USWNT Big Board: Projecting 2027 World Cup after Olympic gold

The U.S. women’s national team is back on top of the world after winning the gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Now, head coach Emma Hayes has three full years to refine the squad so the Americans can make a run at a fifth World Cup title. Who will she enlist to lead that charge?

Some answers are right in front of her. The USWNT’s sensational forward line — Trinity Rodman, Sophia Smith and Mallory Swanson — is relatively young and just thrived at the Olympics despite limited time together prior to Paris 2024. Center-back Naomi Girma is only 24 years old and already “the best defender I’ve ever seen,” Hayes said during the tournament.

Still, there are questions to be answered about both personnel and the team’s tactical evolution — and the reality is that players in form right now might not still be by the 2027 Women’s World Cup. As Hayes said shortly after starting the USWNT job in May: “What got you here won’t get you there.”

Now, that phrase applies to the next World Cup. As players return to their clubs — most Americans play in the NWSL, which resumes this weekend after a long break — the process of building toward the World Cup has already begun. If new players are going to make an impact, they need to break through and begin getting international experience soon.

That leads us to ESPN’s latest USWNT Big Board, the largest and most wide-open edition yet. Let’s dive in.

How the USWNT Big Board works

If you’ve followed ESPN’s coverage before the most recent Olympics, you know that this Big Board is a representation of how things stand right now.

If the 2027 World Cup started today, who would make the roster? The Olympic gold medal-winning team is the obvious starting point to that answer — but not the full answer, particularly with more roster slots available for a World Cup than an Olympics.

There is no looming tournament for this edition of the USWNT Big Board, meaning the list need not be so selective. We’ve accounted for all 52 players who were on the preliminary roster for the 2024 Concacaf W Gold Cup (a good window into the wider pool), minus Kelley O’Hara, who announced she will retire at the end of the year.

We have 75 names here for a reason: Today marks the deepest starting point for a USWNT roster build in recent memory.

Thus, our categories have been adjusted slightly:

• Tier 1: Locks. A clear first-choice player who is contending for a starting role.

• Tier 2: In the squad. Not necessarily a starter, but a substitute and player on the bench available to go into games.

• Tier 3: Looking to break through. Previously, this was our “on the bubble” section, and while that generally holds true for some players, Hayes will now want to start figuring out how young players could fit into the long-term plan. If she can identify them now, she will have ample time to integrate them into the system ahead of 2027. This category is a mix of known entities and (typically) young longshots with potential.

• Tier 4: Outside looking in. The concept of this category, previously called “longshots,” is like before but it encompasses a wider range of players. Some are older players who realistically won’t be part of building toward the future, regardless of how in-form they are right now. Others are players who could have potential but haven’t yet met it, or who were part of the picture in the last cycle but whose window of opportunity has likely passed.

Goalkeepers

• Locks: Alyssa Naeher, Casey Murphy

• In the squad: Jane Campbell

• Looking to break through: Mandy Haught, Katie Lund

• Outside looking in: Aubrey Kingsbury, Adrianna Franch

Alyssa Naeher has reached rarified air in a lineage of world-class American goalkeepers after making multiple jaw-dropping saves en route to an Olympic gold medal to go with her two World Cup titles (one as the starter).

She’ll also be 39 years old when the 2027 World Cup rolls around, and while it’s hard to even contemplate a USWNT without Naeher in net, Hayes will have to think further into the future. The USWNT has a pattern of not giving enough reps to reserve goalkeepers ahead of career transitions, something Naeher experienced as Hope Solo became the most-capped goalkeeper in USWNT history. Three years is sufficient time to at least provide reps to other players, even if Naeher remains the answer at the next World Cup.

Casey Murphy is the obvious No. 2 after serving in that role over the past few years, but she still only has 19 caps. Jane Campbell is the clear No. 3 and only one year older. Now would be the time to get goalkeepers like Racing Louisville’s Katie Lund or, perhaps more of a longshot, the Utah Royals’ Mandy Haught, into camps to experience the environment. With that logic in mind, Hayes might opt to go even younger.

Fullbacks

• Locks: Emily Fox, Crystal Dunn, Jenna Nighswonger

• In the squad: Casey Krueger

• Looking to break through: Savy King, Hailie Mace, Gisele Thompson, Kate Wiesner

• Outside looking in: Sofia Huerta, Carson Pickett, M.A. Vignola

Crystal Dunn was sensational as the USWNT’s left back at the Olympics, an ironically surprising turn of events given that Jenna Nighswonger had emerged as the starting choice alongside Emily Fox before the tournament.

All three are currently starter-level quality, although Dunn will be 35 in 2027. Casey Krueger, who is versatile and remains largely underrated given her consistent NWSL form, will be 36.

Waiting in the wings are several young players with potential and likely many more yet to be identified — or, as the trend at this position sometimes goes, yet to be converted from their attacking positions.

Savy King and Gisele Thompson are both teenagers starting to earn minutes in the NWSL, but each has a long way to go. Kate Wiesner was brought in as a USWNT training player earlier this year.

