 players combined between the senior team and the U23 (also previously called “Futures”) camps. All those players (who are healthy) are represented below, in addition to recent key U20 players, NWSL standouts and other players who were in the picture last year.

Here’s how we define our categories:

• Tier 1: Locks. Clear first-choice players who are contending for a starting role.

• Tier 2: In the squad. Not necessarily starters, but substitutes and players on the bench available to go into games.

• Tier 3: Looking to break through. Young or less experienced players who have received call-ups and shown promise, or veterans yet to really establish their international careers.

• Tier 4: Outside looking in. Players who were previously part of the picture but now appear to be out of favor, or young players who are less proven at the senior level but are on Hayes’ radar.

Goalkeepers

If this doesn’t spell out the state of the USWNT’s goalkeeper position, nothing will: There are no locks, and nobody has claimed the No. 1 spot yet. Compare that with the program that was in the sure hands of Briana Scurry, Hope Solo and Alyssa Naeher for the past three decades.

Hayes reiterated recently that she likely won’t decide on a starter until the summer. From the outside, it’s a confusing time to decipher who might be the favorite for that position.

Murphy was the backup to Naeher for the past few years and briefly looked like she might challenge Naeher to be the starting spot at World Cup qualifying in 2022. Murphy was last with the USWNT in January camp (when there were no games), and it’s unclear whether her repeated absence is truly just Hayes testing out other goalkeepers, or an indication that the coach is going in a different direction.

Campbell is the de facto No. 1 for the second straight camp. McGlynn is a strong shot-stopper who also tallied an assist in Week 1 of the NWSL but has equally had some struggles playing in possession out of the back, including a Week 2 turnover on a goal kick that directly led to a goal for her opponent.

Tullis-Joyce is back in camp, and Hayes explicitly wants to see the “introverted” Manchester United goalkeeper build relationships with players around her.

If the World Cup started today, it would likely be Campbell, McGlynn and Murphy on the roster — and it would be a field day of questions about who should be the starter. Lest we forget, Naeher was questioned relentlessly heading into the 2019 World Cup and helped deliver a fourth star.

Fullbacks

Upon naming her latest roster, Hayes said “the fullback spaces” — semantics that could suggest she will play with formations — will be “quite experimental.”

She was referencing a first call-up for Patterson — who looks much improved in her second pro season on a Houston Dash team that might finally have an identity — and the call-up of Gisele Thompson, who has recently oscillated between the senior team and U23s but looks to have locked down a starting role with Angel City.

Fox and Dunn are the clear starters right now, as they were at the 2024 Olympics and the 2023 World Cup.

Nighswonger is a wild card, having appeared to be favored as a starter ahead of the Olympics only to play a more limited role there. She has played sparingly for Arsenal since a surprising offseason transfer away from Gotham, and she was not named to the most recent roster.

Of all the field positions, fullback arguably offers the most direct path to a roster spot right now as Hayes searches for depth.

Center Backs

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Naomi Girma might be the world’s best center back, but she hasn’t been available to the USWNT this calendar year due to a recurring calf injury. Now, Tierna Davidson is absent due to a non-contact injury. If the World Cup started today, the USWNT would be in trouble defensively.

Girma’s absence opened the door for Sams, who was part of the Olympic gold medal team, and McKeown to earn minutes at the SheBelieves Cup. They are battling with Sonnett — the team’s defensive Swiss Army knife — for a starting role.

Cook is back in form with the Kansas City Current (under former USWNT head coach Vlatko Andonovski), earning her first USWNT recall in over a year. She might be thrown immediately back into the mix with Girma and Davidson both missing.

Bugg, 18, and King, 20, are the young names to watch over the next year. They have each taken on more responsibility with their respective NWSL teams, but the 2027 World Cup might come too soon for them to fully develop.

