USWNT Ireland Preview: Spirited Yanks Arrive to the Mile High City

This article was written by friend of the site Maya VanVleet. Maya provided all the photos shown in this article as well.

Commerce City, CO – The United States Women’s National Team head coach Emma Hayes has brought in 25 players to a multi-day training camp to the Mile High City. This is ahead of a pair of friendlies against Ireland.

The camp opened this week under threatening skies that ultimately turned brilliant. The caucus of talented players is scheduled to close Thursday evening following a friendly match with The Republic of Ireland at DICK’S Sporting Goods Park.

The U.S. will then move to Cincinnati, Ohio where they will host Ireland on June 29. They will close out with training and play in Washington D.C. against Team Canada on July 2.

Team USA

Regrettably for many U.S. fans, three Colorado natives, Mallory Swanson, Sophia Wilson, and Lindsey Heaps are not featured on Hayes’ roster. Wilson and Swanson recently announced they were pregnant, in March and May, while Heaps has elected to use the summer international window to rest after her European play with OL Lyonnes in France.

The roster features only one player who plays club soccer in Europe, defender Naomi Girma, who plays for Chelsea. The roster is otherwise made up of players from the National Women’s Soccer League. This decision gives most of the international club team players time to recover from their seasons.

“This is the first opportunity—and the only one—for them to take a break between now and the World Cup in two years,” Hayes said. 

Six roster members have played at a world championship at the senior level: Croix Bethune, Yazeem Ryan, Lynn Biyednolo, Emily Sonnett, Sam Coffey, Rose Lavelle, and Girma. 

After about six and a half months of recovering from ankle surgery, team veteran Rose Lavelle returns to the U.S. roster. Lavelle currently has 110 caps and 24 international goals. Her last game was against the Netherlands in 2024.

The roster is one of the most inexperienced with the average age being 24.5 years, and the average number of caps being 18.4. 

Olivia Moultrie, one of the younger players on the senior roster, made her professional debut at age 13, and signed with Portland Thorns FC at 15 years old. She made her first appearance on the U.S. Senior team in October 2023 at age 18. She is currently 19-years-old.

“We want to continue to improve our understanding of how we want to play and widen the player pool, and those are some of the key goals of this three-game window,” Hayes added. “On this roster, we have players with a varied amount of experience, and my priority is to deepen the exposures required for international soccer. These are three challenging matches and as always, we want to win, but also to make sure we are ready for the next steps.”

Concurrent Training With U23

To get ready for those next steps, Hayes has started to mesh the senior and U23 teams to help keep a close eye on young and new talent. Twenty-four players have been called up are training along side the senior team, and are also participating in all educational sessions at the team’s hotel.

There are two Coloradans who were called up to play on the U23 team: Quincy McMahon and Heather Gilchrist.

McMahon attended Valor Christian High School in Highlands Ranch, Colorado for two years, and played with Real Colorado ECNL before moving to Indiana. She then went on to play four years at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Gilchrist attended Fairview High School in Boulder, Colorado. She played for the Colorado Rapids WPSL where she was All-Conference Defender, First Team ECNL All-Conference, and played in the ECNL Selection Game in 2021. She is currently a senior at Florida State University.

The Girls In Green

Similar to the USWNT, the Irish team makes room for several younger players.

Ahead of the back-to-back series with the U.S., The Football Association of Ireland announced in a media release, “A number of players were unavailable for selection, including Aoife Mannion, Heather Payne, Tara O’Hanlon, Katie McCabe, Jamie Finn, Lily Agg, Jess Ziu and Leanne Kiernan.”

While the team is without these senior players, it allows for others to step up.

“When these games were first proposed to us we knew that we would be without certain players, but that opens the door for others to step up,” Ireland’s head coach Carla Ward said. “We are building, camp by camp, so we are looking forward to getting together again and putting in some extra work that will stand to us moving forward.”

Ward is embarking on her first year as Ireland’s head coach. Previously she helped Hayes as part of the coaching staff leading up to their gold medal at the Paris Olympics in 2024. Ward confirmed that Hayes’ guidance and words of encouragement during the interview process helped her land the job as the Irish head coach.

Head-to-Head Play

The USWNT has a perfect record against the Republic of Ireland, winning all 15 of their previous matches.

The last time the two took at each other was in St. Louis, Missouri and Austin, Texas in April 2023. The Stars and Stripes won both games, however, the thrill of victory was offset by a significant agony. During the match in Austin, Mallory Swanson suffered a consequential knee injury in the first half which lead to her absence in the 2023 Women’s World Cup.

U.S. Women’s National Team Roster by Position

Goalkeepers: Angelina Anderson, Claudia Dickey, Mandy McGlynn

Defenders: Kerry Abello, Jordyn Bugg, Naomi Girma, Lilly Reale, Tara McKeown, Avery Patterson, Izzy Rodriguez, Emily Sams, Emily Sonnett, Gisele Thompson

Midfielders: Croix Bethune, Sam Coffey, Claire Hutton, Rose Lavelle, Sam Meza, Olivia Moultrie

Forwards: Lynn Viyendolo, Michelle Cooper, Yazeem Ryan, Emma Sears, Ally Sentnor, Alyssa Thompson

Ireland Women’s National Team Roster by Position

Goalkeepers: Courtney Brosan, Grace Maloney, Sophie Whitehouse

Defenders: Jessie Stapleton, Anna Patten, Caitlin Hayes, Hayley Nolan, Chloe Mustaki, Megan Campbell

Midfielders: Denise O’Sullivan, Megan Connolly, Tyler Toland, Ruesha Littlejohn, Marissa Sheva, Ellen Molloy

Forwards: Kyra Carusa, Abbie Larkin, Amber Barrett, Luzy Quinn, Emily Murphy, Saoirse Noonan, Erin Healy, Izzy Atkinson

Follow The Match

Television: 7 pm MT / 9 p.m. ET on TBS, truTV and Max, Universo & Peacock in Spanish 

Radio: Westwood One Sports

Photo Credit: Maya VanVleet

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