The 2023 Women’s World Cup is fast approaching, and time is running out for the U.S. women’s national team to get ready for the summer tournament in Australia and New Zealand. This week the USWNT will compete in the SheBelieves Cup, which is the last good chance to identify problems (and solutions) before the World Cup.
The SheBelieves Cup features a trio of top-quality opponents in Brazil, Japan and Canada in what is the USWNT’s second-to-last international window before the World Cup. (The last pre-World Cup window takes place in April, but by then it’s probably too late to change much, and the USWNT’s final opponents before a World Cup are usually lower-ranked teams so the Americans can build confidence.)
So, answers need to come over the next week, or they probably won’t come at all before the World Cup in July. And it’s clear the Americans do need answers: The final stretch of 2022 included losses to England, Germany and Spain, with the USWNT hitting a three-game losing streak for the first time in 30 years.
So, with that in mind, ESPN’s Jeff Kassouf, Jeff Carlisle, Caitlin Murray and Sophie Lawson look at some questions the USWNT must get answered during the SheBelieves Cup, which starts on Thursday against Canada.