Midfielders

• Locks: Lindsey Heaps, Sam Coffey, Jaedyn Shaw

• In the squad: Korbin Albert, Lily Yohannes

• Looking to break through: Claire Hutton

• Outside looking in: Olivia Moultrie, Hannah Bebar, Meg Boade, Abi Brighton, Taylor Huff, Riley Jackson, Sally Menti, Ainsley McCammon, Yuna McCormack, Lexi Missimo, Ally Lemos, Kennedy Fuller

The midfield, which endured some relatively difficult stretches at the 2024 Olympics, is in its own awkward moment of uncertainty. There are teenagers who clearly look like stars of the future, but they haven’t yet had a shot to really take hold of their positions.

Yohannes, the 17-year-old who rebuffed interest from the Dutch national team, and 19-year-old Hutton each showed composure and technical mastery in the opportunities they had at the SheBelieves Cup. Meanwhile, 20-year-old Shaw is integral to the entire team setup but still doesn’t have a clear, fixed spot on the field.

Heaps (nee Horan) is the captain and has played in more advanced roles recently, and Coffey is the incumbent defensive midfielder who can switch play from deep areas. Hayes has turned to Albert to fill any of the three midfield roles needed depending on the game state.

Among the group of young, rising players, Huff looked exceptional in her first few games as a rookie with Bay FC both in open play and on set pieces. Versatile 19-year-old Moultrie has not been called up for the senior or U-23 team since October.

Forwards

• Locks: Trinity Rodman, Catarina Macario

• In the squad: Ally Sentnor, Yazmeen Ryan, Alyssa Thompson

• Looking to break through: Michelle Cooper, Ashley Hatch, Emma Sears, Mia Fishel

• Outside looking in: Ella Stevens, Maddie Dahlien, Emeri Adames, Caiya Hanks, Jameese Joseph, Quincy McMahon, Makenna Morris, Sarah Schupansky, Reilyn Turner, Jordynn Dudley, Kate Faasse, Pietra Tordin

Rodman is healthy again, and her return to the USWNT gives it a dynamic focal point it has needed with the entire self-proclaimed “Triple Espresso” of Rodman, Swanson and Wilson sitting out since the Olympics. If Rodman is healthy enough to play any minutes, she’ll be on the plane to Brazil (host of the 2027 World Cup).

Macario is clearly the first option at striker among available players, but she also plays the role as more of a false nine, which is a very different look from the USWNT that stretched opponents’ lines last year and comes with some compromises.

Hatch is back in the picture to provide a true No. 9 option, and Fishel (a training player in this camp) will challenge for that role as well once fully fit again.

Sentnor is in fine form for club and country and has a chance to shake up the depth chart. If she can take ownership of the striker position, it would allow Macario to shift into a No. 10 role without the team having to sacrifice a vertical presence. But Sentnor is better suited as a winger who has the freedom to drift inside.

“It’s clear that Sophia Smith is the most prolific No. 9 in the U.S, but she’s unavailable to us,” Hayes said last week, adding that Macario and Sentnor will be tasked with filling the role.

Watch out for Cooper. She can get overlooked on a Kansas City team loaded with league MVP-level talent, but she is in extraordinary form.

USWNT squad if the World Cup started today

Goalkeepers: Jane Campbell, Mandy McGlynn, Casey Murphy

Defenders: Emily Fox, Crystal Dunn, Jenna Nighswonger, Emily Sonnett, Emily Sams, Tara McKeown, Alana Cook, Casey Krueger

Midfielders: Lindsey Heaps, Sam Coffey, Jaedyn Shaw, Korbin Albert, Lily Yohannes, Claire Hutton

Forwards: Trinity Rodman, Catarina Macario, Ally Sentnor, Yazmeen Ryan, Alyssa Thompson, Michelle Cooper

The three bubble players added from Tier 3 are:

• Cook and Krueger — a wild card here, who Hayes said last week “could play in a World Cup tomorrow” — for defensive stability and a veteran presence that is suddenly desperately needed without Girma and Davidson.

• Hutton as another talented, albeit young and inexperienced holding midfielder if Coffey gets into card accumulation trouble.

• Cooper, based on form, to add forward depth — even though Hayes would be taking a slight risk by not taking an out-and-out No. 9 striker.

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