Let’s get this out of the way up front: you can’t replace Mallory Swanson.
With just eight weeks to go before the Women’s World Cup kicks off, U.S. women’s national team head coach Vlatko Andonovski and his staff have certainly been thinking about how to do it. They’ve probably been losing sleep over it, too. But, try as you might, you just can’t.
Until the moment she tore the patellar tendon in her knee last month, Swanson was a locked-in starter on the left wing for the Americans. She scored in all five USWNT games in 2023 and led the team in goals until her injury against Ireland in the last international break before the World Cup. Swanson’s combination of direct dribbling, speed, and box presence is unique, and she leveraged it to constantly prod opposing backlines.
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Before going down, Swanson wasn’t just going to be a key part of the USWNT’s quest to three-peat at the World Cup this summer. She was going to be the key part. The U.S….
