USWNT World Cup 2023 kit: New uniforms to debut in USA vs. Ireland matchup

The U.S. Women’s National Team is back in action this weekend with two final friendlies against the Republic of Ireland ahead of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Two-time World Cup champion Julie Ertz and 2022 BioSteel U.S. Soccer Female Player of the Year and 2022 NWSL MVP Sophia Smith are among the marquee players set to make their return to action after extended absences on the USWNT roster.

The 31-year-old Ertz, who celebrated her birthday on Thursday, returns for the first time since the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and after giving birth to her first child, a son, in August 2022. The 22-year-old Smith, who opened the 2023 NWSL season with four goals and one assist in two games for the Portland Thorns, also returns after missing the year’s first two USWNT events due to a foot injury.

The first matchup between the USWNT and Ireland is Saturday afternoon at Q2 Stadium in Austin, Texas, followed by the second friendly on Tuesday at the new CITYPARK in St. Louis, Mo.

Ertz told media earlier this week that she began exploring a return to the USWNT this winter, participating in private workouts with a high-performance coach and training sessions with an MLS academy team, which led to what she calls a “refreshed love for the game.”

“I don’t want to go back and be the player that I was because I want to be better,” said Ertz, who will be honored before Saturday’s game for earning her 100th cap, a milestone she actually achieved in March 2020, just before the onset of the global pandemic. “I know it seems weird being out (for so) long, but …I don’t feel like I’ve been gone as long as I have. I feel good, and I love the sport differently than I did (before) and I thought I loved it then. But taking a step away and kind of having a new perspective has given me kind of like a new drive.”

As for her expected playing time in the friendlies, USWNT head coach Vlatko Andonovski confirmed she’ll see action, but how much remains to be seen: “We’ll certainly see her on the field, but as everyone else, she will have to earn some minutes. Nothing is going to be given.”

Also top of mind for Ertz is signing with a club team. She hasn’t played for an NWSL team since the 2021 season with the Chicago Red Stars and admitted: “I’m trying to stay focused on the games coming up, but also knowing that I need a club team.”

For Smith, missing the first two national team camps was difficult, but she found a silver lining in the experience: “I think during that time, I learned a lot about myself. I learned how to be patient. I put things in perspective and realized how big a year this was. So it was important for me to take the time I needed to get healthy, to address all the things I I didn’t have time to address last year, and get that all right before I started again, because I knew once I started again, we won’t stop for a very long time.

“I obviously paid a lot of attention to how I was training, when I wasn’t in camp so that when I got back to camp, it feels natural, it feels smooth. And then with the Thorns, I mean, I just feel like I haven’t let my confidence drop, even being injured and being out. So I think that’s a big thing. And just training with the with the team and having preseason games to build I think allowed me to come out in the first game of the season feeling pretty good about where I was.”

Saturday, April 8, at Q2 Stadium in Austin, Texas

Tuesday, April 11, at CITYPARK in St. Louis, Mo.

Vlatko Andonovski named a 26-player roster on March 28 for the USA’s BioSteel Training Camp ahead of the April friendlies vs. the Republic of Ireland. Andonovski will name 23 players to suit up for each match. The USWNT roster by position (includes current club, caps/goals):

GOALKEEPERS (3):

DEFENDERS (10):

MIDFIELDERS (7):

FORWARDS (6):

Also returning for the April friendlies are Olympian Casey Krueger, who gave birth to her first child (a boy) in July 2022 and is in her first USWNT camp since October 2021, and veteran defender Kelley O’Hara, a two-time World Cup winner who is returning from injury and has not played for the U.S. since last summer. Her most recent appearance was in the Concacaf W Championship in the final group match vs. Mexico on July 11, 2022.

Fellow World Cup champion defender Tierna Davidson, who trained with the USWNT before the 2023 SheBelieves Cup, could see her first action since recovering from ACL surgery. If she does, it will be her first appearance for the U.S. since the 2022 SheBelieves Cup.

A few more roster notes about the USWNT ahead of its series vs. Ireland:

Who’s NOT playing: Forward Megan Rapinoe, who has 199 caps, was ruled out of the April friendlies as she recovers from a lower leg (calf) injury. Additionally, Catarina Macario, who suffered an ACL injury last June, remains out.

“I think she’s supposed to be on the field sometime beginning of next month,” said Andonovski, who noted that Macario has the same evaluation process as everyone else via professional games over the next two months.

Ireland, which will make its World Cup debut this summer, qualified for the 2023 tournament in dramatic fashion: After finishing second in UEFA Women’s World Cup Qualifying Group A behind Sweden, Ireland faced Scotland in a one-game playoff at the famed Hampden Park in Glasgow, which drew more than 10,000 fans. Irish forward Amber Barrett scored in the 72nd minute to give “The Girls in Green” a 1-0 win and send them to their first World Cup.

For the matches vs. the USWNT, Ireland head coach Vera Pauw has called up a 27-player roster that includes eight players who saw action in the decisive matchup against Scotland. Midfielders Denise O’Sullivan and Katie McCabe are the leading scorers on the roster with 18 international goals each. Defender Áine O’Gorman is the most experienced player of the group with 115 caps, followed by fellow defender Louise Quinn with 101 caps. O’Sullivan will hit the 100-cap milestone in the first matchup against the U.S.

“Ireland is a highly motivated, hard-working team that has talented players with big hearts who I know are really excited to be representing their country in a World Cup,” Andonovski said recently. “The two games will be a great test at a crucial time in our team’s run to the World Cup. While there will be plenty of league games for us to watch after April, these will be the final matches for our players with the National Team before we have to pick the World Cup roster, so they will carry that importance.”