Centerbacks

• Locks: Naomi Girma, Tierna Davidson

• In the squad: Emily Sonnett

• Looking to break through: Emily Sams, Sam Staab, Alana Cook, Malia Berkely

• Outside looking in: Becky Sauerbrunn, Abby Dahlkemper, Sarah Gorden

Naomi Girma is in a class of her own both within the team and globally. Tierna Davidson turns 26 next month and should be in her prime ahead of the 2027 World Cup, making Girma-Davidson the obvious pairing for the future — as it stands.

Still, a lack of centerback depth has been an issue for the USWNT for years. Last year, a late injury to longtime stalwart and captain Becky Sauerbrunn meant the USWNT had to turn to Julie Ertz, who had just returned from 18 months away from professional soccer and was supposed to be the answer at holding midfield. The Girma-Ertz centerback pairing was the one bright spot of a dire USWNT 2023 World Cup campaign, but the lack of depth beyond them was clear.

Sauerbrunn was not part of the final Olympic roster selection process and she said recently her decorated international career — she was arguably the best centerback in the world circa 2015 — is over. Ertz retired from soccer after last summer’s World Cup. Abby Dahlkemper — Sauerbrunn’s 2019 World Cup-winning centerback partner — also did not make the final camps heading into the Olympics.

Emily Sams was an alternate at the Olympics who made a couple of game-day rosters but never played, and she’s still uncapped. She, however, could be another long-term answer at 25 years old. Sam Staab’s recently torn Achilles came just a month after she earned her first cap and first start for the USWNT. The injury layoff will end her record run for consecutive NWSL starts (106) and sideline her for the foreseeable future.

Could Alana Cook’s recent move to the Kansas City Current revive her USWNT career after she didn’t see the field at last year’s World Cup? And is there another young player ready to step into a larger role, like Girma has? Hayes will be searching for those answers starting this weekend.

Midfielders

• Locks: Sam Coffey, Rose Lavelle, Lindsey Horan, Korbin Albert

• In the squad: Jaedyn Shaw, Croix Bethune

• Looking to break through: Lily Yohannes, Hal Hershfelt, Ashley Sanchez, Olivia Moultrie, Claire Hutton, Savannah DeMelo, Jaelin Howell, Yazmeen Ryan, Taylor Flint, Riley Jackson, Ally Lemos, Eva Gaetino, Talia DellaPeruta, Lexi Missimo

• Outside looking in: Lo’eau LaBonta, Vanessa DiBernardo, Kristie Mewis, Andi Sullivan, Savannah McCaskill

The USWNT’s midfield struggled at times during the Olympics as teams like Japan and Germany (in the rematch in the semifinal) cut off passing channels. Brazil also dictated play in the gold-medal game, with Hayes starting Korbin Albert over Rose Lavelle.

This is arguably the most interesting positional group to watch. As bona fide stars emerge on the forward and defensive lines, the midfield has a competitive group of up-and-coming players.

Nineteen-year-old Jaedyn Shaw could be the next No. 10 for the USWNT, a point she proved again with her performances ahead of the Olympics, but she did not see the field at all in France due to injury. Croix Bethune, the original alternate who replaced Shaw and saw game minutes, has a strong case to be the team’s future No. 10, too.

Then there is 17-year-old Lily Yohannes, who impressed during camps and her debut during the spring, but who has not yet committed to the USWNT over the Netherlands, where she lives, plays for Ajax and is applying for a passport. Kansas City Current defensive midfielder Claire Hutton has already been pegged by KC head coach Vlatko Andonovski (the previous USWNT coach) as a player to watch for the 2027 World Cup, and Hutton is already statistically among the best holding midfielders in the NWSL.

Ashley Sanchez, Olivia Moultrie, Savannah DeMelo, Hal Hershfelt, Taylor Flint and Jaelin Howell have all been with the squad at different points over the past few years — several for major tournaments — but their place within the team now is uncertain.

Forwards

• Locks: Trinity Rodman, Sophia Smith, Mallory Swanson, Catarina Macario

• In the squad: Lynn Williams

• Looking to break through: Ally Sentnor, Alyssa Thompson, Mia Fishel, Morgan Weaver, Emeri Adames, Trinity Byars, Jordynn Dudley, Reilyn Turner, Michelle Cooper

• Outside looking in: Alex Morgan, Christen Press, Ashley Hatch, Midge Purce, Ella Stevens, Bethany Balcer, Cece Kizer

Remember the raging debates since — what, 2019 — over what the best USWNT starting front three? Those seem like distant memories after the Olympics.

The “Triple Espresso,” as they sort of dubbed themselves ahead of the gold medal game of Trinity Rodman, Sophia Smith and Mallory Swanson was one of the biggest stories of the tournament. They combined to score 10 of the USWNT’s 12 goals at the Olympics, and they each tallied a game-winner in successive knockout-round matches. Barring injuries or drastic dips in form, this front three is going to cook for a long time.