Alyssa Naeher is a U.S. soccer legend. The World Cup trophy and Olympic gold and bronze medals converse for themselves. She’s behind solely Hope Solo and Brianna Scurry for whole caps as a U.S. girls’s nationwide group goalkeeper. Her place within the U.S. Soccer Corridor of Fame is assured.
Naeher additionally turned 36 in April. Although she has been the written-in-ink No.1 for USWNT head coach Emma Hayes over the previous few months, she has not been her sometimes dominant self for some time now, current penalty shootout heroics apart. She is nearer to the top of her profession than the beginning of it. With the subsequent Girls’s World Cup practically three years away, now may be the second to make the transition.
No main worldwide program does this simply. Hedvig Lindahl didn’t relinquish her spot till after UEFA Girls’s Euro 2022, greater than twenty years after she first stood between the sticks for Sweden. Nineteen years handed between Nadine Angerer‘s first cap and her retirement. Andréia Suntaque misplaced her beginning place with Brazil in the course of the 2008 Olympic group stage, however instantly took it again after the event and held on for one more 4 years.
The transition from Solo to Naeher, or from Naeher to her successor, isn’t an issue distinctive to the U.S. Each main worldwide facet has its points with transitioning to new goalkeepers.
What makes the U.S. sadly distinctive is the enjoying time it takes for brand new keepers to be labored into the system hasn’t been given. It could take different nations’ keepers a few years earlier than assuming the beginning job, however they earn caps when they’re younger. Just one USWNT keeper beneath the age of 25 has been capped since 2006, Jane Campbell. After Campbell made three appearances over the course of 12 months — none of which have been full-90-minute performances — she didn’t go well with up once more for practically three years.
So the place does that go away the U.S. goalkeeping pipeline? An enormous scouting camp is being held in January, an ideal time for Hayes to observe each veterans and new faces work inside the U.S. setup. There are just a few who’ve been capped that will contend for the throne. There are a pair who ought to most likely get checked out. And there may be at the very least one who ought to be known as into camp for no different motive than to begin the senior growth course of a lot sooner than has been customary. Hayes has demonstrated that she isn’t wedded to a single keeper, as three completely different No. 1s shared the minutes in her last Chelsea marketing campaign. Now’s the time to breed some competitors for the place.
Let’s undergo every risk, and what benefits (and downsides) every supply.
