It’s hard to know exactly how much we learned about the U.S. women’s national team’s preferred starting lineup during its 2-0 win over Wales in the send-off match on Sunday. It’s not only because head coach Vlatko Andonovski enjoys misdirection and obfuscation to protect his plans from other teams, but because of lingering issues around the readiness of two players in particular: defensive midfielder Julie Ertz and creative mastermind Rose Lavelle.
A matter of days out from the start of the World Cup feels like a perfect time to do some backseat coaching and pick our own starting XI for the USWNT in its group stage opener against Vietnam. Honestly, it’s not too surprising that the group of us didn’t actually agree on much — or maybe the better way to look at it is that we all agree something has to give in midfield, especially since none of us are sure about Lavelle’s fitness levels.
We each took different approaches — whether that’s dropping players like Alex Morgan or Alyssa Naeher, the belief that Savannah DeMelo (now with one cap to her name!) is ready for the XI, or, well, you’ll see in a second what I’d go for — but the interesting thing about this intellectual enterprise is that there are so many valid options to choose from. It’s just another…
