USWNT A-Team vs. B-Team: Who Would Win?

April 12, 2021
By Rohtas Wadera

Ali Krieger once said the USWNT has both the best and second-best teams in the world, and we’ve been thinking about it ever since. The USWNT’s talent pool is an embarrassment of riches. Every USWNT coach in the nation’s history has had to make tough choices when selecting lineups. At the time of this writing, Vlatko Andonovski has to choose between Alex Morgan and Carli Lloyd up top or Rose Lavelle and Sam Mewis in the midfield–and these are just two examples. There are endless combinations for the coaching staff to choose from. With so much talent, we thought it’d be fun to take a closer look at the roster and see how they’d stack up against each other, USWNT A-Team vs. B-Team.

The Line-Ups:

A-Team:

Alyssa Naeher

Kelley O’Hara | Becky Sauerbrunn | Abby Dahlkemper | Crystal Dunn

Julie Ertz | Lindsey Horan | Samantha Mewis

Christen Press | Alex Morgan | Megan Rapinoe

B-Team:

Jane Campbell

Emily Sonnett | Alana Cook | Tierna Davidson | Midge Purce

Rose Lavelle | Kristie Mewis | Andi Sullivan

Lynn Williams | Carli Lloyd | Sophia Smith

Note: These line-ups include the players who are currently with the USWNT as of writing. We fully expect the A-Team and B-Team to look a bit different when you add in players like Tobin Heath, who’s out with injury. Furthermore, Andonovski has favored players like Williams and Lloyd, but we’re operating under the assumption that he’ll prefer Press, Rapinoe, and Heath at her position. Lloyd has been given starts over Morgan in recent matches, but Morgan is still working her way back into the team after the birth of her child. We can’t imagine she won’t be the starting #9 at the Olympics.

When breaking down who would win this matchup of a glorified all-star training session, there are two ways of looking at it. Either assume that each player is at their best and 100% healthy, or we look at their current situation and their recent run of form.

This matters because if we go with the first option, it’s almost impossible to pick against the A-Team. There’s too much star-power, depth, and quality across those 11 players. However, after taking a closer look at their run of form and how often they’ve played, some players haven’t been at their very best. This would make a potential match-up very interesting.

Becky Sauerbrunn and Kelley O’Hara have been dealing with injuries on and off in recent times. Alex Morgan is coming off her pregnancy, and Megan Rapinoe took some time off during the pandemic. They are some of the best players in the world, it’s not like they forgot how to play altogether, but a lack of consistency can impact performance over a long period of time. Do not sleep on a B-Team with Carli Lloyd in attack supported by Lynn Williams and Sophia Smith.

With that being said, the midfield trio of Ertz, Horan, and Sam Mewis is the closest thing to a perfect midfield, maybe ever. They simply will not let Kristie Mewis, Lavelle, or Sullivan get into what they do best: create chances, distribute, and score. The overall physicality and quality that Ertz, Horan, and Sam Mewis have are practically unbeatable.

Midge Purce and Crystal Dunn will likely be converted to defensive positions but can generate plenty of offensive opportunities. They both are very dangerous when getting forward, but we all know Dunn has a little more experience and quality than Purce does.

The B-Team has a ton of young talent which shows the next generation will be ready to take over when this golden generation moves on. Tierna Davidson and Alana Cook are solid but still have some work to do before reaching their fullest potential.

When it comes down to it, the A-Team simply has too much for the B-Team to deal with over 90 minutes, but this matchup would be way closer than people think.

Featured Image via @USWNT on Twitter